Face milling strategy

The Face toolpath is often the first operation performed on raw stock material to prepare it for further machining. Typically, the depth of material to be removed is the distance between the top of the stock and the top of the model.

The Face toolpath helps ensure flatness on a surface so it can sit flat on a vise for accurate machining. It can also be used for clearing flat areas in general.

Face toolpath that removes stock up to the model top.

Controls exist for containing the toolpath to a specific stock area. You can use Stock Contours to contain the machining area in X & Y and the Heights parameters to contain the machining areas in Z, but as a default, it assumes that you want to face the entire stock.

You can change the direction of the passes using the Pass direction to run along a different axis, which can be useful if the passes are running along an axis that may not have enough length of travel on the machine.