Implicit modeling for additive manufacturing – IMPRIMA
Implicit modeling for additive manufacturing
This project aims at exploring representations for the modeling, visualization and processing of both macro geometry and control fields (multimaterial and microstructures) within the authoring pipeline for additive manufacturing.
Objectives
The main objective of this project is to explore representations for the modeling, visualization<br />and processing of both macro geometry and control fields (multimaterial and microstructures)<br />within the authoring pipeline for additive manufacturing. We plan to use implicit volumes<br />methodology to handle both kind of representations. We plan to focus on skeleton-based<br />representation, a representation both compact and expressive, as it allow to localize influence of<br />implicit primitives in space, a property useful to process complex geometry (visualize or slice).<br />When defining microstructures a key point is to ensure that some properties are verified<br />(printability, topology, thickness, ...) by working on the microstructure representation itself and/<br />or on the control field (constraint on gradient of attributes whether scalar or vectorial) to enforce<br />procedural microstructure model’s inputs requirements. Additionally, this research aims at a<br />complete, tight integration of both standard boundary representations and novel implicit<br />volume representations, allowing the best choice of representation for different parts of a design.
A first axis of research for this project is the study of skeleton-based implicit surfaces and more precisely integral surfaces. Undergoing theoretical studies on integral surfaces have allowed us to introduce a new scalar field normalization that simplify the processing of such fields. It also led to a new formulation of the scalar field offering a wider control on the family of shape that can be described.
A second axis of research is the usage of dynamic data structure for screen space processing of implicit surfaces. This, combined to the theoretical study on integral surfaces, provides a way to visualize such surfaces in real time.
A third axis of research is the control of gradients of materials. We study procedural noise that allows gradation of properties in space, including frequency (density of material), direction and quantity of anisotropy. Such representation allows us to develop highly collapsible and freely orientable microstructures which print reliably on filament printers.
We have introduced highly flexible and freely orientable microstructures that can be printed robustly on FDM machines. These structures are defined using a new procedural noise (phasor noise) which allows a gradation of the frequency properties in space while ensuring high rigidity contrast.
We have also introduced a new rendering method for implicit skeleton surfaces. This method allows to lift one of the locks to the use of this type of representation, i.e. their interactive visualization, whether for free-form or microstructure representation.
See report
Thibault Tricard, Semyon Efremov, Cédric Zanni, Fabrice Neyret,
Jonàs Martínez, Sylvain Lefebvre. Procedural Phasor Noise. ACM
Transactions on Graphics, Association for Computing Machinery,
2019, 38 (4), pp.Article No. 57:1-13.
?10.1145/3306346.3322990?. hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-
02118508
Alvaro Javier Fuentes Suárez, Evelyne Hubert, Cédric Zanni.
Anisotropic convolution surfaces. Computers and Graphics,
Elsevier, 2019, 82, pp.106-116. ?10.1016/j.cag.2019.05.018?.
hal.inria.fr/hal-02137325
Thibault Tricard, Vincent Tavernier, Cédric Zanni, Jonàs Martínez,
Pierre-Alexandre Hugron, Fabrice Neyret, Sylvain Lefebvre.
Freely orientable microstructures for designing deformable 3D
prints. ACM Transactions on Graphics, Association for Computing
Machinery, In press, ?10.1145/3414685.3417790?.
hal.inria.fr/hal-02524371v3
Additive manufacturing completely changes the way objects can be produced. On the one hand, it simplifies the manufacturing process itself, allowing everyone - including the general public - to physically realize a virtual model using a 3D printer. On the other hand, it affords for unprecedented possibilities in terms of shape complexity, both at the macro and micro scales: objects can be filled with multi-material structures that vary in size, orientation and shape to give specific properties to the final parts. Unfortunately, describing shapes at this level of customization, scale and complexity is beyond the reach of current software. The challenge lies in how to specify shapes than can be easily manipulated, optimized for properties, as well as visualized during manipulation and prepared efficiently for the manufacturing process.
A key technical choice is that of shape representation. Boundary representations (e.g. triangle meshes) are very effective to represent surfaces. However, additive manufacturing blurs the frontier between surfaces and volumes. « Implicits », a mathematical definition which computes whether a point is solid or empty, provide an efficient scalable representation. Such approaches are referred to as procedural and can be used to represent both gradient of material and microstructures.
This project seek to explore novel implicit representations in order to provide a unified approach for the modeling and slicing of both macro geometry, microstructures and gradient of material. Additionally, this research aims at a complete, tight integration of both standard boundary representations and novel implicit volume representations, allowing the best choice of representation for different parts of a design. In particular I will consider how to relate features of implicit volumes to features on existing boundary meshes, as well as how to constrain implicit volumes within meshes that can be interactively edited.
Project coordination
Cédric Zanni (Laboratoire lorrain de recherche en informatique et ses applications)
The author of this summary is the project coordinator, who is responsible for the content of this summary. The ANR declines any responsibility as for its contents.
Partner
LORIA Laboratoire lorrain de recherche en informatique et ses applications
Help of the ANR 222,512 euros
Beginning and duration of the scientific project:
March 2019
- 42 Months
