Direct Slicing of CAD Model and Volumetric Error Compensation in Rapid Prototyping

Abstract

Aiming at the disadvantage of slicing STL model in rapid prototyping, a method of slicing CAD model directly is proposed to advoid the precision damage during converting CAD model to STL file. The effect of the staircase error to the part surface is analyzed, and an algorithm of compensating the section contour is proposed to eliminate the layers’ volumetric difference and improve the part surface precision. The test shows that the methods can obtain the accurate sections of CAD model and improve the part’s shape and size precision.