Pocket

Pocket clears the interior of a closed subtract feature. It can also clear the enclosed counters of an Add outline text feature without expanding the text first. It supports rough and finish passes and four clearing patterns.

Pickup and neck cavities on a guitar body, each filled with concentric offset rings that step inward from the cavity wall to its centre — Offset clearing steps inward from the wall, one ring at a time, until the cavity is cleared.

The simulated stock after the pocket pass, with each cavity cleared to a flat floor and square walls — The same operation in the Simulation view: what it actually leaves in the stock.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Target features	Subtract features, or Add outline text with subtract counters
Profile	Closed
Tool	Flat or ball endmill

Parameters

Select the operation in the operations list to edit its parameters in the right panel. Selecting an operation also highlights its target features on the canvas and in the feature tree, so you can see exactly which geometry it will cut before you adjust anything.

A pocket operation selected, with its target features outlined in red on the canvas and the matching row highlighted in the feature tree — Selecting an operation highlights the features it cuts, on the canvas and in the tree.

The settings shared with other operations are documented in Common operation parameters.

Pocket parameters

Parameter	Description
Pattern	How the area is cleared. See Strategies.
Angle	The angle of parallel passes in degrees (Parallel pattern only).
Cut Direction	Conventional or Climb milling.
Stepdown	Depth per pass.
Stepover Ratio	Lateral step between passes as a fraction of tool diameter.
Stock To Leave Radial	Material left on walls for a subsequent finish pass.
Stock To Leave Axial	Material left on the floor for a subsequent finish pass.
Finish Walls	(Finish pass only) Whether to machine the walls to final dimension.
Finish Floor	(Finish pass only) Whether to machine the floor to final dimension.
Feed Reduction	Slots only applies the configured Slot Feed percentage (60% by default) to full-width cutting stretches. Engagement chooses a bounded feed scale from the cutter’s actual engagement on the emitted path. Both modes only reduce the programmed feed.
Round Outside Corners	Rounds eligible outside contour corners on offset clearing rings for a smoother cut path.
Round Link Junctions	(Offset and Seeded circles) Replaces an eligible sharp ring-to-ring transition with a tangent arc-line-arc link where it fits.
Clean Wall Corners	Recovers material that rounded offset rings leave in reachable wall corners.
Corner Relief	Cuts an extra relief at each inside corner so a square-cornered mating part will seat.
Entry Strategy	Under Entry & retract: Plunge, Helix, or Ramp.

Offset-pattern passes simplify their internal polylines back into arcs and full circles where the geometry allows, which gives shorter, smoother G-code with fewer line segments — especially on circular and rounded-corner pockets.

Non-target subtract features that connect to the target can extend the material removed at their own depth. Inspect the bands and depth warnings when nearby subtract features overlap or meet the selected pocket.

Strategies

Pocket offers four clearing patterns, chosen with Pattern:

Pattern	Documented in
Offset	Clearing patterns
Seeded circles	Seeded-circle clearing
Parallel	Clearing patterns
Trochoidal	Trochoidal cutting

It also supports entry and exit moves, corner rounding and relief, linking clearing passes, feed reduction, and rest machining.

Verifying the result

Tool library — tool defaults that fill these parameters.
Quick Start — a first Pocket Rough operation, step by step.