Spiral toolpaths for high-speed machining of polygonal pockets
AssigneeAutodesk, Inc.
InventorMikkel Abrahamsen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method, apparatus, and computer program product provide the ability to construct a spiral toolpath for machining solid material. A polygon with a polygonal hole in an interior is obtained. A Voronoi diagram of a set of line segments is obtained and modified to provide a modified Voronoi diagram (VD) having a cycle with one or more trees growing out. For each of the trees, a wave model is defined for a wave that starts at time t=0 on leaves on a boundary of the hole and moves through the tree to hit leaves on a boundary of the polygon at time t=1. A polyline spiral curve toolpath is created by travelling around the wave as it moves towards the boundary of the polygon. A pocket is milled in a solid piece of material by following the polyline spiral curve toolpath.
Claims24
A computer-implemented method for constructing a spiral toolpath for machining solid material, comprising:
- obtaining a polygon P with a polygonal hole H in an interior of P;
- obtaining a Voronoi diagram of a set of line segments of P and H;
- modifying the Voronoi diagram to provide a modified Voronoi diagram (VD), wherein the VD comprises a cycle C having one or more trees growing out from C;
- for each of the one or more trees, defining a wave model for a wave that starts at time t=0 on leaves on a boundary of H and moves through the tree to hit leaves on a boundary of P at time t=1;
- creating a polyline spiral curve toolpath by travelling around the wave as it moves towards the boundary of P;
- and
- milling a pocket in a solid piece of material by following the polyline spiral curve toolpath.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with computer program instructions which when accessed by a computer cause the computer to load the program instructions to a memory therein creating a special purpose data structure causing the computer to operate as a specially programmed computer, executing a method of constructing a spiral toolpath for machining solid material, comprising:
- obtaining, in the specially programmed computer, a polygon P with a polygonal hole H in an interior of P;
- obtaining, in the specially programmed computer, a Voronoi diagram of a set of line segments of P and H;
- modifying, in the specially programmed computer, the Voronoi diagram to provide a modified Voronoi diagram (VD), wherein the VD comprises a cycle C having one or more trees growing out from C;
- for each of the one or more trees, defining, in the specially programmed computer, a wave model for a wave that starts at time t=0 on leaves on a boundary of H and moves through the tree to hit leaves on a boundary of P at time t=1;
- creating, in the specially programmed computer, a polyline spiral curve toolpath by travelling around the wave as it moves towards the boundary of P;
- and
- milling, via the specially programmed computer, a pocket in a solid piece of material by following the polyline spiral curve toolpath.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.