阅读说明：本技术 一种3d打印路径优化方法、存储装置和打印设备 (3D printing path optimization method, storage device and printing equipment ) 是由 刘文洋 麦广真 陈玲 宋立军 李治兴 于 2019-05-23 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种3D打印路径优化方法、存储装置和打印设备,方法在于：以水平分割方式将待打印的目标模型进行水平分区,再将属于同一水平分区内的目标模型分解为相互独立的分体,按照3D打印机的打印顺序,依次打印各水平分区内的各分体,完成对所述目标模型的打印；所述分体满足预设的约束条件：A、同一所述水平分区内不同所述分体在水平面上的投影之间的距离大于第一预设距离。具有可提高3D打印速度、提升打印效率的优点。(The invention discloses a 3D printing path optimization method, a storage device and printing equipment, wherein the method comprises the following steps: horizontally partitioning a target model to be printed in a horizontal partitioning mode, decomposing the target model belonging to the same horizontal partition into mutually independent partitions, and sequentially printing the partitions in each horizontal partition according to the printing sequence of a 3D printer to finish printing the target model; the split body meets the preset constraint conditions: A. the distance between the projections of different sub-bodies in the same horizontal subarea on the horizontal plane is greater than a first preset distance. Have the advantage that can improve 3D printing speed, promote printing efficiency.)

1. A3D printing path optimization method is characterized by comprising the following steps: horizontally partitioning a target model to be printed in a horizontal partitioning mode, decomposing the target model belonging to the same horizontal partition into mutually independent partitions, and sequentially printing the partitions in each horizontal partition according to the printing sequence of a 3D printer to finish printing the target model;

the split body meets the preset constraint conditions:

A. the distance between the projections of different sub-bodies in the same horizontal subarea on the horizontal plane is greater than a first preset distance.

2. The 3D print path optimization method according to claim 1, wherein: the preset constraint condition further comprises:

B. the split bodies are single bodies with unicity in the vertical direction.

3. The 3D print path optimization method according to claim 2, wherein: the preset constraint condition further comprises:

C. and when the number of the split bodies in the same horizontal partition is more than 1, the height of the split body is less than the preset height.

4. The 3D print path optimization method according to claim 3, wherein: the specific steps of decomposing the target model into the components meeting the preset conditions include:

layering the target model according to a horizontal segmentation mode, when two adjacent layers meet a preset combination condition, dividing the two adjacent layers into the same horizontal partition, otherwise, dividing the two adjacent layers into different horizontal partitions by taking a segmentation horizontal plane between the two adjacent layers as a boundary;

the preset merging conditions include:

in the two adjacent layers, for any one interlayer object in any one layer, only one interlayer object exists in the other layer, so that the distance between two interlayer objects meeting the two-dimensional geometric centroid is smaller than a second preset distance.

5. The 3D print path optimization method according to claim 4, wherein: the preset merging condition further comprises: and if the two adjacent layers are divided into the same horizontal subarea, judging whether the distance between the projections of the obtained split bodies on the horizontal plane is larger than a first preset distance, if so, dividing the two adjacent layers into the same horizontal subarea, otherwise, dividing the two adjacent layers into different horizontal subareas by taking the dividing horizontal plane between the two adjacent layers as a boundary.

6. The 3D print path optimization method according to claim 5, wherein: the first preset distance is larger than the interference distance of the printing head; the preset height is smaller than the vertical moving distance of the printing head without interference.

7. The 3D print path optimization method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein: the printing sequence of the 3D printer is determined by the following method:

and in the same horizontal subarea, determining the position centers of the subareas, determining the distance between the subareas according to the distance between the position centers, and determining the printing sequence of the subareas in the same horizontal subarea in a mode of solving the shortest path by using the traveling quotient problem.

8. The 3D print path optimization method according to claim 7, wherein: when the split body is the source position of the path jump, taking the geometric centroid of the horizontal plane where the top of the split body is located as the position center of the split body; when the split body is the target position of path jumping, the geometric shape of the horizontal plane where the bottom of the split body is located is taken as the position center of the split body.

9. A storage medium having a program stored thereon that is executable by a computer, characterized in that: the program when executed may implement the optimization method of any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. The utility model provides a 3D printing apparatus which characterized in that: comprising a storage medium according to claim 9.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of 3D printing, in particular to a 3D printing optimization method, a storage device and printing equipment.

