The development of a three dimensional imaging system and its application in computer aided design workstations

• Published in: Mechatronics (Oxford) Vol. 13; no. 5; pp. 521 - 532
• Main Authors: Stickland, M.T., McKay, S., Scanlon, T.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2003; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Computer aided design; Computer science; control theory; systems; Exact sciences and technology; Mechanical engineering. Machine design; Pattern recognition. Digital image processing. Computational geometry; Software; Stereo lithography; Three dimensional imaging; Computer aided design; Three dimensional imaging; Stereo lithography
• ISSN: 0957-4158; 1873-4006
• DOI: 10.1016/S0957-4158(01)00052-6

This paper details the application of a three dimensional imaging system known as planar contour imaging (PCI) to the presentation of images created by computer aided design (CAD) software. The three dimensional computational models were generated within a commercially available CAD/CAM software package from Delcam plc and then converted to stereo lithographic (.stl) format. The .stl file was then converted into a real, three dimensional, image by PCI. It was found that, in the same way that a user looks at a two dimensional image, the selection of the correct type and amount of data presented to the viewer was critical. However, when the image was refined, the three dimensional image was found to produce an impressive representation of the computational dataset.