Thanks for the help guys. More revelations, but I'm not sure if to call it progress...
First, with the right (by trial-and-error) combination of stud diameter and overlap, I get this...
The problem with this is the little "triangle" path under the stud, which translates to an incorrect path. (I am using only a roughing pass by specifying a zero side allowance in the pocket parameters). CNC Simulator gets me this (which shows that the path is wrong)...
I noticed that you (tjones) also have the triangle path, but you're using a finishing pass, so I set a side allowance of 0.05 to get a finishing pass, and I get this toolpath, which now seems correct...
CNC simulator gets me this ... finally! ...
But the "random" setting of cutter width to get it to leave the stud is disturbing, and obviously a bug, unless someone has a better explanation. Then I don't want to use a finishing pass, but not sure how to work around this. And predator still won't verify this in Bobcad, so I have to use CNC simulator to verify. Yes CNC simulator is free, but it does not recognize subprograms, so I have to move things around each time I verify, and I made sure I got Predator when purchasing Bobcad for a reason. And btw, I'm still using Turbocad to draw things and extract coordinates since Bobcad's 2D drawing tools are considerable basic.
Seriously, with Turbocad and Notepad, I could've written the g-code already. Anyone from Bobcad care to comment...??? I don't think calling support will do me any good since I called once a few weeks ago and was told that "crashing *is* expected behaviour ... if I do something incorrect". No, that's what error messages are for. How are people using this in a production environment. No wonder Bobcad's sales folks kept saying they got sued for people trying g-code.
Frustrated,
-Neil.