I am just starting to use the Mill Wizard on my converted Emco PC Mill 50 and have a couple of questions.

The original manual for the machine states, "Max Feed Force up to 500 mm per minute and Operating Feed/Rapid Feed up to 750 mm per minute". So firstly is the machine limit max, based on the max feed force or Operating Feed/Rapid Feed? Secondly is this entered as mm per minute or Feet per Minute?

In Cutting strategies, what is the difference between Z Step and ramp in Z ?

Just notice I got the terminology wrong. I am refering to the Machine Max Settings in  the config menu. It asks for Max Spindle Speed, Max Feed Rate and Max Plunge Rate.

Spindle speed I have, Just need to know if the Max Feed Rate and Max Plunge Rate are in Feet per Inch and if they refer to feedrate or rapids

The wizards Machine max values should be set to the max speed you want the wizard to use. When a feed rate, or RPM is calculated it will be tested against this value, and limited to the machine max.

The code does not test the units of the machine max values. Of course, RPM doesnt matter, but Feed and Plunge are simply tested for the calculated value to be less than the max value, ignoring units. So if all your work is in metric, make your machine max values metric.

If you mix units this is going to cause some strange results.

Zstep specifies the amount the tool will move down for each pass, when the job cannot reach full depth in one pass- for example, if you want a pocket 1 inch deep you might set Zstep to be .1 inch, so it will take 10 passes to complete the job.

ramp refers to how the tool makes its move from one pass to the next- in the example of the .1" step if a ramp value is set the tool will ramp down the .1 inch move moving along the direction of the first cut, or following a helix down at that angle in pocket cuts. A plunge cut will push the tool straight down in Z with no X or Y movement. Plunge is usually hard on tools and machines, ramping into a cut is much smoother.

Thanks Ron, all makes perfect sence now,