METHODS AND APPARATI FOR IMPLEMENTING PROGRAMMABLE PIPELINE FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING INCLUDING MULTI-MATERIAL APPLICATIONS
First Claim
1. A method for generating a volume discretized representation of at least one object, usable in connection with fabricating, by a 3DP method, at least one object that corresponds to the representation, at a specified printer resolution of volume elements, to be printed by the 3DP method, the method comprising:
- a. tessellating a boundary representation of the at least one object to produce a tessellated boundary representation comprising a set of micropolygons, the micropolygons having a size that matches the specified printer resolution;
b. evaluating, for the at least one object, a program module having a surface phase, which generates as an output a modified boundary representation, modified according to at least one procedural aspect of the surface phase; and
c. volume discretizing the modified boundary representation at the specified print resolution, to generate a volume discretized modified representation comprising volume elements.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A programmable pipeline for synthesis of multi-material 3D printed objects supports procedural evaluation of geometric detail and material composition, using program modules allowing models to be specified easily and efficiently. A streaming architecture enables only a small fraction of the final volume to be stored in memory. Output is fed to the printer with little startup delay. A variety of multi-material objects are described. Procedural control over surface and volume stages as well as dithering is provided, together or independent of each other.
117 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A method for generating a volume discretized representation of at least one object, usable in connection with fabricating, by a 3DP method, at least one object that corresponds to the representation, at a specified printer resolution of volume elements, to be printed by the 3DP method, the method comprising:
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a. tessellating a boundary representation of the at least one object to produce a tessellated boundary representation comprising a set of micropolygons, the micropolygons having a size that matches the specified printer resolution; b. evaluating, for the at least one object, a program module having a surface phase, which generates as an output a modified boundary representation, modified according to at least one procedural aspect of the surface phase; and c. volume discretizing the modified boundary representation at the specified print resolution, to generate a volume discretized modified representation comprising volume elements. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for fabricating by a 3D printing method at least one object, described in a fabrication graph, the 3D printing method having a build direction, the at least one objects being arranged along the build direction in the fabrication graph, the method comprising:
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a. sorting the at least one objects in the build direction; b. partitioning the at least one object into a plurality of slab portions arranged in order along the build direction from a first slab to a last slab; c. for each slab, beginning with the first and ending with the last, conducting the steps of; i. identifying all objects of which a portion of the object is within the slab; and ii. for each object, conducting the steps of; A. tessellating the object; B. executing a surface fablet program module on the tessellated object; C. volume discretizing the tessellated object to produce a representation characterized by volume elements; and D. executing a volume fablet program module on the volume discretized object. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. An apparatus for generating a volume discretized representation of at least one object, usable in connection with fabricating, by a 3DP method, at least one object that corresponds to the representation, at a specified printer resolution of volume elements, to be printed by the 3DP method, the apparatus comprising:
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a. a tesselator configured to tessellate a boundary representation of the at least one object to produce a tessellated boundary representation comprising a set of micropolygons, the micropolygons having a size that matches the specified printer resolution; b. a surface stage processor, configured to evaluate, a program module having a surface phase, which generates as an output a modified boundary representation, modified according to at least one procedural aspect of the surface phase; and c. a volume discretizer, configured to discretize the modified boundary representation at the specified print resolution, to generate a volume discretized modified representation of volume elements. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A computer program product for generating a volume discretized representation of at least one object, usable in connection with fabricating, by a 3DP method, at least one object that corresponds to the representation, at a specified printer resolution of volume elements, to be printed by the 3DP method, the computer program product comprising computer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps comprising:
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a. tessellating a boundary representation of the at least one object to produce a tessellated boundary representation comprising a set of micropolygons, the micropolygons having a size that matches the specified printer resolution; b. evaluating, for the at least one object, a program module having a surface phase, which generates as an output a modified boundary representation, modified according to at least one procedural aspect of the surface phase; and c. volume discretizing the modified boundary representation at the specified print resolution, to generate a volume discretized modified representation comprising volume elements. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A computer program product for fabricating by a 3D printing method at least one object, described in a fabrication graph, the 3D printing method having a build direction, the at least one objects being arranged along the build direction in the fabrication graph, the method comprising:
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a. sorting the at least one objects in the build direction; b. partitioning the at least one object into a plurality of slab portions arranged in order along the build direction from a first slab to a last slab; c. for each slab, beginning with the first and ending with the last, conducting the steps of; i. identifying all objects of which a portion of the object is within the slab; and ii. for each object, conducting the steps of; A. tessellating the object; B. executing a surface fablet program module on the tessellated object; C. volume discretizing the tessellated object to produce a representation characterized by volume elements; and D. executing a volume fablet program module on the volume discretized object. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
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35. In a computer system, a method for generating a volume discretized representation of at least one object, usable in connection with fabricating, by a 3DP method, at least one object that corresponds to the representation, at a specified printer resolution of volume elements, to be printed by the 3DP method, the method comprising:
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a. tessellating a boundary representation of the at least one object to produce a tessellated boundary representation comprising a set of micropolygons, the micropolygons having a size that matches the specified printer resolution; b. evaluating, for the at least one object, a program module having a surface phase, which generates as an output a modified boundary representation, modified according to at least one procedural aspect of the surface phase; and c. volume discretizing the modified boundary representation at the specified print resolution, to generate a volume discretized modified representation comprising volume elements. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37)
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38. In a computer system a method for fabricating by a 3D printing method at least one object, described in a fabrication graph, the 3D printing method having a build direction, the at least one objects being arranged along the build direction in the fabrication graph, the method comprising:
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a. sorting the at least one objects in the build direction; b. partitioning the at least one object into a plurality of slab portions arranged in order along the build direction from a first slab to a last slab; c. for each slab, beginning with the first and ending with the last, conducting the steps of; i. identifying all objects of which a portion of the object is within the slab; and ii. for each object, conducting the steps of; A. tessellating the object; B. executing a surface fablet program module on the tessellated object; C. volume discretizing the tessellated object to produce a representation characterized by volume elements; and D. executing a volume fablet program module on the volume discretized object.
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Specification