Abstract
The paper presents a method of conversion of GCODE files designed for additive manufacturing in 3D printers to a format which may be conveniently visualized. In the investigations three different 3D models were created: a) shell model (a casing); b) solid model (a gear); c) model with curvilinear elements (a screw). All these models were converted to GCODE files. Next the reverse engineering was applied and GCODE files were converted to points sets. These points represent particular locations of the print head. In the developed algorithm the linear interpolation was added to obtain intermediate points between locations of the print head for longer sections. The final part shows an attempt of applying Poisson Surface Reconstruction in order to obtain the original geometry. The main motivation to develop a new software resulted from the observation that sometimes the original solid model is no longer available, while there is a need to change some geometry details or settings before production stage.
Highlights
Nowadays the additive manufacturing (3D printing) are very popular and their importance grows every year
The preparation of the GCODE file requires a number of parameters characterizing a specific device as well as the properties of the 3D printing process itself, such as the layer height or wall thickness
The main observations and final conclusions are as follows: – It is possible to transform a geometry saved in a GCODE file to a points set
Summary
Nowadays the additive manufacturing (3D printing) are very popular and their importance grows every year. They are used in many areas of mechanical engineering (Shahi 2016), material engineering (Szebényi et al 2017), civil engineering (Shatornaya et al 2017, Tay et al 2017), architecture (Mathur 2016), chemical sciences (Parra-Cabrera et al 2018), electronics (Xu et al 2016), medicine (Hangge et al 2018, Tappa et al 2017), food industry (Godoi et al 2016, Pitayachaval et al 2018) and others. To obtain any printed object, in the first place its geometry, considering the limitations of the additive manufacturing technology, must be defined. To reach this aim, any software destined for preparing 3D geometry (in the STL file format) may be used. The geometry must be first converted to a set of instructions which will be sequentially read and executed by the printer (Fig. 1)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