Background

3D printing is a method of building complex parts by adding material layer by layer in the proper direction, without the limitations of traditional manufacturing methods. Although the development is continued in the past decades and the trend of good development is presented, the potential of the method is not fully developed. In the 3D printing process, low efficiency is one of the important factors that hinder the development thereof. Among them, the path planning of 3D model printing is again a key to influence the manufacturing efficiency. In general, path planning is divided into the following steps: model import, slice processing, path filling, and G code generation. The standard method of slicing is to use a CAD model and to slice using parallel equidistant planes. Subsequently, via filling is performed in slice order from the deposition direction, layer by layer, below. This layer-by-layer fill strategy will produce a large number of non-essential non-productive tool paths for 3D models or array production batches of parts with geometrically dispersed centers. Therefore, it is necessary to further optimize the path planning for 3D printing to improve the efficiency of 3D printing.

Disclosure of Invention

The technical problem to be solved by the invention is as follows: aiming at the technical problems in the prior art, the invention provides a 3D printing path optimization method, a storage device and printing equipment which can effectively improve the 3D printing efficiency.

In order to solve the technical problems, the technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows: A3D printing path optimization method comprises the steps of horizontally partitioning a target model to be printed in a horizontal partitioning mode, decomposing the target model belonging to the same horizontal partition into independent partitions, and sequentially printing the partitions in each horizontal partition according to the printing sequence of a 3D printer to finish printing of the target model;

the split body meets the preset constraint conditions:

A. the distance between the projections of different sub-bodies in the same horizontal subarea on the horizontal plane is greater than a first preset distance.

Further, the preset constraint condition further includes:

B. the split bodies are single bodies with unicity in the vertical direction;

further, the preset constraint condition further includes:

C. and when the number of the split bodies in the same horizontal partition is more than 1, the height of the split body is less than the preset height.

Further, the specific step of decomposing the target model into components meeting the preset conditions includes:

layering the target model according to a horizontal segmentation mode, when two adjacent layers meet a preset combination condition, dividing the two adjacent layers into the same horizontal partition, otherwise, dividing the two adjacent layers into different horizontal partitions by taking a segmentation horizontal plane between the two adjacent layers as a boundary;

the preset merging conditions include:

in the two adjacent layers, for any one interlayer object in any one layer, only one interlayer object exists in the other layer, so that the distance between two interlayer objects meeting the two-dimensional geometric centroid is smaller than a second preset distance.

Further, the preset merging condition further includes: and if the two adjacent layers are divided into the same horizontal subarea, judging whether the distance between the projections of the obtained split bodies on the horizontal plane is larger than a first preset distance, if so, dividing the two adjacent layers into the same horizontal subarea, otherwise, dividing the two adjacent layers into different horizontal subareas by taking the dividing horizontal plane between the two adjacent layers as a boundary.

Further, the first preset distance is greater than the interference distance of the printing head; the preset height is smaller than the vertical moving distance of the printing head without interference.

Further, the printing order of the 3D printer is determined by: and in the same horizontal subarea, determining the position centers of the subareas, determining the distance between the subareas according to the distance between the position centers, and determining the printing sequence of the subareas in the same horizontal subarea in a mode of solving the shortest path by using the traveling quotient problem.

Further, when the split body is used as the source position of the path jump, the geometric center of the horizontal plane where the top of the split body is located is used as the position center of the split body; when the split body is the target position of path jumping, the geometric shape of the horizontal plane where the bottom of the split body is located is taken as the position center of the split body.

A storage medium having stored thereon a program executable by a computer, the program when executed implementing an optimization method as defined in any one of the preceding claims.

A 3D printing device comprising a storage medium as described above.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that:

1. according to the method, the target model to be printed is decomposed, namely, horizontal partitioning is performed in the vertical direction, then the target model is decomposed into the independent split bodies in the horizontal partitioning, and after the decomposition is completed, the split bodies in the horizontal partitioning are sequentially printed by the 3D printer according to the printing sequence (such as the sequence of printing from bottom to top), so that when the 3D printer prints a certain split body, the 3D printing head only needs to move in the area of the split body, the moving distance of the 3D printing head is greatly reduced, the 3D printing efficiency is improved, and the 3D printing speed is improved.

2. The invention further limits the split bodies to be single structures in the vertical direction, namely each split body, and no structural branch exists or two branch structures are combined in the vertical direction, so that the moving range and distance of the 3D printing head can be further reduced in the process of printing the split bodies, and the 3D printing efficiency is further improved.

3. The invention further restrains the distance between the projections of the components in the same layer on the horizontal plane, thereby effectively preventing the components belonging to the same layer from generating interference during printing and ensuring the printing to be carried out smoothly.

