Z Level Roughing panel — Area to Machine

The Area to Machine area contains the following settings:

• Select an option to specify how you want to apply the toolpath to the relief:
  • Composite Relief — Remove material across the entire surface of the model.
  • Selected Vector — Remove material in an area of the composite relief as defined by a selected vector.
  • Automatic Boundary — ArtCAM creates a boundary around the composite relief at Z=0 and removes the material from within this area. Enter an Offset value to control the distance of the boundary from the composite relief. The boundary distance from the relief is based on the width of the tool at the depth it has to cut. For a lot of tools this is just the diameter, but for a conical tool the boundary will be closer to the relief when the relief has less Z-depth. The offset is then added onto this.
• Roughing tool — Click Select to select the tool you want to use using the Tool Database dialog. When you select the tool, click the control bar showing the name of the tool to display its parameters. To change the selected tool, click Select again.
• Add Ramping Moves — Select the check box to add ramping moves to the toolpath. This displays the ramping settings. All of the ramping move settings are selected by default. Deselect any of the settings you do not require. The boxes for the deselected options are unavailable.
  • Max Ramp Angle (A) — Enter the maximum angle of descent for each zig and zag movement of the tools.
  • Max Ramp Length (L) — Enter the maximum distance that you want the tools to zigzag across the material surface.
  • Min Ramp Length (Lmin) — Enter the minimum distance that you want the tools to zigzag across the material surface.
  • Zig Start Height (S) — Enter the height at which the ramping moves start.
    Note: If you do not select the Zig Start Height (S) option, the Safe Z level specified in the Machine Safe Z area is used instead.
• Click to define material — Click the control bar and specify the block or sheet of material using the Material Setup dialog. When you specify the material settings, the material's thickness is displayed on the control bar. To change the settings, click Setup.

See also

• About ramping moves
• Specifying the material setup