There are two alternative versions of this advanced workflow, one that uses fully automated costing and one that uses semi-automated costing.

Semi-automated costing is for more experienced users, and is restricted to the 3-Axis Mill process. During semi-automated costing, aPriori is less aggressive in attempting to assign operations to GCDs, which sometimes results in only partial costing of the current part, especially in earlier iterations of the workflow. Semi-automated costing automatically assigns only relatively easy-to-perform, efficient operations to each GCD, using only principal and user-activated setup axes (see Working with Part Setups and SetupAxis GCDs).

GCDs that can’t be assigned an operation under these constraints are not costed and are classified as features to review (they are assigned to the special classification, Features to Review in the Manufacturing Process pane). For example, aPriori does not assign contouring to large surfaces during semi-automated costing (where the large-surface threshold can be specified by a process setup option). A surface too large for contouring is assigned to Features to Review.

Features to Review serves as a to-do list for achieving full costing. For each feature to review; you must take action, either by manually assigning an operation to the feature, or by modifying setup options, setup axes, or part geometry in order to make an operation feasible for auto-assignment.

During fully automated costing, aPriori aggressively tries to assign operations to each GCD, even if it means using relatively more setup axes and assigning relatively difficult, less efficient operations. In this mode, GCDs that cannot be otherwise assigned a finishing operation are assigned General Mill Finishing.