Made-to-order direct digital manufacturing enterprise

A system enabling commercial opportunities for additive manufacturing production planning and scheduling of 3D CAD models, treating each 3D CAD Model as the object being routed and scheduled by the system;

• comprising:
• a first network enabled physical computing device having a memory, a processor, and a first non-transitory data storage device, containing processor-executable programming, that when executed, causes the first computing device to electronically;
• receive, from a first user device, a request to establish, configure or utilize the system, the first user device being associated with a commercial user including a manufacturer and or a merchant;
• generate and cause to be displayed, on the first user device, in response to the request, at least one display page comprising an input and configuration interface, accessible by the first user at the first user device to establish, configure, or utilize the system from the first users' device;
• receive and index, from the first user, at least one of:
• 3D Printer printing device parameters, specifications, quantity of each device, and/or geospatial locations;
• wherein the received and indexed printer devices represent production capacity resources registered within and utilized by the system for production scheduling;
• receive and index, from the first user, production planning criteria utilized by the system for organizing and arranging each discrete 3D CAD model received for production;
• wherein the received production planning and scheduling criteria is utilized by the system to optimize production workloads between indexed production resources and for organizing, nesting and packing tray files;
• receive, from the first user, or a second user, in an electronic file buffer, configured as a job aggregation device, a first aggregation of 3D CAD model files, each 3D CAD model file of the first aggregation of 3D CAD model files corresponding to and representing at least one order for a product producible as at least one manufacturing job of a plurality of manufacturing jobs;
• wherein the second user is a customer of the first user;
• wherein each manufacturing job of the plurality of jobs comprises at least one of:
• a confirmation to physically obtain the product represented by at least one 3D CAD Model file from the plurality of aggregated 3D CAD model files, a material selection from a plurality of available indexed materials, an address for delivery of the physical product manufactured from one or more of the 3D CAD model files, or a quantity of the product manufactured, at least in part, from one or more of the 3D CAD model files for each respective order;
• analyze, each discrete 3D CAD model file geometry initial orientation to determine the dimensions of each discrete 3D CAD model file and based on the obtained data, to determine an orientation, minimizing the build time of the product from the received 3D CAD model;
• apply the previously determined build orientation minimizing the build time of the product from each 3D CAD model file by altering the initial orientation of the 3D CAD model to the computed build orientation minimizing build time and update the 3D CAD Model file representing the order accordingly;
• transfer each updated 3D CAD model to a production queue, wherein the production queue is associated with at least one of;
• at least one 3D printing device of a plurality of 3D printing devices or a 3D printing material of a plurality of 3D printing materials, wherein each 3D printing device of the plurality of 3D printing devices is indexed, and wherein each 3D printing material of the plurality of 3D printing materials is indexed;
• schedule and arrange, in order to optimize production workloads, on available indexed production resources, subset groups of discrete 3D CAD models from the one or more production queues, in the quantities specified for each order, into batches of 3D CAD Model files fitting within at least one of:
• a printable area or a bounding box of at least one of:
• one or more previously defined and indexed 3D printing devices from the plurality of defined and indexed 3D printing devices or a 3D printing device associated with a 3D printing material of the plurality of defined and indexed 3D printing materials, until at least one of:
• the printable area or the bounding box is completely occupied, maximizing the number of 3D CAD models printable in a batch, or a pre-set limit based on the plurality of production criteria received from the first user device is reached;
• compile a first batch of scheduled, arranged and packed 3D CAD model geometries into a tray file;
• assign the compiled tray file, prepared by the system, to the production queue of the at least one indexed 3D printer device associated with and corresponding to the plurality of scheduling and packing criteria;
• instruct the at least one 3D printer device to produce the jobs utilizing the tray file data corresponding directly to the nested 3D CAD Model data, the 3D Printer device communicatively coupled to and arranged to receive the data from the system to do so;
• and
• transfer the compiled tray file containing the first batch of 3D CAD Model data to at least one indexed 3D Printer device for production of the geometries in the nested tray file in the material specified in the batch;
• wherein the at least one computing device is additionally configured to;
• continuously receive 3D CAD Model files and production criteria, representing production jobs from at least one of:
• a first user and or a plurality of second users;
• continuously schedule and arrange batches of received 3D CAD Model files representing production jobs into a plurality of nested and packed tray files;
• electronically manage the trade-off between throughput and capacity in nesting and scheduling, in order to optimize production workloads, treating each 3D CAD Model as the object being routed and scheduled by the system;
• collect a plurality of system-generated tray files in one or more electronic production queues, based on at least one of:
• a first user from a plurality of first users, 3D Printer printing device parameters, specifications, quantity of each device, 3D printer Printing Material and a geospatial location of the 3D Printing device/facility in relation to the physical delivery address of the product;
• enable, the system to optionally operate utilizing an Application Programming Interface (API) enabling at least one additional computing device to communicate with the first computing device in order to transfer 3D CAD Model files and associated production criteria, representing orders, to the first computing device for production planning, scheduling and nesting into tray files;
• accept an input of any 3D CAD Model designed in a plurality of design software packages;
• and convert, as needed, each received 3D CAD Model files into a manufacturable version of the 3D CAD Model file.

A system adapting an electronic marketplace for on-demand fabrication of a product comprising:

• at least one network enabled physical computing device having a memory, a processor, and at least one physical data storage device, the at least one physical data storage device arranged to store 3D CAD Models, the 3D CAD Models representing and corresponding to the digital representation of a product available from the system and wherein the at least one physical data storage device also contains processor-executable programming, configuring and enabling at least one computing device to electronically;
• receive, from a first user device, at least one 3D CAD Model file, and product information pertaining to the product represented by the 3D CAD Model, the at least one 3D CAD Model representing a base design for a product available from the system;
• receive, from a second user device, using a second user device a request to obtain the product, the product represented by the at least one 3D CAD Model stored in the system;
• In response to a request to obtain the product, received from the second user, initiating a process for manufacturing routine to electronically cause a physical product to be produced, at least in part from the data describing the at least one 3D CAD Model, treating the 3D CAD Model as the object processed by the system;
• wherein the physical computing device is further programmed to:
• index and store a catalog of a plurality of 3D CAD models and corresponding product information, received by the system from a first user, in a manner for presentation in the electronic marketplace to plurality of second users;
• enable a plurality of second users to access the electronic catalog of 3D CAD Model files through a website displaying the products represented by the 3D CAD models in the catalog and offering a means to physically obtain the product;
• generate, by the system, copies of the at least one 3D CAD model representing each product, based on requests to physically obtain the products, transferring the copies of the 3D CAD Model files to the at least one order aggregation device;
• analyze and verify the production requirements for each 3D CAD Model received at the order aggregation device;
• analyze the received 3D CAD models to test for environmental performance based on at least one of:
• physical properties, part interference, strength of materials, price variations, mass, quantity, thread patterns, surface areas, mating surfaces, thermal properties, electrical properties, balance or other properties;
• schedule and arrange together, by the system, the plurality of 3D CAD Models, received in the order aggregation device, into tray files, containing nested batches of the plurality of the 3D CAD Models.
• accept and receive any 3D CAD Model designed in a plurality of design software tools including 3C CAD Models having production criteria associated as meta-data relating to order requirements enabling the use of the information for production planning.