How do I control the area to be machined?

By default, your tool path will fill the area covered by the stock or the geometry boundary. In many cases, you’ll want to more precisely define the area to be machined.

The Set Machine Region command can be used to limit the toolpath to a section of the geometry using Machine Regions. It can also set sections of the part to be ignored using Keepout Regions.

Here’s how the system works:

• You can define one or more Machine Regions
• If you do not define a Machine Region, MeshCAM will use the stock boundary or the geometry outline as the Machine Region
• If two or more Machine Regions touch, overlap or nest within each other, they’ll be merged into a single region
• You can define one or more Keepout Regions. Like Machine Regions, if they touch in any way they’ll be merged.
• Keepout Regions take priority over Machine Regions. If a Machine Region is within a Keepout, it will be completely removed.

Machine Regions and Keepout Regions can be defined as circles, rectangles, polylines or they can be loaded from DXF files.