There are cases where it's better to move the stock model. Check out this previous discussion: https://www.emastercam.com/forums/topic/97011-moving-stock-model/?tab=comments#comment-1201818

https://www.amazon.com/ELECOM-M-XT3URBK-Mouse-Trackball-button/dp/B016QCPO0G

My first comment is that unless it absolutely has to be a laptop, build a desktop workstation. You will get a lot more bang for your buck. You can even make it reasonably portable.

I bought a Space Pilot, then later a Space Pilot Pro, both used, off lease, when the next version came out and there were a ton of them on eBay. I also switch zoom to up-down, and I find it's invaluable for making assemblies in Solidworks since I can control the model with one hand while picking mates with the other.

This might do it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_4_inch_Mk_XVI_naval_gun In seriousness, maybe you can have it gundrilled to 2" and then make a piloted tool to follow?

I bought two "office lathe" gang tooling blocks and put them on a pallet on the table of my mill. I put the stock in the spindle to make lathe parts, and use work offsets for the tool positions. I'm running some right now, with the 2nd op milling on the trunnion. I use two identical toolholders with stock so I can load one while the other's running. There are just two things I'm really missing, being through tool coolant for the lathe tools, and a constant surface speed function.

I've been looking at those Toodle speeders lustfully. Their website lists inch sizes but they aren't available. I stock dozens of 1/8" shank EDPs, so it would be a real pain to switch to metric.

There are some cases where I think sub would be faster for the same result, like milling a chamfer around a cylinder from the side. Could just be that I need more training on the live 5 operations though.

My 5 axis post doesn't do axis substitution. They say they'll add it for me but I have to get around to doing an example application.

I went with Maritool. ER11, 16, and 32, and a couple drill chucks, solid holders, and shrink fits. You want short holders for most stuff, but you'll need some longer ones to reach toward the center of your rotary. After running for three years I probably have about $50k in cutters stored up in the cabinet, hundreds of different EDPs.

Post needs to be setup for it.

Heh heh. heh heh. He said "plane manager."

It depends on your mix. If you need to take however long it takes to make the best program possible, you're spot on. If I need to get a workable program done right now, which is usually my usage case, familiarity and how many clicks it takes makes a big difference. IMHO we shouldn't have to sacrifice efficient UI to get toolpath improvements.

NCPlot will turn gcode into a DXF.

Got a live tool station?