The Subdivision Algorithm of STL Model with Low Precision in Rapid Prototyping Process

doi:10.3901/JME.2016.07.178

Abstract

Abstract: The surface precision of STL model affects the fabricated part precision in Rapid Prototyping(RP) process. To improve the surface precision which aims to improve the final fabricated part precision, subdivision should be implemented for the given low-precision STL model in these cases 1) the original STL model is missing, 2) the software cannot export high-precision STL model, 3) the precision of the STL model from reverse engineering cannot satisfy requirement. A new topological structure is proposed based on face-edge-point information, that avoid the precision error caused by interpolating two times for the shared edge by two adjacent triangles; Based on the proposed topological structure, subdivision algorithm is presented and implemented for the given low-precision STL model through two steps 1) the spatial curve segments are obtained for three edges of given triangle by using Hermite spatial interpolation method, 2) the midpoints of the three spatial cure segments are connected according to the designed rule. The implementation and experiment results shows that the subdivision algorithm can be applied to improve the precision of STL model with complex surface, large dimension and millions of triangles, its efficiency can achieve 4ⁿ(n is the subdivision times), which can fast improve the surface precision of the given low-precision STL model.

Key words: fabricated part precision, hermit spatial interpolation, subdivision, topological structure

CLC Number:

TH164

ZHANG Zhengyan, CHEN Ping, YANG Li, HU Jiquan, CHEN Dingfang. The Subdivision Algorithm of STL Model with Low Precision in Rapid Prototyping Process[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2016, 52(7): 178-186.

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