Boring
Updated v2.4.2At a glance
- Open a hole larger than your tool—the end mill spirals down and cleans it by helical interpolation
- Bore bosses too: pick a stud or pad and the tool helixes around its outside to finish it to size
- Pick the same hole rims and cylindrical faces you'd drill; do a pattern in one operation
- Ease in on a helix by angle or by pitch, then finish with a clean full circle at the bottom
- Rough with radial and floor stock, then a finish pass at exact size; climb or conventional
Bore mills round holes with a helix — the way to put an accurate 1" hole in a part with a 1/4" end mill. Add a Bore operation and click the same circular edges or cylindrical faces you'd drill, but instead of plunging, the tool spirals down and cleans a hole larger than itself. One end mill opens a whole range of hole sizes, no dedicated boring bar required. Pick as many holes as you like in one operation.
Ease into the cut
The cutter ramps in on a gentle helix — set the descent by angle or by pitch (drop-per-revolution), whichever your material likes — then spirals to depth and finishes with a clean full circle at the bottom so the wall comes out round and true.
Rough, then finish
Take multiple passes, leave a skin of radial and floor stock, and add a final finish pass at the exact size and depth for a smooth wall. Climb or conventional, your call — and negative stock is deliberate when a press-fit needs the hole a hair over the drawing.
Bosses — boring on the outside
Switch the pick mode to Model bosses and the same operation works in reverse: click a boss's wall or base rim and the tool helixes down around its outside, finishing a stud, pad, or bearing seat to exact size. Clear the surrounding stock with a 2D Dynamic or Pocket pass first, then let Bore bring the wall to size. Climb direction and stock-to-leave sort themselves out for the outside cut — a climb cut stays a climb cut, and the finish allowance stays on the boss wall. Every pick shows a flip arrow (just like Contour's) pointing at the side the tool will orbit — one click swaps hole ↔ boss, so a pick made in the wrong mode is never a re-pick.
Depth from the part
Bore depth follows the geometry you picked, just like Drill and Contour, and it shares the same backplot, auto-generate, Post button, and machine dialects. You can also bore straight from sketch circles — see Picking geometry.