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Pocket before the outside cut

Turn nested profiles into ordered machining operations and inspect the result.

About 7 minCadivari 0.3.0Watch and try

Useful first: Offset a closed profile · Understand axes and work zero · Understand safe clearance

A pocket removes material inside a region. An outside contour releases its perimeter. Keeping the pocket before the final cutout leaves the stock supporting the part during the inside work.
A pocket removes material inside a region. An outside contour releases its perimeter. Keeping the pocket before the final cutout leaves the stock supporting the part during the inside work.

A pocket removes material inside a region. An outside contour releases its perimeter. Keeping the pocket before the final cutout leaves the stock supporting the part during the inside work.

Try it in Cadivari

  1. Prepare the two profiles

    Use the saved 160 × 96 mm rectangle with its 20 mm inward offset. In CAM Setup, review stock thickness, Job zero, the cutter and both clearance heights.

  2. Select the pocket area

    Press K or click Pocket. Click inside the smaller rectangle to select its central face, not the border strip between the rectangles. Add the pocket and inspect its depth and cutter settings in Operations.

  3. Add the outside contour

    Press P or click Contour and select the outer rectangle. Choose Outside placement. Review cut depth, depth passes and tabs or another suitable retention strategy.

  4. Put inside work first

    In Job sequence & output, place the pocket before the final outside contour. Review the cutter assigned to each operation and any tool-change stages.

  5. Inspect before export

    Review Complete job playback, material removal and the line-by-line G-code. Resolve blocking errors and review warnings in Export Preflight. This lesson ends at preview; do not run a practice setup on a machine.

Over to you

A small exercise

Create a preview job with one central pocket and one outside contour. Keep the pocket first, then inspect the complete sequence without exporting or running it.

What you should see

The preview clears the inner region before following the outside boundary. The physical cutter path is compensated from the design geometry.

Things to look out for

  • Clicking the border strip selects an annular region instead of the central recess.
  • The animation supplies no feeds, spindle speed, cutting depth or workholding recipe. Choose and verify these for the actual job.
Check your understandingWhy does the pocket come before the final outside contour

Inside work should happen while the surrounding stock still supports the part. The final outside cut can release it.

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Go deeper in the knowledge base

Instructions checked against the Cadivari 0.3.0 source and knowledge base on 2026-09-16. Lesson revision 1.