An unfinished face in CAM Assist is a part surface left rough or semi-finished due to no finishing toolpath being applied, often from strategy choices or settings like "Finish full part" being off. Identifying unfinished faces is crucial to ensure complete machining, allowing users to add finishing operations or adjust inputs. These faces are highlighted in the Analyze phase and may also be called untouched, remaining stock, or unfinished surfaces. They can be deliberate exclusions or errors to fix.
What is an unfinished face?
An unfinished face is a surface of the part that did not receive a finishing toolpath from CAM Assist – meaning it’s left in a rough or semi-finished state after the CAM Assist operations. This typically happens if CAM Assist generated roughing or rest-roughing on that area but, for some reason, didn’t apply a finishing pass. Unfinished faces could occur due to strategy choices (perhaps CAM Assist thought a face was already to size, or it missed it) or because Finish full part was turned off and the face wasn’t selected for finishing. It’s basically a face that should be finished to meet surface quality or dimension, but the output doesn’t include a finish toolpath for it. (Note: In CloudNC’s context, they might formally define an “unfinished face” as one that CAM Assist didn’t address to final spec, likely highlighting it for the user to review.)
Why are unfinished faces important in CAM Assist?
Finding out if any faces are unfinished is critical to ensure the part comes out complete. If you assume everything is finished and take the part out only to find a wall still has excess stock or a floor is rough, that’s a problem. CAM Assist identifying or leaving faces as unfinished gives you a chance to handle them: either by adding a finishing op manually or adjusting CAM Assist inputs to include them. For instance, if a face remained unfinished because you didn’t select it when Machine full part was off, you simply need to include it and regenerate. Or if it’s unfinished because of an approach issue (e.g., an angle that wasn’t captured by finishing due to a threshold angle), you might adjust some setting or realize you need to tilt the part more (for better normal). Also, “unfinished” could be by design: maybe you told CAM Assist not to finish certain faces if they were already good (pre-finished from stock or they’ll be ground later). In that case, it’s fine. But you want to consciously know which faces those are. Essentially, it’s a checklist item – any unfinished face is either an error to fix or a deliberate exclusion. CAM Assist’s goal is to minimize them, but when they occur, it’s beneficial that it’s clear to the user so nothing slips through.
Where are unfinished faces found in CAM Assist?
Unfinished faces can be identified in CAM Assist in the Analyze phase after you have run the Prepare phase. Our Analyze phase will show the number of unfinished faces following your run of CAM Assist, and also highlight those on the model so you can easily identify them on your part.
How else could unfinished faces be known as in CAM Assist?
- Untouched face (in finishing context)
- Remaining stock face
- Unfinished surface (meaning not brought to final spec)
Related articles to unfinished faces
- What causes CAM Assist to not finish certain faces? (discusses reasons for unfinished faces)
- What is finish full part? (if off, can lead to intentionally unfinished faces you must select)
- What is a pre-finished surface? (surfaces intentionally left finished from previous ops, which CAM Assist
then doesn’t machine – could be considered “unfinished by CAM Assist” but already done)