Patent ID: 6897869

Claim:
A method for filling a polygon with a minimum number of rectangles, comprising: bordering said polygon, including: calculating a maximum current polygon border width including adjusting a maximum stripe width input parameter to a new upper limit which reflects characteristics of a current polygon as well as any previous border polygons by calculating the length of each side of said current polygon; deriving a smallest side length parameter equal to the larger of (1) a first factor times said minimum stripe width or (2) the length of the shortest side obtained from said calculating length; setting said smallest side length parameter from said deriving to a reduced amount by a second factor; if said current polygon is an inner border and said smallest side length parameter is less than the previous border width, setting said smallest side length equal to said previous border width; if said smallest side length parameter is greater than said maximum stripe width parameter, setting said smallest side length parameter equal to said maximum strip width parameter; and returning said smallest side length parameter for processing as said maximum current polygon border width parameter; merging border segments where possible; and then orthogonally filling.