MILL Module > Creating Machining Operations

Control Geometry are curves that already exist in your model or separate new curves you create within VisualCAD that coexist within your part. Control Geometry serves different purposes in 2½, 3 and 4 axis milling.

In 3 axis milling, Containment Regions are used, when necessary, to define the machining boundary. The center of the tool remains on the region while following the contours of the part. For example, if you define a region surrounding one surface, only that surface will be milled.

Important Notes about Machining Features/Regions

Regions must be selected before they can be used in an operation. It should be noted that regions can be created and be present in a part file but if they are not selected in a machining operation then they will be ignored during toolpath computation. So creating a region does not make it active; you must use one of the Select Regions tools before creating the toolpath.

If a region is not defined for finishing operations in 3 and 4 axis methods, the part silhouette is automatically identified and used as a containment region for the tool. For roughing operations, the stock geometry determines the constraints on the tool location.

Because 2½ axis milling does not use part geometry, Part Regions must be created to define the areas to be machined.

Multiple regions can be defined and selected in an operation. This is a very powerful feature and affords you fine control over the manufacturing process. Once created these regions can also be written out to an external ASCII file and also archived in a part file.

Thus there are two operations that you should be aware of when working with regions.

The first one is creating / deleting regions in a part file and the other is selecting regions in a machining operation. These two are independent operations and have independent methods of being invoked.

Region Types by Configuration

Region Type	Configuration
Region Type	Xpress (XPR)	Standard (STD)	Expert (EXP)	Professional (PRO)	Premium (PRE)
Curve
Surface Boundary/Edge
Flat Area
Features
Pre-Defined
Avoid Regions
Start Point Regions

Creating Regions

To create regions, make sure the ribbon bar containing the CAD tools is visible. Select Appearance > Toolbars > Command Bar from the main menu to display the ribbon bar. You will be able to create rectangular, circular and polygonal regions using the tools under the ribbon toolbar. Regions can also be extracted from the 3D model using the tools available under Curves tab in the ribbon bar.

Multiple Regions

Multiple and nested regions can be selected, but not regions that intersect. Nested regions are handled according to the following rule: The tool will remain inside an outer region and outside an inner region. A region within an inner region is considered to be an outer region. In the following picture, the shaded areas are where the tool motions occur:

Multiple Regions

Deleting Regions

Regions can be deleted by selecting them graphically in the display window or by using the Selections pane from the Modeling Aids Ribbon Bar.

Menu Bar

To delete the graphically selected regions, select the right mouse button inside the display window. This will bring up the following pop-up menu. Choose Cut to delete the selected regions. You can also hit the Delete key on the keyboard to delete the active selections.

Right-click Meu for Geometry Regions

Editing Regions

Also the regions can be edited using any of the commands like Move, Rotate, Scale and Mirror. The transformation can also be accessed from the menu bar. The properties of the regions like layer, color can also be edited using the Properties option (Edit > Properties).