Object Partitioning for Support‐Free 3D‐Printing

Abstract

Fused deposition modeling based 3D‐printing is becoming increasingly popular due to it's low‐cost and simple operation and maintenance. While it produces rugged prints made from a wide range of materials, it suffers from an inherent printing limitation where it cannot produce overhanging surfaces of non‐trivial size. This limitation can be handled by constructing temporary support‐structures, however this solution involves additional material costs, longer print time, and often a fair amount of labor in removing it. In this paper we present a new method for partitioning general solid objects into a small number of parts that can be printed with no support. The partitioning is computed by applying a sequence of cutting‐planes that split the object recursively. Unlike existing algorithms, the planes are not chosen at random, rather they are derived from shape analysis routines that identify and resolve various commonly‐found geometric configurations. In addition, we guide this search by a revised set of conditions that both ensure the objects' printability as well as realistically model the printing capabilities of the printer at hand. Evaluation of the new method demonstrates its ability to efficiently obtain support‐free partitionings typically containing fewer parts compared to existing methods that rely on support‐structures.

Optimizing Object Decomposition to Reduce Visual Artifacts in 3D Printing

“…Figure 13 shows a comparison between previously proposed methods and our approach. While in [HLZCO14, KFW19, WZK16] (Figures 13a, 13b and 13c respectively) the authors focus on the definition of planar cuts to decompose the object into 3D printable support‐free parts, cutting along visible areas, our method realizes a good tradeoff between the aestethic appearance of the cuts and the minimization of the overall visual impact of cuts and supports combined. Moreover, while the authors of [WZK16] (Figure 13c) only locally refine the cuts once they are computed, our method accounts for cuts visibility from the very beginning, therefore it is able to generate cuts that better hide into occluded regions of the object.…”

State of the Art on Computational Design of Assemblies with Rigid Parts

“…Finally, the input model is naturally partitioned into parts by performing planar cuts at each junction of the subgraphs. Karasik et al [KFW19] addressed the problem of partitioning a general solid object into a small number of support‐free parts. The key idea is to identify common non‐printable geometric patterns in the object and to use a corresponding strategy to split them into printable or simpler parts.…”

Laminated Object Manufacturing of Ceramic‐Based Materials

“…Practical guidelines for an optimized part subdivision have been described by Karasik et al [101] (Figure 13). To avoid having to print sharp protrusion angles, concave angles, and large overhanging part surfaces, the parts are rotated and segmented in such a way that the surface inclinations have an angle of less than 135 with respect to the building direction.…”

“…Instead of bridge supports or cubes, vertical support structures have to be cut‐off from underneath each of the subparts (see green tree on the bottom left). Adapted with permission . Copyright Year 2019, Wiley.…”