4. The invention further restrains the height of the split bodies, can effectively prevent the interference-free split bodies on the same layer from being too high to exceed the effective printing height of the 3D printer, and ensures the smooth printing.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating horizontal partitioning of a target model according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of printhead level disturbance according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a top view of a first horizontal partition and a second horizontal partition of the horizontal partitions shown in fig. 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating a target model being decomposed into components according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating horizontal distance constraints in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a highly constrained diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of merging interlayer objects according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The invention is further described below with reference to the drawings and specific preferred embodiments of the description, without thereby limiting the scope of protection of the invention.

As shown in fig. 1, in the 3D printing path optimization method of this embodiment, a target model to be printed is horizontally partitioned in a horizontal partitioning manner, then the target model belonging to the same horizontal partition is decomposed into independent partitions, and the partitions in each horizontal partition are sequentially printed according to the printing sequence of a 3D printer, so as to complete printing of the target model; the split body meets the preset constraint conditions: A. the distance between the projections of different sub-bodies in the same horizontal subarea on the horizontal plane is greater than a first preset distance.

In this embodiment, a front view of a target model with a certain thickness is shown in fig. 2, and the target model is divided into 3 horizontal partitions by two horizontal dividing planes B and G, i.e., a first horizontal partition is located between AB, a second horizontal partition is located between BG, and a third horizontal partition is located between GH. Further, the target model in each horizontal partition is decomposed, wherein the part of the target model in the first horizontal partition and the third horizontal partition is an integer, and the part in the second horizontal partition can be divided into two independent parts, so that the part of the target model in the first horizontal partition is decomposed into a split f1, the part in the third horizontal partition is decomposed into a split f4, and the part in the second horizontal partition is decomposed into two independent splits f2 and f 3. Since the 3D printer slices and layers the target model, and sequentially prints the structures of the layers in the order from bottom to top, according to the conventional printing method, when the 3D printer prints the structure of the partition f1, the print head needs to move within the frame of the partition f1 shown in fig. 4 to print the layers of the partition f1, and when the 3D printer prints the structure of the partition f2, the print head needs to move back and forth between the frames indicated by f2 and f3 in fig. 4 alternately, that is, according to the division of the layers, first print one layer of the partition f2, then print one layer of the partition f3, then print the next layer of the partition f2, and so on. It can be seen that in printing the structure in the second horizontal partition, the range of motion of the conventional print head in printing each layer is shown by the thick black line box with black dot shading in fig. 4. In particular, in the conventional printing method, when the printhead moves between f2 and f3, a printing job is not performed, which wastes a lot of time and reduces printing efficiency. In the method, the part of the target model, which is located in the second horizontal partition, is divided into two independent sub-bodies f2 and f3, in the printing process, the 3D printer firstly prints the sub-body f2, and then prints the sub-body f3 after the printing of the sub-body f2 is completed. As shown in fig. 4, in the method of the present application, when the division f2 is printed, the print head of the 3D printer moves only within the range indicated by f2, and after the division f2 is printed, the print head moves to the area indicated by f3 to print the division f 3. Therefore, in the method, the printing head only needs to move once between the areas indicated by f2 and f3, so that the times of the back and forth movement of the printing head between the two areas are greatly reduced, the moving distance of the printing head is also greatly reduced, and the printing efficiency is further greatly improved.

In this embodiment, since the target model is decomposed into components and sequentially printed, there may be a case where two components belonging to the same layer are horizontally interfered. As shown in fig. 3, for the split bodies f2 and f3, because they are not vertical structures, but have a certain inclination, when the two split bodies reach a certain height, the 3D printer cannot print the split body f2, and the projection of the split body f2 on the horizontal plane already covers the split body f3, and when the split body f3 is printed again, the print head of the 3D printer will collide with the split body f2, and cannot print the split body f3, so in this embodiment, for the split bodies belonging to the same partition, it is necessary to satisfy that the distance D between the projections of the split bodies on the horizontal plane needs to be greater than the first preset distance. The first predetermined distance is preferably greater than the interference distance of the print head. That is, as shown in fig. 3, the partition to which the division bodies f2 and f3 belong is further divided into two or more partitions by a horizontal dividing plane so that each division body in the partition satisfies the constraint condition a. As shown in fig. 3, the sub-body f2 is further divided into a sub-body f2a and a sub-body f2b, and the sub-body f3 is further divided into a sub-body f3a and a sub-body f3b, so that the distance d between the projections of the two sub-bodies in the same sub-area on the horizontal plane is large enough to ensure the smooth printing.

