Improved Surface Quality in 3D Printing by Optimizing the Printing Direction

• Published in: Computer graphics forum Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 59 - 70
• Main Authors: Wang, W. M., Zanni, C., Kobbelt, L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2016; Wiley
• Subjects: 3-D graphics; 3-D printers; 3D printing; Additive manufacturing; Algorithms; Analysis; Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS); Computer Science; Decomposition; Graphics; I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modelling-Geometric Algorithms; Intersections; Mathematical models; Optimization; Pipelines; Printing; Rapid prototyping; Studies; Topological manifolds; Visual

We present a pipeline of algorithms that decomposes a given polygon model into parts such that each part can be 3D printed with high (outer) surface quality. For this we exploit the fact that most 3D printing technologies have an anisotropic resolution and hence the surface smoothness varies signifi...