Surface operations
Last updated: · By: the moducut team
Surface operations are CNC jobs such as grooves, holes and joint lines cut into a part’s face, plus the radii given to its corners. In moducut these operations are added in the Surface Operations window and go straight into nesting and the G-code.
Short answer
Opening the window
- Carcass part. Open the module in design mode, right-click the part and choose Surface Operations.
- Single part. In the Single Part workspace, Surface Operations is open next to the part’s drawing.
The window has the Operation List on the left, the part’s face in the middle and the operation settings on the right.
Operation types
- Grooves. Groove, LED channel, Joint line and Frame groove.
- Holes. Rectangular hole and Round hole.
- Part corners. A radius is applied to the selected corner or to all corners; Remove radii deletes them all.
Adding an operation
- Choose the operation type; the Grooves and Holes menus list the types.
- Click the center of the operation on the part drawing in the middle.
- In the Properties section, enter the Face Selection (face A or B), Direction (Horizontal or Vertical), Length (Full length to run along the part), Width and Depth.
- Press Apply. The operation is added to the Operation List on the left; Cancel closes the form.
- To remove an operation, select it in the list and press Delete Selected. Undo and Redo undo or redo steps inside the window.
For joint lines, Distribute evenly, and for positioning, the Center horizontally and Center vertically buttons make the work easier; Duplicate copies the selected operation. The drawing area has Zoom in, Zoom out and Fit buttons; Shortcuts (?) lists the window’s keys.
Where do operations go?
Every operation you add is written to the carcass right away and can be undone. The operation carries over to the cut part as grooves, holes and outline: it appears in nesting when the part is laid out on the sheet and goes into the G-code. Blind holes and grooves on face B are separated into a back-side program. Corner radii change the part’s outline and are applied in the outer cut.
The part’s 2D drawing
When you right-click a part and choose Show 2D Drawing, the part’s face opens at its cutting size: edges are shown with their names and dimensions, banded edges with a thick red line, holes with a red dot and grooves with depth and width labels. Switch faces to look at the other side. Parts not sent to cutting are drawn too.
Frequently asked questions
If you changed the part after nesting, redo Nesting before getting the G-code. When exporting G-code, moducut also checks whether the holes on the sheet match the current model and asks for confirmation if they do not.
For holes and grooves on face B, moducut prepares a separate back-side program. You flip the part over its long edge and push it against the machine’s zero corner; the instructions are written at the start of the program.
The cut list gives the size and banding information; operations are in the part’s CNC program. You can check a part’s operations with Show 2D Drawing.
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