Sood, SumitDuvedi, Ravinder KumarBedi, SanjeevMann, Stephen2018-08-132018-08-132018-01-01https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2018.07.001http://hdl.handle.net/10012/13577First published by Elsevier, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2018.07.001 © 2018. This open-access article is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/In this paper a new paradigm for CNC carving of digital images in the form of lookalike three-dimensional (3D) surfaces on wooden or metallic plaques is discussed. This work is focused on development of a single page windows based console application for conversion of a two-dimensional (2D) digital image into a 3D freeform surface representation in the form of a point cloud data and STL format. Subsequently, the 3D surface data is then used for generating an efficient toolpath data for 3-axis CNC finish machining using a ball end mill tool. The results from the developed algorithm are validated using a machining simulation in the virtual environment of an Open-GL based 3D graphical simulator ToolSim [1].enAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/2D image3D surfaceCNC MachiningPoint cloud dataSTLToolpathArticle