Serialising a representation of a three dimensional object

A computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions executable on the processor to:
• generate a data representation of a first layer of an object to be generated in a layer-by-layer manufacturing process from a serialised representation of at least part of the object,
• wherein the serialised representation comprises data representing a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes representing the object at a first volumetric resolution and a second volumetric resolution, and the plurality of nodes being ordered such that:
• a node representing a volume that includes a layer of the object to be generated earlier in an intended order of object generation precedes a node representing a volume that includes a layer of the object to be generated subsequently;
• for nodes representing a volume that includes a layer of the object, nodes representing the object of a coarser volumetric resolution are ordered before nodes representing the object at a finer volumetric resolution;
• and
• nodes representing a volume that includes a layer and being of the same resolution are serialised according to a predetermined location encoding pattern,
• wherein the generating of the data representation of the first layer comprises extracting, from the serialised representation, data representing nodes that represent at least a portion of the first layer, wherein the data representation of the first layer is based on the extracted data.

A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions that upon execution cause a system to:

• generate a representation of at least part of an object to be manufactured in a layer-by-layer manufacturing process, wherein the representation comprises data representing a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes comprising representations of the object at first volumetric resolution, a second volumetric resolution and a third volumetric resolution, wherein, at the second volumetric resolution, volumes of the first volumetric resolution are subdivided into octants and, at the third volumetric resolution, volumes of the second volumetric resolution are subdivided into octants, the plurality of nodes being ordered such that:
• a node representing a volume that includes a layer of the object to be generated earlier in an intended order of object generation precedes a node representing a volume that includes a layer of the object to be generated subsequently;
• for nodes representing a volume that includes a layer of the object, nodes at the first volumetric resolution precede nodes at the second volumetric resolution and nodes at the second volumetric resolution precede nodes at the third volumetric resolution;
• and
• nodes representing a volume that includes a layer and being of the same resolution are ordered according to a predetermined location encoding pattern.