Layered manufacturing(LM) is emerging as a new technology that enables the fabrication of three dimensional heterogeneous objects such as Multi-materials and Functionally Gradient Materials (FGMs). Among various types of heterogeneous objects, more attention has recently paid on the fabrication of FGMs because of their potentials in engineering applications. The necessary steps for LM fabrication of FGMs include representation and process planning of material information inside an FGM. This paper introduces a new process planning algorithm that takes into account the processing of material information. The detailed tasks are discretization (i.e., decomposition-based approximation of volume fraction), orientation (build direction selection), and adaptive slicing of heterogeneous objects. In particular, this paper focuses on the discretization process that converts all of the material information inside an FGM into material features like geometric features. It is thus possible to choose an optimal build direction among various pre-selected ones by approximately estimating build time. This is because total build time depends on the complexity of features. This discretization process also allows adaptive slicing of heterogeneous objects to minimize surface finish and material composition error. In addition, tool path planning can be simplified into fill pattern generation. Specific examples are shown to illustrate the overall procedure.