Objective is to rethink the conventional way of generating toolpaths for CNC milling. To improve machining efficiency, reveal the aesthetic potential of the cutting process and to demonstrate its ability to serve the design in an elegant manner.
Isocurves approach.
A possible way to generate tool paths is to follow the isocurves of the NURBS geometry and change their density until aiming the desired degree of finishing. Major limitation of this approach is that the toolpaths are depending of the isocurves that are themselves by nature depending of the shape. Moreover as the density of the paths sticks to the UV density in some situation it is needed to over produce toolpaths to get the minimum distance required for milling. Control is therefore limited and constrained and the machining time quite time consuming.
Iterpolate
Aim of this second approach is to remedy the limitation mentioned above. Toolpaths curve are interpolated on NURBS surface allowing more freedom in the design compared to the isocurve strategy. On top of the interpolation process toolpaths are iteratively generated until a predefined distance between paths is aimed. Interpolation + Iteration becomes “Iterpolation”.