Dapper: Decompose-and-pack for 3D printing

Xuelin Chen, Hao Zhang, Jinjie Lin, Ruizhen Hu, Lin Lu, Qixing Huang, Bedrich Benes, Daniel Cohen-Or, Baoquan Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We pose the decompose-and-pack or DAP problem, which tightly combines shape decomposition and packing. While in general, DAP seeks to decompose an input shape into a small number of parts which can be efficiently packed, our focus is geared towards 3D printing. The goal is to optimally decompose-and-pack a 3D object into a printing volume to minimize support material, build time, and assembly cost. We present Dapper, a global optimization algorithm for the DAP problem which can be applied to both powder- and FDM-based 3D printing. The solution search is top-down and iterative. Starting with a coarse decomposition of the input shape into few initial parts, we progressively pack a pile in the printing volume, by iteratively docking parts, possibly while introducing cuts, onto the pile. Exploration of the search space is via a prioritized and bounded beam search, with breadth and depth pruning guided by local and global DAP objectives. A key feature of Dapper is that it works with pyramidal primitives, which are packingand printing-friendly. Pyramidal shapes are also more general than boxes to reduce part counts, while still maintaining a suitable level of simplicity to facilitate DAP optimization. We demonstrate printing efficiency gains achieved by Dapper, compare to state-of-the-art alternatives, and show how fabrication criteria such as cut area and part size can be easily incorporated into our solution framework to produce more physically plausible fabrications.

Original languageEnglish
Article number213
JournalACM Transactions on Graphics
Volume34
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2015

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • Decompose-and-pack
  • Pyramidal shape

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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