Three-dimensional printing system, and method of printing a three-dimensional object
AssigneeRoland Dg Corporation
InventorMakoto Yoshida
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a region determination device and method, when a set target contour is an island contour representing an outer profile of a three-dimensional printing object, it is determined whether a closest enclosing contour Lmin enclosing the target contour at a closest position thereto has been set for the slice model or not. When closest enclosing contour Lmin is determined to have been set, it is determined whether the closest enclosing contour Lmin is an island contour or not. When the closest enclosing contour Lmin is determined to be an island contour, the target contour is deleted from the slice model. Then, the region of the post-deletion slice model is divided into a printing region and a non-printing region.
Claims8
A three-dimensional printing system, comprising:
- a three-dimensional printing device that prints a three-dimensional printing object;
- a region determination device for a slice model, the region determination device dividing a region of the slice model into a printing region to be printed and a non-printing region not to be printed, the slice model being obtained as a result of slicing a three-dimensional model of a three-dimensional printing object at a predetermined interval and being defined by contours representing profiles of the three-dimensional printing object, wherein the contours include an island contour representing a shape of an outer profile of the printing region of the three-dimensional printing object and a hole contour representing a shape of a hole in the three-dimensional printing object, the region determination device comprising:
- a storage processor configured or programmed to store the slice model;
- a target contour setting processor configured or programmed to extract a predetermined contour from the contours of the slice model stored by the storage processor and set the extracted predetermined contour as a target contour;
- a first contour determination processor configured or programmed to determine whether the target contour set by the target contour setting processor is the island contour or not;
- a closest enclosing contour determination processor configured or programmed to, in a case in which the target contour is determined by the first contour determination processor to be the island contour, determine whether a closest enclosing contour enclosing the target contour at a closest position thereto has been set or not;
- a second contour determination processor configured or programmed to, in a case in which the closest enclosing contour is determined by the closest enclosing contour determination processor to have been set, determine whether the closest enclosing contour is the island contour or not;
- a deletion processor configured or programmed to, in a case in which the closest enclosing contour is determined by the second contour determination processor to be the island contour, deletes the target contour from the slice model and stores, on the storage processor, a slice model obtained as a result of deleting the target contour from the slice model;
- and
- a region determination processor configured or programmed to divide the region of the slice model stored on the storage processor into the printing region and the non-printing region, wherein
- the three-dimensional printing device prints the three-dimensional printing object according to the printing region and the non-printing region determined by the region determination processor.
A method of printing a three-dimensional object including a region determination method for a slice model, the region determination method dividing a region of the slice model into a printing region to be printed and a non-printing region not to be printed, the slice model being obtained as a result of slicing a three-dimensional model of a three-dimensional printing object at a predetermined interval and being defined by contours representing profiles of the three-dimensional printing object, wherein the contours include an island contour representing a shape of an outer profile of the printing region of the three-dimensional printing object and a hole contour representing a shape of a hole in the three-dimensional printing object, the region determination method comprising:
- a storage step of storing the slice model;
- a target contour setting step of extracting a predetermined contour from the contours of the slice model stored in the storage step and setting the extracted predetermined contour as a target contour;
- a first contour determination step of determining whether the target contour set in the target contour setting step is the island contour or not;
- a closest enclosing contour determination step of, in a case in which the target contour is determined in the first contour determination step to be the island contour, determining whether a closest enclosing contour enclosing the target contour at a closest position thereto has been set or not;
- a second contour determination step of, in a case in which the closest enclosing contour is determined in the closest enclosing contour determination step to have been set, determining whether the closest enclosing contour is the island contour or not;
- a deletion step of, in a case in which the closest enclosing contour is determined in the second contour determination step to be the island contour, deleting the target contour from the slice model and storing a slice model obtained as a result of deleting the target contour from the slice model;
- a region determination step of dividing the region of the slice model stored in the storage step or the deletion step into the printing region and the non-printing region;
- and
- an emission step of emitting light to a photocurable resin according to the printing region and the non-printing region determined in the region determination step.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.