METHOD FOR GENERATING AND BUILDING SUPPORT STRUCTURES WITH DEPOSITION-BASED DIGITAL MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

• US 20110178621A1
• Filed: 01/15/2010
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stratasys Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Stratasys Incorporated
• Inventors: Heide, Erik K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,983,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/98
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/106 using only liquids or viscous materials, e.g. depositing a continuous bead of viscous material
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/118 using filamentary material being melted, e.g. fused deposition modelling [FDM]
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/386 Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/40 Structures for supporting 3D objects during manufacture and intended to be sacrificed after completion thereof
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 50/02 for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]

Abstract

A method for generating data for a support structure to be built with a deposition-based digital manufacturing system, the method comprising generating a convex hull polygon based on a boundary polygon of a layer of the support structure, offsetting the convex hull polygon inward, offsetting the boundary polygon outward, and generating an intersection boundary polygon based at least in part on the offset boundary polygon and the offset convex hull polygon.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating data for a support structure to be built with a deposition-based digital manufacturing system, the method comprising:

providing a boundary polygon of a layer of the support structure;

generating a convex hull polygon based on the boundary polygon;

offsetting the convex hull polygon inward;

offsetting the boundary polygon outward; and

generating an intersection boundary polygon based at least in part on the offset boundary polygon and the offset convex hull polygon.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein offsetting the convex hull polygon inward comprises offsetting the convex hull polygon inward by a distance that includes up to about 50% of a road width for building the support structure with the deposition-based digital manufacturing system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein offsetting the boundary polygon outward comprises offsetting the boundary polygon outward by a distance that includes up to about 50% of a road width for building the support structure with the deposition-based digital manufacturing system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the layer of the support structure further includes an inner boundary polygon, and wherein the method further comprises offsetting the inner boundary polygon inward.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the layer of the support structure further includes an inner boundary polygon, and wherein the method further comprises generating a safety zone polygon at a location that is offset outward from the inner boundary polygon.

6. The method of claim 5, and further comprising uniting the generated intersection boundary polygon with the safety zone polygon.

7. The method of claim 1, and further comprising comparing an area of the offset boundary polygon to a minimum area threshold.

8. A computer-implemented method for generating data for a support structure to be built with a deposition-based digital manufacturing system, the method comprising:

providing vertices defining a boundary polygon for a layer of the support structure;

generating vertices of a convex hull polygon based on the vertices of the boundary polygon;

offsetting the vertices of the convex hull polygon inward to provide an offset convex hull polygon;

offsetting the vertices of the boundary polygon outward to provide an offset boundary polygon; and

generating an intersection boundary polygon having vertices, wherein at least a portion of the vertices of the intersection boundary polygon are selected from the group consisting of a vertex that is located at an intersection of the offset boundary polygon and the offset convex hull polygon, a vertex of the offset boundary polygon located inside of the offset convex hull polygon, a vertex of the offset convex hull polygon located inside of the offset boundary polygon, and combinations thereof.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the vertices of the convex hull polygon are offset inward by a distance up to about 50% of a road width for building the support structure with the deposition-based digital manufacturing system.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the boundary polygon is a first boundary polygon, and wherein the method further comprises:

generating vertices defining a second boundary polygon for the layer of the support structure; and

offsetting the second boundary polygon inward.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the boundary polygon is a first boundary polygon, and wherein the method further comprises:

generating vertices defining a second boundary polygon for the layer of the support structure; and

generating vertices of a safety zone polygon that are offset outward from the second boundary polygon.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the vertices of the intersection boundary polygon is selected from the group consisting of a vertex that is located at an intersection of the offset boundary polygon and the safety zone polygon, a vertex of the safety zone polygon located inside of the offset boundary polygon, and combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the generated vertices of the safety zone polygon are offset outward from the second boundary polygon by a distance that is based at least in part of a road width for building the support structure with the deposition-based digital manufacturing system.

14. The method of claim 8, and further comprising generating a tool path based at least in part on the intersection boundary polygon.

15. A method for building a support structure with a deposition-based digital manufacturing system, the method comprising:

generating a convex hull polygon based on a boundary polygon for each of a plurality of layers of the support structure;

offsetting the convex hull polygon inward for each of the plurality of layers;

offsetting the boundary polygon outward for each of the plurality of layers;

generating an insert boundary polygon for each of the plurality of layers based at least in part on the offset boundary polygon and the offset convex hull; and

generating a tool path for each of the plurality of layers based at least in part on the insert boundary polygon;

transmitting the generated tool paths to the deposition-based digital manufacturing system; and

building the support structure based at least in part on the transmitted tool paths, wherein the support structure has substantially convex dimensions.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the convex hull polygon is offset inward for each of the plurality of layers by a distance that includes up to about 50% of a road width used to build the support structure with the deposition-based digital manufacturing system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the distance ranges from about 15% of the road width to about 45% of the road width.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein at least one of the layers further includes an inner boundary polygon, and wherein the method further comprises generating a safety zone polygon offset from the inner boundary polygon in an outward direction.

19. The method of claim 18, and further comprising uniting at least one of the offset boundary polygons with the safety zone polygon.

20. The method of claim 15, and further comprising comparing an area of the offset boundary polygon to a minimum area threshold for at least a portion of the layers.