Techniques for Automatically Placing Escape Holes during Three-Dimensional Printing

摘要

In one embodiment of the present invention, an escape hole generator creates escapes holes designed to facilitate removal of support and/or unprinted material generated inside enclosed hollows of three-dimensional (3D) digital models during 3D printing. In operation, the escape hole generator identifies a hollow included in the three-dimensional model and then selects optimized locations for escape holes. Notably, the escape hole generator selects the locations to optimize placement heuristics, such as favoring locations closer to the bottom of the 3D model, while satisfying escape hole constraints (e.g., hole size and spacing requirements). The escape hole generator then perforates the hollow at the selected locations with geometries that provide channels from the outer surface of the hollow to the outer surface of the hollow. Advantageously, automating escape hole generation enables efficient creation of hollowed 3D models that reduce 3D printing time and material usage compared to solid 3D model counterparts.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically placing one or more escape holes when printing a three-dimensional model, the method comprising:
identifying a hollow region of a three-dimensional model; determining a first location for a first escape hole based on the hollow region, an initial heuristic, and one or more escape hole constraints; and generating the first escape hole to provide a channel from the interior of the hollow region to the exterior of the hollow region at the first location.