Support structures design device and method, program, structure forming apparatus, and structure manufacturing method

A structure forming apparatus, comprising:

• a computer processor configured to:
• acquire three-dimensional data of a luminal structure to be printed by lamination using a three-dimensional printer;
• determine an up-and-down direction of the luminal structure in case of performing printing in the three-dimensional printer;
• extract a luminal structure included in the three-dimensional data and thin out the luminal structure to extract a core line of the luminal structure;
• extract a lowermost point of a cross section of the luminal structure by a plane perpendicular to a tangential direction at a point, which corresponds to each of a plurality of points on the core line, on a projected core line obtained by projecting the core line in the up-and-down direction, as a support point, for each of the plurality of points on the core line;
• and
• generate three-dimensional data by adding data of a support structures for supporting the support point to the three-dimensional data;
• and
• a three-dimensional printer that performs printing by laminating a composition material based on the generated three-dimensional data.

A support structures design method, comprising:

• a data acquisition step of acquiring three-dimensional data of a luminal structure to be printed by lamination using a three-dimensional printer;
• an up-and-down direction determination step of determining an up-and-down direction of the luminal structure in case of performing printing in the three-dimensional printer;
• a core line extraction step of extracting a luminal structure included in the three-dimensional data and thin out the luminal structure to extract a core line of the luminal structure;
• a support point extraction step of extracting a lowermost point of a cross section of the luminal structure by a plane perpendicular to a tangential direction at a point, which corresponds to each of a plurality of points on the core line, on a projected core line obtained by projecting the core line in the up-and-down direction, as a support point, for each of the plurality of points on the core line;
• and
• a data generation step of generating three-dimensional data by adding data of a support structures for supporting the support point to the three-dimensional data.

A structure manufacturing method, comprising:

• a data acquisition step of acquiring three-dimensional data of a luminal structure to be printed by lamination using a three-dimensional printer;
• an up-and-down direction determination step of determining an up-and-down direction of the luminal structure in case of performing printing in the three-dimensional printer;
• a core line extraction step of extracting a luminal structure included in the three-dimensional data and thin out the luminal structure to extract a core line of the luminal structure;
• a support point extraction step of extracting a lowermost point of a cross section of the luminal structure by a plane perpendicular to a tangential direction at a point, which corresponds to each of a plurality of points on the core line, on a projected core line obtained by projecting the core line in the up-and-down direction, as a support point, for each of the plurality of points on the core line;
• a data generation step of generating three-dimensional data by adding data of a support structures for supporting the support point to the three-dimensional data;
• and
• a printing step of performing printing by laminating a composition material based on the generated three-dimensional data.

A non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing a program causing a computer to realize:

• a data acquisition function of acquiring three-dimensional data of a luminal structure to be printed by lamination using a three-dimensional printer;
• an up-and-down direction determination function of determining an up-and-down direction of the luminal structure in case of performing printing in the three-dimensional printer;
• a core line extraction function of extracting a luminal structure included in the three-dimensional data and thin out the luminal structure to extract a core line of the luminal structure;
• a support point extraction function of extracting a lowermost point of a cross section of the luminal structure by a plane perpendicular to a tangential direction at a point, which corresponds to each of a plurality of points on the core line, on a projected core line obtained by projecting the core line in the up-and-down direction, as a support point, for each of the plurality of points on the core line;
• and
• a data generation function of generating three-dimensional data by adding data of a support structures for supporting the support point to the three-dimensional data.