About Groove Milling Tool Path Concepts

The Machining direction (Top/Bottom, Bottom/Top) and Axial strategy (Standard, Middle, Middle alternate) parameters determine the tool path ordering for machining the groove.

See Also
Groove Milling
Creating a Groove Milling Operation

The tool path is computed as follows:

  • The roughing pass ordering respects the machining direction definition.
  • If a side finish pass is defined, a side finish pass is done for each roughing level
  • If a top and/or bottom finish passes are defined, top and/or bottom finish passes are done in order to minimize tool motion between levels. For example:
    • in top/bottom machining with top and bottom finish passes, top finishing is done just after the first machining level and just before the second machining level.

    • in bottom/top machining with top and bottom finish passes, bottom finishing is done just after the first machining level and just before the second machining level.

  • The tool compensation point is taken into account for each pass. This point is switched automatically during a Return between levels macro whenever the next level to machine requires a different compensation point.