Operations
A project's operations run in the order they are listed. The usual plan is one roughing operation with a large tool and one or two finishing operations with a smaller ball nose.
Roughing
- Raster roughing — clears material layer by layer with parallel passes, leaving an even allowance for the finish. Quick to plan and predictable.
- Waterline roughing — follows the contour of the relief at each layer, like the lines on a map.
Both step down by the stepdown each layer and leave the stock to leave for the finishing pass. Neither goes below the relief.
Finishing
- Raster finish — parallel passes at an angle you choose. The standard finish.
- Cross-hatch finish — two raster passes at right angles; smoother, twice the time.
- Spiral finish — one continuous spiral, outward from the centre or inward to it; suits round pieces.
- Offset finish — rings following the outline of the piece inwards.
The numbers that matter
- Stepover — the distance between passes, as a fraction of the tool diameter. Smaller is smoother and slower; the ridge left between passes (the scallop) grows quickly as it widens.
- Tolerance — how closely each path follows the relief. The simulation's check on the finished cut allows for it.
- Direction — climb, conventional, or zig-zag (both ways, fastest).
- Boundary margin — how far past the edge of the piece the tool may go, or automatic.
Edge mode
On the Setup tab, Open lets the tool run off the edge of the piece, which finishes the edges cleanly on a piece cut free of its stock. Protected keeps the tool centre inside the piece, which leaves a rim — use it when the relief sits inside a panel.
Validation
The Operations tab lists anything wrong before you spend a credit: a stepover smaller than the image resolution, a feed above the machine's limit, a stepdown deeper than the tool can cut, and so on. Errors stop the job; warnings do not.