Methods of representing three dimensional articles to be produced using additive manufacturing processes in digital file formats

A method, comprising:

• for a design involving multiple occurrences of a three dimensional (3D) article to be printed, defining a unit cell that represents an element of the 3D article that repeats in each one of the multiple occurrences of the 3D article that makes up the design and providing an output file that includes the unit cell to a slicer application, wherein the unit cell is a three-dimensional object;
• generating, by the slicer application instantiated on a computer system, a cross-sectional image of the design, for use by a target printer to manufacture the design, by for each of the multiple occurrences of the 3D article, replicating an image of the unit cell over a specified area of a build plate of the target printer for a layer of the design that includes the element represented by the unit cell, wherein the image of the unit cell is a two-dimensional area;
• and
• transmitting the cross-sectional image of the design from the computer system to the target printer.