3D printing and measurement apparatus and method

A method of correcting positioning errors in a system that includes a movement component, comprising:

• detecting a plurality of topographical features positioned at different locations on the surface of a reference object disposed within the system;
• comparing a location of the detected topographical features to expected locations for the topographical features;
• generating transformation information based on the comparison;
• and correcting movement instructions of the movement component based on the generated transformation information, the corrected movement instructions relating to an object different from the reference object,
• wherein the comparing step includes, for each detected topographical feature:
• determining a portion of the respective topographical feature as a left-side portion,
• determining a portion of the respective topographical feature as a right-side portion,
• determining the location of the center of the respective topographical feature based on the determined left-side portion and the determined right-side portion, and
• comparing the location of the center of the respective topographical feature to the expected location for the topographical feature, and
• wherein the location of the center of the respective topographical feature is determined based on the intersection of a regression performed based on the determined left-side portion and a regression performed based on the determined right-side portion.