Best toolpath approach

I’m looking for advice for the best approach to cutting this seat profile. The intent is to cut fast as final sanding will be used to blend and smooth as necessary.

Depending on how much sanding/shaping you want to do by hand, you could change settings in 3d rough and call it good enough if you are in carbide create pro. I think if you reduce depth per pass that will mean more layers in roughing which will sort of net finer details.
Otherwise you could do 3d rough and then 3dfinish with a 1/4 endmill with a standard stepover.

I tend towards more machine time if it means less manual work for me later, so a small stepover on 3d finish is how I’d approach this.

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Another option might be to look at a more specialized tool like a lens form mill.
For example:
https://www.helicaltool.com/products/multi-axis-finishers-3-flute-lens-form

It’s like a ball nose but instead of a full hemisphere on the tool, it’s a segment of a much larger radius.
This lets you take much larger step overs while maintaining a better floor finish. Should net faster cycle times with less cleanup if your geometry works with it.

Here’s a video demonstrating how you might use it:
(I’m not a big fan of the hype style these folks bring to their videos, but they’ve got some interesting stuff on occasion)

Anywho, the tooling is expensive, the programming for it is not trivial, and there will likely be a small learning curve…I imagine it’s only worth considering if you are doing runs of these parts, not just a few. Still good to know what’s out there :slightly_smiling_face:

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What Josh said.
I use 3D rough often for Z-level finish path. A bullnose tool, large stepover, smaller DOC, and 0.0 stock to leave will get you close.
If you do go with a finish path, use the largest ball mill you have. No detail here, just big sweeping surfaces.
I would use a 1” ball for this.

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You can get very close to this with the molding toolpath in Vectric Vcarve.

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