Trajectory Smoothing for STL Files
Attempting to cut surface tangents directly from an STL file results in
excessive motion. The figure below is a single layer from a stylized model
of a human head. It shows remnants of the STL facets. If the cutting table
is commanded to interpolate between each segment along the slice, two problems
occur:
-
pivoting about a single point results in laser dwell time about that point
-
the commanded motion contains frequent changes in direction
The solution is to smooth the slice to provide a smooth trajectory for
the 5-axis cutting table. The top and bottom contours still follow the
exact contours at the respective cross-sectional heights to maintain continuity
with adjacent layers. However, the orientation of the tangent vector is
smoothed to minimize unnecessary stage movement.
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