This page allows you to fine tune your cutting strategy.
To complete this page:
For Z level, you may click Rough for a roughing pass, or Finish for a finishing pass.
The following options are available for certain types of operations
For 2D spiral milling, select Spiral in to spiral from the edge in toward the center. Select Spiral out to spiral away from the center. See Horizontal + vertical strategy if using that specialized technique.
For 3D spiral milling, see step 3 below.
For parallel milling, select X parallel to cut parallel to the X axis, Y parallel to cut parallel to the Y axis. Also specify an Angle (measured in degrees in the counter clock-wise direction) to rotate the toolpaths off of the principal axis. You may also choose to add a perpendicular, remachining pass by selecting Add perp. remach. pass. As an example this setting will add a Y parallel pass to a X parallel operation. To use this option you also must specify the steep slope angle. The perpendicular pass will only be applied to regions that exceed this slope limit. See Horizontal + vertical strategy if using that specialized technique.
For plunge roughing, select X parallel to arrange the drilling operations parallel to the X axis, Y parallel to arrange parallel to the Y axis. Also specify an Angle (measured in degrees in the counter clock-wise direction) to rotate the holes off of the principal axis. Also decide on whether you want to use a honeycomb pattern.
For Z level roughing, specify the style of toolpath: offsets or zig-zag (X-parallel like). If zig-zag is choosen, this will rough the part "raster-style" with an optional profile around each Z-slice (if desired, check the Profile Contour checkbox). Classify the slices and set Multiple roughing diameters to generate Z-level semi finish passes.
For Z level finishing, use the interleave option if you want to finish the entire part with a minimum amount of tool retraction.
For corner remachining, choose along (which will create toolpaths parallel to the sharp corner edges), across (which will create toolpaths across the corner edges), or a combination of the two (across in steep areas and along in shallow areas). Detection Limit - only corners below the angle specified will be found.
For four-axis rotary, you may choose the type of pattern to cut: Circle, Line, or Spiral. For more information see Overview.
Isoline, flowline, radial, 3d spiral and pencil milling have no options.
Edge boundaries – Set an optional edge boundary.
If you wish to use this operation to clean up areas that were missed by previous toolpaths, check the Remachining checkbox.
Click Next to display the Boundaries_tab.
See also Surface manufacturing.