Patent ID: 8560113

Claim:
An automated method for generating a tool path for milling a region of a workpiece with a milling cutter, the region comprising a first side, a second side and a third side, the method comprising the steps of: generating with a processor a first arc having a corresponding in-process material boundary which intersects the first side and which is tangent to the second side and to the third side; generating with the processor a succession of one or more second arcs, each one of which being characterized by: (1) having a corresponding in-process material boundary which intersects the first side, (2) being parallel to the first arc, and (3) progressing by a corresponding first predetermined value from the first arc toward the first side until the in-process material boundary corresponding to one of the second arcs has a maximum distance from the first side that is less than the first predetermined value; and thereafter generating with the processor a succession of transition passes connecting each one of the second arcs, end to end, with the first arc to form the tool path.