After setting up your workpieces, workholding devices, and tools within CAM, the next step is to generate toolpaths

• There are many kinds of toolpaths out there that serve different purposes and are better or worse than others for machining certain features/geometry of your parts

Modern strategy for generating and organizing toolpaths include:

• Roughing & Finishing: Roughing means to remove material as efficiently as possible, without regard to surface finish of the part. When roughing, you want to leave a minor amount of material remaining on the part (AKA "Stock to Leave") to clean-up with a Finishing Pass, which typically removes the minimum amount of material, and may use different speeds/feeds to achieve desired surface finishes on parts

  • Pro-Tip: Use the "2D Adaptive" toolpath for Roughing passes, and the "2D Contour" toolpath for Finish passes

• Bottom-Up Machining: When finding out where to start removing material, the most efficient strategy is to remove material as far down the part as possible, and working your way up layer by layer until you get to geometry/features at or close to the top of the part