V-Carve Pocketing

The V-Carve feature type is generally used to engrave text, arcs, linesand splines in a 3-dimensional form with 3-axis tool motion, with pocketingof open spaces in the selected profiles if necessary.There are two V-Carveoperation types, Tapered Pocketing and V-Carve Finishing (engraving).This example uses the both operations, one to perform the pocketing withan endmill, and the second to cut a tapered wall around the pocket.

Pocketing a shape withV-CARVE example:

Part 1) Open a new file

  1. Go to File > New to create a new part file.

Part 2) Create the Rectangle

  1. Right-click the Front Plane and select Sketch.

  2. Choose Tools > Sketch Entities > Corner Rectangle.

  3. Starting at the origin, create a rectangle with values X = 4 and Y = 3 and click OK.


Part 3) Create the Fillet

  1. Choose Tools > Sketch Tools > Fillet...

  2. Set the Parameters to 1.0000.

  3. Select the Vertex at the top-right and click OK.



  4. Exit the sketch.

Part 4) Create the CAM Job

  1. In the CAM Tree, right-click CAM Defaults,and click New Job.

  2. With the Milling job typeand the BC 3X Mill machineselected, and the Start Stock Wizard check box selected, click OK.

  3. Click the (next)button to skip the workpiece assignment.

Part 5) Create the Stock

  1. With Rectangular selected, the software automatically creates a bounding stock for the textin the graphics area.



  2. In the Offset group, add a 0.2500 offset for -X, +X, -Y, and +Y.



  3. Click to go to the MachineSetup.

Part 6) Set the Machine Setup and Work Offset

  1. Select the following vertex as the origin.



  2. In the Work Offset group, set the Z value to .000.

  3. Click OK.

Part 7) Create the Feature

  1. In the CAM Tree, right-clickMachine Setup, and click Mill V-Carve.

  2. In the Mill V-Carve Wizard,click the Select Geometrybutton.

    The Mill V-Carve Wizard disappears, allowing you to select geometry from the graphics area.

  3. In the FeatureManager Design Tree, select the sketch.



  4. Click OK.

    The Mill V-Carve Wizard returns.

  5. Click Next>> to go the Feature page.

  6. In the Feature Parameters group, change the Total Depth to .

  7. Click Next>> to go the Machining Strategy page.

  8. In the Tree on the left of the wizard, click Machining Strategy to jump to that page.

  9. Under Available Operations,with Tapered Pocketing selected,click the left arrow button, ,to add the operation to the Current Operations list.

  10. Under CurrentOperations, click the up arrow button, , to movethe Tapered Pocketing operation to the top of the list.

  11. Click Next>> to updatethe tree with the new operations.

Part 8) Set the Roughing Tool

  1. Click Next >> again to move to the tool page.

  2. Change the Diametervalue to , and pressTab to update the value.

    The system automatically selects a tool from the Tool Library(after checking the Tool Crib).

Part 9) Set the Parameters

  1. Click Next>>to go to the Parameters page.

  2. Notice the Pocket Depthis already defined.

  3. Change the Depthof Cut value to .

  4. Update the Endmill Cutter Width % value to 33.

  5. Click Next>>.

Part 10) Set the Finishing Tool

  1. Confirm the default inch Diameter V-Tool is selected,and click Next>>.

Part 11) Set the Finishing Parameters

  1. Under Depth Options, changethe V-Tool Depth of Cut valueto .

  2. Change the V-Tool Roughing Stepovervalue to .

Note: Notice the V-Tool Cleanup Parameters.Because we are using a Tapered Pocketing operation, we can set thestepover to perform a cleanup path in the corners of the pocket usingthe V-tool.


  1. Change the V-Tool CleanupStepover value to .

  2. At the bottom of the wizard, click Compute.



  3. To view the toolpath simulation, right-click MillingJob and click Simulation.For more information on using simulation, view GettingStarted with Simulation.

This concludes the example.