A geometric approach to boundary-conformed toolpath generation

Isoparametric or streamline-like toolpath generation is an important method for CNC surface machining. For a trimmed surface, the generation of such a toolpath is not straightforward because by simply following the isoparametric curves of the parametric surface to generate the toolpath, the resulting toolpath may no longer conform to the trimmed boundary of the surface. Various methods have been proposed to solve this problem. Some methods work well for single surface machining, but may not be feasible for multi-patch surface machining. A new geometric approach to the problem of multi-patch machining is proposed in this paper. The new method works by generating bisectors to partition the region into smaller subregions, and generates the toolpath by offsetting the subregion boundary by using a special offset function. As this new method does not rely on processing on the parametric domain of the surface patches, it can be used for both NURBS and subdivision surfaces. Examples are given to demonstrate the capability of the new method, and to show that the new method compares favorably with existing techniques. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.