Pocket milling is a widely used machining operation and used in a wide variety of applications. Using traditional zigzag milling strategy during rough milling operations, often requires several retraction or non-cutting repositioning moves, leading to poor cutting efficiency. In this paper we describe a geometric algorithm for generating cutter paths by using a modified zigzag milling strategy that attempts to minimize tool retractions and non-cutting repositioning moves. Several examples are used in the paper to show the advantage of our algorithm over traditional zigzag milling operations in rough milling of complex pockets.
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