Surface Mill page

Tolerance (Finish) and Tolerance (Rough) — Set how close the milling is to the mathematically ideal surface. This does not guarantee that your feature is machined to this tolerance in all locations if the tool you select is incapable of cutting within that tolerance in constrained areas. If your part shows a faceted appearance, set the tolerance to a lower value. This also affects the default tolerance for stock models.

Scallop stepover — Select this attribute to set the default stepover type for projection milling finishing and Z-level finishing to be specified by scallop height instead of a linear stepover distance.

Scallop height — This sets the default scallop height allowed for surface milling features. You can override it on individual features.

Stepover — Enter the default Stepover value for surface milling features. This also affects the default Step Size value for stock models.

Parallel finish automatic angle — For parallel finish features, use an automatic parallel angle by default so that FeatureCAM determines the most appropriate angle for each region of the feature.

Parallel angleis a numeric attribute for X and Y parallel roughing only.

Tool diameter — This sets the default tool diameter for 3D surface milling features.

Tool end radius

Select the type of Tool end radius from:

• Ball end sets the default tool to a ball-end tool to be chosen automatically from the tool database. If there are no ball-end tools in the database, a flat-end tool is chosen as a template and a new ball-end tool is automatically created from it. The new tool is given a name with a suffix of -ground, implying that you must grind the tool as needed. If there are no flat-end mill tools in the database, a tool-selection error is displayed.
• Flat sets the default tool to a flat-end mill to be chosen automatically from the tool database. If there are no flat-end mill tools in the database, a tool-selection error is displayed.
• Bull nose sets the default tool to a bull-nose tool to be chosen automatically from the tool database. If there are no bull-nose tools in the database, a flat-end mill tool is chosen at a template and a new bull-nose tool is automatically created from it. The new tool is given a name with a suffix of -ground, implying that you must grind the tool as needed.

Note: You can override the tool on individual features as needed.

Steep and Shallow Options — Click this button to open the Steep and Shallow Options dialog.

Finish allowance — This is the amount of material left after a 3D roughing pass.

Check allowance — This is the minimum distance that you want to leave around check surface(s). Select from:

• Finish/leave allowance — FeatureCAM uses the Finish allowance value for rough operations and the Leave allowance value for finish operations, by default. You can override this by entering a Check allowance value at operation level.
• Fixed allowance — Enter a specific Check allowance value to use by default for both rough and finish operations. You can override this by entering a Check allowance value at operation level.

Slope limitation angles

• Horizontal only — The default Maximum surface slope angle for the current part document.
• Vertical only — The default Minimum surface slope angle for the current part document.
• Steep slope — The default Steep slope angle for parallel operations in the current part document.

Swarf axial tol. — This helps to stabilize the tool axis and reduce tool load.

Edges — The default Edges setting for the current part document.