Having discovered that instead of dowel holes for cabinets I can reproduce mortices into which Festool Dominos fit perfectly, I set out to replace the dowel holes for my cabinets with said mortices. Starting with a single rectangular vector, copying and pasting vectors using guides, and then grouping the vectors, I then went to create a pocket tool path for the group. The vectors are 5mm thick. The Dominoes I am using are 5mm thick. The bit used is a 5mm upcut. Well, this is where the fun started. The preview showed some pockets place correctly, some not placed at all, and others showed as pairs of holes with space between them.
I spent the better part of a day redoing the file and trying to figure things out. No success. This is probably a good place for a pop quiz for those experienced Vectric users who might be reading this: “What the heck is happening here?!”
Finally I sent a not to Vectric and received a clear and detailed answer from Charlotte :
"Hi James.
When you are ever creating pockets, try to avoid setting the Tool Diameter to the exact width of the pocket vector.
Due to floating point variations in the toolpath calculations this can make it less then 100% reliable that the software can fit the tool into the slots.
For example, if you set your tool to be 4.999mm Diameter instead of 5mm, this gives no functional difference on the machining side of things but will allow the floating point calculations to clearly fit this tool within the 5mm gap and create the toolpaths you are looking to create here."
I hope this helps others avoid aggravation.
Jim