(2) Direct slicing for obtaining process path data The SolidWorks application programming interface (API) contains hundreds of functions which can be called from Visual C++ 6.0 to automate and customize the SolidWorks software. Among these functions, some of the geometry-related and topology-related APIs can get the surface-surface intersection or curve-curve intersection, which can be used to obtain the data of section contours. The data would be progressed by adopted algorithms to obtain laser re-manufacturing robot path data which is saved to special file. (