A Data Front-End for Layered Manufacturing

In this paper we describe a geometric software package which serves as a data front-end for rapid prototyping systems. This package can be customized for every layered-manufacturing technique. We survey the full path of data in the system, starting as data files originated from external tools, in most cases CAD systems, going through some repairing operations, then editing a job composed of several objects, and finally processing the job for actual production. Keywords: geometric software, rapid prototyping, layered manufacturing, polyhedra. 1 Introduction During the last decade layered manufacturing has become the primary method for Rapid Prototyping (RP) of mechanical objects. Physical models are needed in almost every industry for design verification, simulation, integration of complex systems, etc. Furthermore, RP has applications in medicine (e.g., in surgery planning), in chemistry (e.g., for verifying docking sites of macromolecules), in architecture, and civil engineering. RP..