Automatic extraction of vertices coordinates for CNC code generation for dental wire bending

Abstract

This paper reports a new methodology for an automatic extraction of vertices coordinates from a dental wire CAD model in an initial graphics exchange specification (IGES) file format for CNC bending code generation. It has two main components, the first one deals with IGES feature extraction and the second one deals with autonomous CNC code generation based on the Cartesian coordinates using various mathematical formulae. The procedure is carried out in MATLAB environment through some developed functions to support wire design technique in CAD by means of 3D line segmentation. In this approach, the digital design of the wire is constructed from multiple 3D line segments in reference to the 3D teeth scan image (STL file). The developed methodology has three steps consisting of an IGES model pre-processing, automated coordinate extraction and CNC bending code generation. The developed methodology is limited to the CAD design through multiple line segments and has been verified with a case study.