The link paths works between concentric cuts which differ in horizontal position. It prevents retracting to Z between concentric cut moves that the cutter could make a short horizontal move to move to. Cuts that differ in Z are not linked because it's easy for there to be situations where you don't want stray cuts directly moving from the end of one horizontal move to another one that's at a deeper level.
In the situation where you have a parallel operation before a horizontal milling one, rest-machining only works with the horizontal operation if the parallel operation has left any significant material behind.
I think what would be ideal for the horizontal finishing operation to have the angle threshold you mentioned. You could use a horizontal operation to rough out the material, with a large step-over, cut depth, and a non-zero leave-stock amount. Then use the horizontal finishing with an angle threshold to prevent cuts from being too far apart (or maybe auto-detect the angle using the cutter geometry and cut-depth?). Lastly, use a parallel operation with rest-machining to carve the remaining flat areas that were left by the first horizontal roughing operation.
So,
- Horizontal roughing with a leave stock
- Horizontal finishing with steep-only angle threshold
- Parallel finishing with rest-machining and distance-sorting enabled, to finish the flatter areas
I'll make sure to add an angle threshold that is gray until step-size is zeroed out before v1.44 is released.
Oh yeah, and cut distance sorting only works with the horizontal milling operation if rest machining is enabled - and there are cuts that are omitted because the material has already been removed by a previous operation. The cut sorting also only works within each Z layer of cuts, so that it doesn't start milling deeper and deeper before higher areas have been removed, which would violate the users' specified cut-depth.
I'm curious to see what you manage to pull off :) and expect v1.44 in the next few weeks, I have a handful of things left to add and then pretty much all the major stuff will be in there and I can start changing gears to creating learning resources and example/demonstration videos and projects.
