The UI looks fine and exporting tool wear/runtime data in a .csv file is operationally quite useful in a production shop. However, what is the use case for adding tool geometry and cutting data in LinuxCNC? I can see it being useful if the intention is to go deep into adding conversational CAM features, but that's it. With the latter, you'd also want to consider attaching a dxf for each cutter profile.
Honestly, synchronizing tooling parameters (what you might call metadata?) between different CAM software is a huge pain. Handling multiple machines, materials, cutter geometries is actually a deep rabbit hole. In practice, feeds and speeds are job-specific. For the controller, I populate the tool number, tool diameter, tool length, and description. That's it. I address everything else in CAM or directly or when writing the g-code.
With regards to tool databases and
github.com/loobric/smooth-core
. Neither Fusion (zipped json files) nor Vectric (now an sqlite3 file) define their tool database specification so they are always subject to change. According to their software license, they are proprietary. I've written python scripts for managing my library of tools within both but they do break with updates. I'd love to see this improve with a common specification/format being adopted, but I don't see the business case for any CAM software company. Ultimately, why make it easier for users to switch CAM software?
