PowerMill Limits

Modified on Thu, 27 Jun at 10:58 AM

Learn how to easily limit toolpaths within PowerMill.

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As with the Transform Toolpath functions, the Limit To Plane, Polygon, and Boundary commands create new toolpaths that are based on the active toolpath.

Note: It is essential to have an active toolpath for this functionality to work.

To display the Toolpath limit dialog:

Click Toolpath Edit tab >? Edit panel > Limit; or
from the individual Toolpath context menu, select Edit > Limit.

This dialog contains the following:

Limit to — This drop-down list has three options:

Plane —Select to limit (cut) the active toolpath to a specified plane.
Polygon — Select to limit (cut) the currently active toolpath to a specified polygon.
Boundary — Select to limit (cut) the currently active toolpath to a specified boundary.

Undo — This button is available if you sketch a polygon with at least one point. Click to undo the last point added to the limiting polygon.

Restore View — This button is available if you sketch a polygon with at least one point. Click to return to the initial view you were on when you first started to place points.

Plane

These options are only available if you have a Limit to of Plane.

Type — Defines the limiting plane.

Plane X — Select to define the YZ plane. Either pick a point on the screen using the left mouse button, or enter the X coordinate in the Point frame of the dialog.
Plane Y — Select to define the ZX plane. Either pick a point on the screen using the left mouse button, or enter the Y coordinate in the Point frame of the dialog.
Plane Z — Select to define the XY plane. Either pick a point on the screen using the left mouse button, or enter the Z coordinate in the Point frame of the dialog.
Arbitrary — Select to either pick two points on the screen using the left mouse button to define the normal to the required plane, or enter X, Y, and Z coordinates in the Point and Normal areas of the dialog.

Point — Enter values to define the origin of the plane.

Open the position input form — Click to display the Position dialog. Use the dialog to manually enter coordinates and locate items in the graphics window.

Normal — The fields display the direction of the normal of the plane.

Open the direction input form — Click to display the Direction dialog, which enables you to edit the direction of an item.

Boundary

These options are only available if you have a Limit to of Boundary.

Boundary — Select the boundary PowerMill uses to limit the toolpath. You can select the boundary from the list. This option is only available if you have a Limit to of Boundary.

Projection Plane — Select the plane in which the toolpath is limited. Select one of the following from the drop-down list: Workplane, View Plane or Best Fit Plane. This option is only available if you select the Limit to Boundary option.

Remaining items

Save — Select which side of a plane, polygon, or boundary is saved:

Inner — Save the inside region.
Outer — Save the outside region.
Both — Save both regions.

Determines whether the toolpaths on the Inner, Outer, or Both sides of the plane, polygon or boundary are kept. For a closed polygon or boundary it is obvious what is inside or outside. However, this is not the case for a plane. So, each plane has an arrow, normal to the plane, at each corner, to indicate which side of the plane will be selected. The boundary or polygon must be a closed, non-intersecting contour.

Delete Original — Select to remove the original toolpath when creating a new limited toolpath. Deselect it to keep the original toolpath.

Reorder — Select to reorder the limited toolpath to minimise air time. Deselect it to avoid reordering.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/PWRM/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-CD65C964-8280-4CEF-BDF8-6B7A93B5E7A4