Patent ID: 7149668

Claim:
A method for simulating a workpiece contour in a simulated milling operation, comprising the steps of: defining a coordinate system in three-dimensional space; modeling a blank workpiece in the three-dimensional space with a family of mutually parallel straight lines aligned with an axis of the coordinate system, defining a milling path and enclosing the family of straight lines with a rectangle, which rectangle bounds a predetermined milling path determined as a function of cutter positions and a radius of a spherical cutting tool; cutting the family of straight lines with the virtual spherical cutting tool along the predetermined milling path within the rectangle, said cutting producing swept volumes in form of partial volumes, wherein the partial volumes have the form of two spheres or hemispheres, which are connected by an additional partial volume in the form of a cylinder aligned with the milling path, wherein the spheres or the hemispheres as well as the connecting cylinder each have a dimension corresponding to a radius of the cutting tool; determining intersecting points of the straight lines separately for each of the partial volumes; and forming a surface grid by connecting the determined intersecting points, wherein the surface grid produces the workpiece contour.