CAM & nesting

CAM is where part contours become the actual wire-tower toolpath. It lives in the RUN page’s CAM SCENE panel and the 3D viewport.

The CAM scene

Parts arrive in CAM from a generator (SEND TO CAM / → CAM) or from the library. The SCENE MANAGER lists everything currently on the block:

ADD — add a part. DUP — duplicate the selected one. DEL — remove it. CLEAR — empty the scene.
LOAD RIGHT (4-AXIS) — load the selected profile onto the right tower for an independent 4-axis cut.
SAVE TO LIB — store the whole scene/block for later recall.

CAM scene panel showing parts nested on the foam block with the 3D viewport on the right — CAM scene — parts nested on a block, 3D viewport on the right.

REPLACE / ADD / CANCEL

When you send parts from a generator and the CAM scene already has parts, FoamSync asks how to handle it:

REPLACE — clear the scene and load only the new block.
ADD — keep the existing parts and consolidate the new ones onto the same physical foam block (useful when auto-nest fills each block only partway).
CANCEL — leave CAM as-is.

This prompt appears for every generator path, so you never silently overwrite or merge a scene.

Transforms

Position and orient parts with the TRANSFORM controls:

X-Pos, Y-Offset, Height — place and size on the block.
ROT 90° — rotate the part.
MIRROR H / MIRROR V — mirror horizontally / vertically.
SWAP L ↔ R (4-AXIS) — swap which tower cuts which profile on a tapered/asymmetric part.

Auto-nesting

Nesting packs parts onto standard foam blocks. The packer uses a union-footprint of the top and bottom profiles, so it nests 4-axis tilted sweeps correctly (not just the flat outline). Per-generator strategies exist — e.g. shelf-row stacking for dome/building parts and a pair-interlock packer for pipe shells — to raise block utilisation. Re-nest any time with RE-NEST.

Generating the toolpath

Press GENERATE TOOLPATH. The 3D viewport fills with the dense wire path. The JOB status reads:

IDLE — nothing generated yet.
READY — a clean path; line/point counts and an ETA are shown.
⚠ DANGER — PRESS START TO REVIEW — the path generated but a check wants your attention (e.g. a steep wire angle). Review before cutting.

CAM toolpath preview filling the 3D viewport after pressing GENERATE TOOLPATH — After GENERATE TOOLPATH the dense wire path fills the viewport, ready to dry-run.

4-axis toolpath with independent X/Y vs U/V tower motion — 4-axis toolpath — synced X/Y on one tower, independent U/V on the other.

Collision check

If two parts overlap in the cut volume, FoamSync draws translucent red boxes in the 3D view marking the collision zones (bounding-box overlap detection). Resolve overlaps — move or re-nest parts — before cutting.

Wire-safety validation

Before a cut, FoamSync analyses the path against your max wire angle (SET → WIRE) and reports:

Status — ✓ SAFE or a warning.
Max / average wire angle, max strain, and the H / V components of the lean.
Violations — counts of warnings (> limit), danger (> 1.5× limit) and critical (> 2× limit).
Recommendations — plain-language next steps.

A SAFE result means the path stays within the wire’s safe lean for your span. Anything above the limit risks bowing or snapping the wire — adjust the part, the span, or the limit (only if your hardware genuinely allows it).

What’s next

Path ready and safe? Run the cut.