AHarrison1: What do the various colors in your graphic represent?

Thanks for the replies, but none have addressed my core concern, namely, how to get a toolpath that moves in only one direction and doesn't move all over the part in odd ways leaving ugly snail trails in its wake.

I'm working on a part that's approximately twelve inches square. The vast majority of the area is flat, but there are about twenty small bosses (about 0.5" square) that protrude from it. I'm trying to find a toolpath to finish the flat area. I've tried a number of the pocketing toolpaths, but don't like the results. Specifically, the toolpaths end up looking like a drunken sailor wandering all over the part with no rhyme or reason. Except to avoid the bosses, I want the tool to always travel in the same direction. Also, instead of picking up the tool to avoid the bosses, I want to 'steer' around them. Any suggestions?

Thanks again - this really gets me out of a jam! Hope you're staying healthy in these crazy times.

byte me: Well, I'm not sure I understand why this works, but work it does! Is the idea here to give MC more data points to define the surface? Thanks for all your time and effort on this! On what part of Earth are you?

byte me: Good morning! A beautiful sunny Sunday and here we are in front of our computers. We must be nuts. Haha. Anyway, can you explain how you created the new surface?

byte me: I made a new swept surface by adding short straight sections at the top and bottom. Then I tinkered with Depth Limit settings and that made things work well in the +Z area. In the -Z area, however, I'm getting a gouge that I can't get rid of (see image below). Any ideas? The latest file is attached. Thanks again! Undercut surface.mcam

byte me: Wow. Thanks for all of your effort on this! I'm not quite sure I understand it all yet, but let's see what I can do.

Please have a look at the attached file. I've been beating my head against a wall for hours trying to get the undercut (Operation #9) to work properly. Depending on settings (I've tried many), either the tool doesn't fully cut the profile or it gouges. What am I doing wrong? The -Z portion of the profile (Operation #8, not undercut) works fine. MC2018 2.5 axis. Thanks! Undercut_surface.mcam

Leon82 - Thanks! That seems to work fine. AMC Nitro - Thanks for the response, but I don't understand. The first segment of the toolpath I was working with was a short straight segment and then there was an arc. Is this something different than what you're suggesting?

I work with a lot of smaller equipment and really like the Ramp Contour for milling larger holes. My problem is that MasterCam inserts the G41/G42 code on an arc move with this toolpath. Since this is a Bozo no no for our Haas mills, we're not able to fine-tune the hole size at the control by entering a wear value. Is there some way to get MC to put the G41/G42 code on the linear part of the lead-in move? Thanks!

JParis - Perfect! Many thanks!

The title says it all. I'm working with MC 2019 and 2024 aluminum comes up as the default material. I'd like to change this to 6061 aluminum. How do I do it?

JParis - The problem with doing it this way is that if I now change the 2" Retract to 3", the Jump height stays at 2". In other words, for the point where the 'Change at Point' was applied, it doesn't seem there's a way to undo the change and get the changed parameter to follow the Linking Parameters values - other than your suggestion of re-selecting the point.

JParis - That's the only method that I've found that works reliably. I was hoping there was a simple 'undo' or 'restore defaults' option.