AbstractCavity balancing is the process of altering the flow front within a cavity through thickness and design changes such that a desired fill pattern is achieved. This paper reports the preliminary research undertaken in developing an automated method for cavity balancing of two‐dimensional cavities. The aim of the automated cavity balancing routine is to reduce product development time and to improve product quality. This will lower the level of prerequisite expert knowledge necessary for successful mold and part design. The automated cavity balancing routine has been developed using the concept of flow paths. The hill‐climbing algorithm was employed on the cavity fill pattern for generation of the flow paths. Replacing the flow paths generated using the straight flow path assumption in previous work, this method was found to be more versatile and suitable to automation. No special considerations or routines were required to overcome the presence of inserts within the cavity. The method has been implemented in a computer program running as an external loop to the Moldflow software. The models analyzed demonstrate that the proposed method is viable and robust.