Method and system for toolpath generation

1. A method for fabricating a part, the method comprising:

creating a toolpath for an additive metal wire deposition machine to fabricate the part using additive metal wire deposition, including:

exporting CAD defined 3-D geometry of the part to a slicing module; slicing the 3-D geometry of the part and creating a set of 2-D patterns representing the 3-D geometry of the part, wherein the set of 2-D patterns are a set of boundary contours;

generating vector code from the set of 2-D patterns, wherein the vector code comprises contour data that defines the toolpath;

and translating the vector code to machine code configured to execute in the additive metal wire deposition machine;

executing the machine code in the additive metal wire deposition machine; and

fabricating the part by additive metal wire deposition following the toolpath, using the machine code executed by the additive metal wire deposition machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the 3-D geometry of the part is stored in a CAD database.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the 3-D geometry of the part is exported in an STL file format.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of boundary contours is comprised of two types of boundary contours including Contours and Rasters.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the Contours dictate toolpaths to define boundaries of the geometry, and the Rasters dictate paths which deposit a bulk of the geometry's cross-section.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the machine code is in laser galvo commands and Z index commands or machine code.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the additive metal wire deposition includes depositing metal by gas tungsten arc welding.

8. A system for part fabrication, the system comprising:

a toolpath creation system for an additive metal wire deposition system, including:

a CAD database for storing 3-D geometry of a part;

a slicing module for receiving the 3-D geometry and slicing the 3-D geometry into a set of 2-D patterns, wherein the set of 2-D patterns are a set of boundary contours;

a toolpath generator for receiving the set of 2-D patterns and generating vector code from the 2-D patterns, wherein the vector code comprises contour data that defines a toolpath;

and a machine code translator for translating the vector code to machine code configured to execute in the additive metal wire deposition system; and the additive metal wire deposition system executes the machine code and fabricates the part following the toolpath, using the machine code.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the 3-D geometry is exported in an STL file format.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the set of boundary contours is comprised of two types of contours including Contours and Rasters.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the additive metal wire deposition system deposits metal by gas tungsten arc welding.

12. Computer-executable process steps stored on a computer-readable medium, the computer-executable process steps for a part fabrication, the computer-executable process steps executable to perform a method comprising:

creating a toolpath for fabricating the part in an additive metal wire deposition system, including:

exporting CAD defined 3-D geometry to a slicing module;

slicing the 3-D geometry creating a set of 2-D patterns representing the 3-D geometry, wherein the set of 2-D patterns are a set of boundary contours;

generating vector code from the set of 2-D patterns, wherein the vector code comprises contour data that defines the toolpath; and

translating the vector code to machine code configured to execute in the additive metal wire deposition system;

and executing the machine code in the additive metal wire deposition system to fabricate the part following the toolpath.

13. The computer executable process steps of claim 12 , wherein the CAD defined 3-D geometry is stored in a CAD database.

14. The computer executable process steps of claim 12 , wherein the 3-D geometry is exported in an STL file format.

15. The computer executable process steps of claim 12 , wherein the set of boundary contours is comprised of two types of contours including Contours and Rasters.

16. The computer executable process steps of claim 12 , wherein the machine code is in laser galvo commands and Z index commands or machine code.

17. The computer executable process steps of claim 12 , wherein the additive metal wire deposition includes depositing metal by gas tungsten arc welding.