FreeCAD: Pocket Up to Face vs Through All

In FreeCAD's PartDesign workbench, the Pocket tool subtracts material from an active body using a 2D sketch, with different termination types determining how deep the cut goes. The primary difference between "Through all" and "Up to face" is their termination boundary: "Through all" drives the subtraction entirely through the remaining geometry of the body regardless of thickness, whereas "Up to face" restricts the cut to terminate precisely at a user-selected planar or curved surface.

Pocket Through All

The "Through all" option creates a continuous cut that penetrates completely through the entire solid body in the direction of the sketch normal.

  • Behavior: It automatically calculates the maximum boundary of the solid and removes material from the sketch plane completely out through the opposite side.
  • Parametric Stability: It is highly stable against design changes. If the underlying solid's dimensions or thickness change later in the design tree, the pocket will automatically adjust its depth to ensure it still passes completely through the part.
  • Best Used For: Standard through-holes, mounting slots, and cutouts that must permanently pierce the entire thickness of a model without requiring a defined depth value.

Pocket Up to Face

The "Up to face" option requires the user to pick a target face on the solid body to act as the stopping boundary for the cut.

  • Behavior: The pocket projects from the sketch and stops as soon as it intersects the designated face. The floor of the resulting cut conforms to the shape of that target face, meaning it works on both flat and curved surfaces.
  • Parametric Stability: Because it relies on a reference to a specific face, it can be susceptible to FreeCAD's topological naming issues if upstream geometry changes cause the target face's internal ID to change.
  • Best Used For: Internal cavities, counterbores, and blind cutouts that must terminate at a specific wall or non-planar contour without cutting through subsequent features or external walls behind it.

Key Differences Summary

  • Reference Requirement: "Through all" requires no reference geometry, whereas "Up to face" requires manually selecting a target surface.
  • Cut Depth: "Through all" always cuts 100% through the model along its path; "Up to face" stops at an intermediate boundary.
  • Contour Matching: "Through all" terminates in open air outside the model, while "Up to face" can adopt the curved or angled profile of the terminating face.