Hold the part down with tabs

The last pass of an outside profile cuts the part free of the sheet, and a free part can shift, catch on the cutter or be thrown. Tabs are small bridges left uncut so the part stays attached until the job is finished. RapidCAM can add them to a profile, and it will tell you if the ones you asked for would not hold. This guide adds them, shows what a tab really leaves, and shows what the warnings look like.

Open RapidCAMNothing to install, no account.

Add the profile, and cut all the way through
Draw or import the part (an 80 × 50 mm rectangle here, on a 100 × 60 × 10 mm blank), select it, and open the Toolpaths tab. Press + Add Toolpath and set Type to Profile (outside): it cuts around the shape with the tool on the outside of the line, so the part keeps the size you drew. The steps for a whole job are in From an SVG to G-code.
A new toolpath’s Depth starts at 3 mm, which is not through a 10 mm blank. Press ⊥ stock beside it, which sets the depth to the material thickness (the field reads -stock). A tab only means something on a cut that goes through.
Turn tabs on
Tabs are off until you ask. In the Tabs / Bridges section, tick Enable tabs. For the default 6 mm end mill you get four tabs, 10 mm wide and 2 mm high, placed by count (change Tabs by to By spacing to put one every so many millimetres instead).
Tabs on: four tabs, 10 mm wide, 2 mm high. The blue line says what that leaves.
Know what a tab really leaves
The blue line under Tab width is the one to read: leaves a 4.00 mm tab (the ø6.00 mm tool cuts the rest away). Tab width is the stretch of the outline where the cutter rides up over the bridge, and the cutter takes half its own diameter off each end of it. What stands is the width minus the tool diameter: 10 − 6 = 4 mm.
That is why a tab narrower than the tool leaves nothing. Set the width to 4 mm with this cutter and the line turns red and says so, and the export check refuses it as well:
A 4 mm tab with a 6 mm cutter: no tab remains.
The export check’s wording is: a 4mm tab cut with a ø6mm tool leaves nothing standing — the cutter takes half its diameter off each end, so the tab has to be WIDER than the tool. Nothing will hold the part on the last pass. It is an error, not a warning, so the export button changes to Export anyway.
Look at them, then at the program
Press 3D to see the cut. Drag in the 3D view to tilt it until you are looking down into the groove, and the tabs show as the four pale bridges across it.
Four bridges across the groove, one on each side.
In the G-code, each tab is a short stretch where the cutter rises from the bottom of the cut and comes back down. This is the front edge of the last pass: the cutter is at the full depth of -10, rises to -8 for 10 mm of travel (the 2 mm tab height), and drops again.
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G1 X62.5 Y2 F1000
G1 Z-8 F300
G1 X52.5 Y2 F1000
G1 Z-10 F300
G1 X7 Y2 F1000
```
If you forget to cut through, the export check says so: with tabs on and a 3 mm cut into 10 mm stock it reports that the part is never cut free and the tabs hold nothing, and asks for a depth of at least 10 mm.
After the cut
The part comes off the machine held by its tabs. Free it by cutting through each bridge (a sharp chisel or a flush-cut saw) and sand the stub flat. Tabs hold the part to the sheet only: the sheet still has to be held to the machine, with clamps, screws into the spoilboard or tape, and you should stay with the machine while it cuts.

Open RapidCAM Before you cut: set your zero

Checked against RapidCAM on 2026-10-05. If something here no longer matches what you see, the app has changed and this guide is behind: please tell us.

Hold the part down with tabs

Add the profile, and cut all the way through

Turn tabs on

Know what a tab really leaves

Look at them, then at the program

After the cut

Keep going

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