Method and system for generating material remover cutting paths for a machine tool

A processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry arranged to generate a plurality of cutting paths for a material remover of a machine tool, wherein the machine tool executes the cutting paths causing at least a portion of an article to be manufactured, the processing circuitry further arranged to:

• a) assess a model of the article to be manufactured and generating a set of offsets based on a stepover from the perimeter of the article to be manufactured;
• b) create, for each of the offsets, a subset of the cutting paths based upon each offset with each cutting path within the subset being separated from a neighboring cutting path within the subset by substantially the stepover, wherein at least a portion of a first cutting path in one of the subsets has a stepover that is of greater distance than another stepover to the last cutting path in a previous subset;
• c) join cutting paths from within a subset at each corner region to form complete cutting paths that cause a material remover of the machine tool to move between corner regions;
• and
• d) create backfill cutting paths that are used to remove the material from between subsets of the cutting paths in the portion of the first cutting path in one of the subsets has a stepover that is of greater distance than the other stepover to the last cutting path in a previous subset.

A method of generating a plurality of cutting paths for a material remover of a machine tool, wherein the machine tool executes the cutting paths causing at least a portion of an article to be manufactured, the method comprising:

• a) generating the plurality of cutting paths comprising a plurality of subsets of cutting paths, wherein each of the plurality of subsets is generated based on a respective offset from a perimeter of the article to be manufactured, wherein the offset is based on a stepover, each cutting path within each subset is separated from a neighboring cutting path within the subset by substantially a predetermined stepover, wherein at least a portion of a first cutting path in one of the subsets has a stepover that is of greater distance than another stepover to a last cutting path in a previous subset;
• b) assessing curved portions of a current cutting path to be machined in the plurality of cutting paths to determine whether the angle of engagement between the material remover and the material to be machined is above a predetermined angle as the material remover passes around the current cutting path;
• and
• c) if the angle of engagement is predicted to fall above the predetermined angle then increasing the radius of a corresponding curved portion of a preceding cutting path such that the angle of engagement of the current cutting path remains below the predetermined angle.

A processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry arranged to generate a plurality of cutting paths for a material remover of a machine tool, wherein the machine tool executes the cutting paths causing at least a portion of an article to be manufactured, the processing circuitry further arranged to:

• a) generate the plurality of cutting paths comprising a plurality of subsets of cutting paths to be machined, wherein each of the plurality of subsets is generated based on a respective offset from a perimeter of the article to be manufactured, wherein the offset is based on a stepover, wherein each cutting path within each subset is separated from a neighboring cutting path within the subset by substantially a predetermined stepover, wherein at least a portion of a first cutting path in one of the subsets has a stepover that is of greater distance than another stepover to a last cutting path in a previous subset;
• b) assess curved portions of the plurality of cutting paths to determine whether the angle of engagement between a material remover of machine tool performing the cutting paths and the material to be machined is above a predetermined angle as the material remover passes around a current cutting path;
• and
• c) if the angle of engagement is predicted to fall above the predetermined angle then the processing circuitry being arranged to increase the radius of a corresponding curved portion of a preceding cutting path such that the angle of engagement of the current cutting path remains below the predetermined angle.