In this lesson, we'll be creating a closed pocket clearing toolpath. After completing this lesson, you'll be able to create a pocket clearing toolpath, analyze toolpath machine time, and compare the efficiency of different toolpaths. For this next lesson, let's carry on with a 3D pocket sample. If you've closed the file and saved it, you'll have to go back in and hide the stock as this will reshow itself. Well, we want to take a look at now is a comparison between 3D adaptive clearing and pocket clearing. So we're going to use the pocket clearing toolpath. We're going to use the same number 10.5 inch flat end mill. We're going to use the same settings in terms of the general settings of flat area detection and machining shallow areas. Well, we're going to take a look at some of the options that we have in terms of setting up a pocket clearing operation and how it differs from our adaptive. So first in the geometry section, the tool containment, we can start with the tool inside the boundary, outside the boundary or on center. We're going to select outside which will allow it to plunge outside of our stock and enter using the external contour operations. We're not going to use rest of machining because we want to explore this as if we're coming in with raw stock. We're going to move on to our heights and we're going to select our bottom height by using selection, and setting it similar to how we did with our adaptive toolpath. For our passes, again, we're going to use all the default settings. We're going to allow it to machine shallow areas. We're going to turn on flat area detection, and we're going to leave stock. The rest of the parameters we're going to go ahead and we're going to leave. Notice that there is a morphed spiral option that we can use and we'll come back, and explore that after we create the toolpath. Lastly, we're going to leave all the default linking parameters again and we're going to say okay. We'll notice right away that this toolpath looks quite a bit different than our adaptive clearing. We have some helical entries on all four corners, we're machining the inside and the outside based on the shape of our pockets. So if we view this from the top, we can see that our blue two lines are exactly matching the shape of our pocket. The lines in here around the dome shape are matching the contour of the dome. There is not any adaptive tool motion that's happening here. One thing that we're going to notice is that, ultimately, the result is going to be very similar. However, it's going to take quite a bit more time to machine this. Notice that it's automatically defaulting to a lot of step-downs, because it doesn't take into account that chip load on the tool. It's not necessarily using any intelligent tool motion to minimize or maximize that. Notice that we also get a warning. The warnings tell us that it can't plunge outside of stock, so it has a problem getting the tool to the outside of stock. But if we right-click and we take a look at the machining time, we'll see that this one says, "Total feed time of 45 minutes, total machining time of 46 minutes." So the rapids are negligible in this case but we're talking about a difference of 10 minutes to clear the part as opposed to 45 minutes. Now we can go in and make some adjustments to the parameters. For example, in the passes section, we have a minimum and maximum shallow step down which is fine. But then, we have a maximum roughing step down which is pretty small. Even though we're not using adaptive tool motion, we can still take this down a bit more. I'm going to enter a value of a quarter inch to allow it to take deeper cuts for each area. What I'm going to do is I'm going to see how this change in the step-down as going to affect our machining time. So now we can see that we've reduced it by a little bit over half. We're now closer to 20 minutes. But again, the adaptive tool path still is clearing it in 10 minutes. Let's take a look at how this simulates. We're going to make sure that we have the pocket operation selected, and we're going to go into simulation and play through. So you can see that it's working in a very similar fashion. But it's machined part of the outside and it moved its way inside, and then it's going to come around and machine the outside again. This jumping around to different areas does add to the overall programming time. You also notice that it wasn't able to clear the center above the dome. So there's a large piece of stock that's left there that would have to be cleared, and it didn't completely finish the outside shape. If we take a look at the adaptive toolpath and we simulate it, I'm going to use the Go To end the toolpath, so I can get a final look. You can see that this was able to do the entire outside contour, and it was able to get a little bit closer to that final shape on the inside. There are plenty of times when using a pocket clearing operation would make sense. But in cases where we have complex 3D pockets, it really makes a lot more sense for us to go to the adaptive toolpath unless there's a very good reason otherwise. It's always a good idea to explore multiple toolpaths just to see which one is going to work best. Because there are some instances where, again, you might think that an option would help you in terms of reducing your time machining. But ultimately, it adds a little bit because maybe we have more feed time and less rapid time or some other effect that you might not necessarily know until you try it. There's no harm in trying to validate these digitally. So again, I encourage you to play around with these toolpaths and options to try, and make the most efficient toolpath. But ultimately, you will need some real-world validation by understanding the tools, limitations, how fast you can spin them, and how fast they can engage material. Again, this information is calculated as well as coming directly from tool manufacturers and understanding the limitations of your specific setup. From here, we don't need this pocket operation but I'm going to go ahead and make a save. So that way I have it in version six. Then I'm going to right-click and I'm going to delete this operation. Then, I'm going to save the file again. Remember at any point in time, we can go into our data panel, we can expand the versions, and we can go back and we could open up version six if we needed to or version seven. We can open or we can promote those to be the most current version if needed. But for right now, let's go ahead and navigate back to our home view. Make sure that we save our file with just the adaptive clearing toolpath, and then we can move on to our next step.
