3D Contour
Updated v2.6.0At a glance
- Finishes walls and steep faces with loops at constant height
- The cutter moves sideways around the wall and steps down — never up and down it
- Adds loops where a wall rolls into a fillet so the finish stays even
- Runs bottom up so the cutter climbs out of the roughing stock with its side
- Climb or conventional
- Face picks, Top and Bottom, stock to leave and smart links like Parallel and Scallop
3D Contour (often called Z-level or waterline) finishes walls and steep faces. It runs a loop around the faces you pick at one height, steps down, and runs the next — the cutter moves sideways around the wall and never climbs or drops down it. Use it for outer profiles, clearance arcs, bosses and any wall that runs into a fillet.
Stepdown
Maximum stepdown is the largest height between loops. Where a wall rolls over into a fillet or a gentle slope, loops would spread apart, so extra loops are added until neighbouring loops are no farther apart than the Stepover — down to the minimum stepdown (leave it empty for automatic). Nearly flat areas are left for a Parallel or Scallop pass.
Bottom up
Loops run from the lowest level upward by default. After a rough the wall carries terraces, and a loop that starts at the bottom meets the terrace above it with the side of the cutter and climbs out of it, so the engagement stays radial and no bigger than one stepdown. Running top down would drive a ball end mill's slow-moving tip straight down into the first terrace — turn Bottom up off only when the wall is already clean or chips need to leave a pocket from the top. On a wall taller than the tool's flute length the loops run in flute-length bands from the top down, bottom up inside each band, so the shank never rubs the skin the loops above have not cleared yet. Keep the flute length filled in on the tool for this.
Picking faces
Pick the walls and fillets to finish. Only loops that ride those faces cut; every other face still protects the part. No boundary is needed — the picked faces decide where the cutter works.
Direction
Climb keeps the part on the cutter's right for the best finish; Conventional the other way; Both takes the shortest route.
Everything else
Top and Bottom, stock to leave, smart links that clear the stock the roughing left, smoothing and rest finishing work exactly as in Parallel and Scallop.