Patent ID: 8239284

Claim:
A method of automated, custom manufacture of a part, the method comprising: creating a collection of stored information of material removal steps to transform a block of material into a custom part; receiving a CAD file over a global communications network from a customer for the part, the CAD file defining a part surface profile; processing the received CAD file to identify and locate discrete portions of the part surface profile, each discrete portion corresponding to one material removal step from within the collection of stored information, wherein the identified discrete portions of the part surface profile include at least a first discrete portion accessed from a first side of the block of material by a CNC machine and a second discrete portion accessed from a second side of the block of material by the CNC machine after the block of material has been reoriented relative to the CNC machine; generating a quotation based upon the identified and located material removal steps; and transmitting the generated quotation to the customer over the global communications network.