Using Interactive Feature Recognition efficiently:
When programming parts that consist of multiple features, you can use the 'Face selection' filter to identify the features quickly.

The part shown below is a muffin mold which would primarily be machined using 3-axis. However, there are areas, such as around the base of each muffin mold, which are more efficient to machine with a 2-axis feature and operation. Because this is 3-axis shape part AFR will not find these bosses.

To insert the features using IFR:
In the Feature Wizard, set the Feature Type to 'Boss' and select to create 'Multiple' features rather than a 'Single'.
Under the Face selection filter, select the option 'Inner loops'.



Simply pick the bottom face of the part (where the boss meets/intersects with the face) and CAMWorks will pick all the 'Inner loops' automatically.

In this case, the Boss features are exactly the same; however, this filter will function the same if the Boss features are not geometrically the same.

The 'Inner loops' filter, also applies to the following Feature types:

• Pocket
• Slot
• Corner Slot
• Hole
• Engrave Feature
• Curve Feature

One last item to keep in mind, if you have a part that contains 1000+ features of the same type, running AFR will take more time to analyze the features than using the IFR function. So in some cases, it may be quicker to use the IFR function and insert the features interactively.