Toolpathing adapted for 3D surfaces ?

[yvanblanchard]

Hello,

Do you think your toolpath code would be easily adapted for 3D surfaces ? For example, for computing (curves) offsets, we could use geodesics heat method, etc.

[WangY18]

Hello, thanks for your issue! The NEPath toolpath package is able to plan toolpaths by offsetting the outer boundary of a 2D planar. Therefore, if we can transform the toolpath planning problem for 3D surfaces into a curve offsetting problem where the offset direction of every point is specified, the NEPath package can be applied.

In fact, we used to consider toolpath planning for 3D surfaces as a future work. An idea is as follows:

• Use some slice methods to obtain a bounded 3D surface $M\subset\mathbb{R}^3$, whose outer boundary is denoted as $H$ (a close 3D curve).
• $\forall \boldsymbol{x}\in H$, the offset direction at $\boldsymbol{x}$ can be specified as the geodesic of $\boldsymbol{x}$ along $M$.
• The URC method (details in my paper on RCIM) can be applied with a modified radius.
• Thus, the code can be applied for 3D printing toolpath planning of 3D surfaces.

Another idea, which is more popular in non-planar 3D printing, is:

• Map the 3D surface into a 2D planar first.
• Apply our code on the 2D slice and obtain 2D toolpaths.
• Map the 2D planar with 2D toolpaths back to the 3D surface.

Thanks for your issue. Please contact me if you have any question or suggestion.