In this embodiment, it is further preferable that: the split obtained by decomposition meets the preset constraint conditions: B. the split bodies are single bodies with unicity in the vertical direction. As shown in fig. 2 and 5, the target model is decomposed into a division f2 and a division f3 in the above-mentioned manner, and then sequentially printed, although the moving distance of the printing head can be greatly reduced and the printing efficiency can be greatly improved compared with the traditional printing mode, because the split body f2 and the split body f3 are still not single structures, that is, the split bodies f2 and f3 have branches (two or more structures are changed from one structure) and are combined in the vertical direction (two or more structures are combined into one structure), for example, in the split body f3, a structure body (a part between BC) is firstly arranged, then one structure is branched into two structures (after level C, into two structures, the section between CF) and then merged into one structure (after level F, two structures are merged into one structure, the section between FG). Then, the print head still needs to move back and forth between the two structures when the 3D printer is printing the portion between the CFs, and therefore, there is still room for further optimization. As shown in FIG. 5, the target model is divided into a plurality of partitions by a horizontal plane A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, such that the partitions within each partition are monolithic. Further, in fig. 5, interference occurs between two branches belonging to the left side of the CD partition (the area indicated by the dashed circle indicated by the indication line No. 1) due to too close distance, and interference occurs between two branches belonging to the right side of the EF partition (the area indicated by the dashed circle indicated by the indication line No. 2) due to too close distance, so that the present embodiment further partitions through the horizontal planes D 'and F' to ensure that the decomposed branches satisfy the constraint condition a.

In this embodiment, it is further preferable that the preset constraint condition further includes: c. And when the number of the split bodies in the same horizontal partition is more than 1, the height of the split body is less than the preset height. The preset height is preferably less than the vertical direction movement distance of the print head without interference. Since the 3D printer generally has a frame, the printing head also has a certain downward-probing depth, that is, the printing head has a certain moving range in the vertical direction. Then, even if interference between the two sub-bodies does not occur, the height of the sub-bodies needs to satisfy the constraint of the moving range of the print head in the vertical direction. The vertical movement distance of the print head without interference may be different for different 3D printers, and thus, this value may be set according to the specific situation of the printer.

In this embodiment, the target model is preferably decomposed as follows: the specific steps of decomposing the target model into the components meeting the preset conditions include: layering the target model according to a horizontal segmentation mode, when two adjacent layers meet a preset combination condition, dividing the two adjacent layers into the same horizontal partition, otherwise, dividing the two adjacent layers into different horizontal partitions by taking a segmentation horizontal plane between the two adjacent layers as a boundary; the preset merging conditions include: in the two adjacent layers, for any one interlayer object in any one layer, only one interlayer object exists in the other layer, so that the distance between two interlayer objects meeting the two-dimensional geometric centroid is smaller than a second preset distance. The second predetermined distance is preferably √ 2 (2-square root) times the interlayer thickness.

As shown in fig. 7, the target model is sliced and layered in a horizontal segmentation manner, each slice is a layer, a specific slicing manner can be realized by 3D printing slicing software, and each independent part obtained after slicing is an independent interlayer object. And after the slice of each layer is obtained, sequentially analyzing the interlayer objects of the two adjacent layers according to a mode from bottom to top, namely comparing the distance between the geometric centroids of the interlayer objects of the two adjacent layers, merging the two layers when the distance is smaller than a second preset distance, otherwise, dividing the two layers into different partitions. As shown in fig. 7, the structure on the left side of fig. 7 is divided into two different partitions by the dotted line because the first hierarchy below the dotted line has only one interlayer object and the first hierarchy above the dotted line has two interlayer objects whose geometric centroid positions are largely changed and the merging condition is no longer satisfied, because the merging condition is satisfied by the part below the dotted line, which is bounded by the dotted line between partition 1 and partition 2.

Further, in the case shown in fig. 8, the next slice may obtain the interlayer objects a and C, and the previous slice may obtain only the interlayer object B, and although the merging condition is satisfied between the interlayer object a and the interlayer object B, the interlayer object C does not satisfy the merging condition, and thus, the interlayer object a and the interlayer object B are divided into two partitions by the division plane.

Further, in this embodiment, the preset merging condition further includes: and if the two adjacent layers are divided into the same horizontal subarea, judging whether the distance between the projections of the obtained split bodies on the horizontal plane is larger than a first preset distance, if so, dividing the two adjacent layers into the same horizontal subarea, otherwise, dividing the two adjacent layers into different horizontal subareas by taking the dividing horizontal plane between the two adjacent layers as a boundary.

Of course, it should be noted that, the interlayer objects may be merged first, all slices are merged to generate partitions, then whether horizontal interference occurs between the partitions is sequentially determined, and when horizontal interference occurs, the hierarchy where the interfered partition is located is further divided into one or more hierarchies.

In this embodiment, after the horizontal partition is determined, the printing order of each partition in the same horizontal partition is further optimized. The printing sequence specifically including the 3D printer is determined as follows: and in the same horizontal subarea, determining the position centers of the subareas, determining the distance between the subareas according to the distance between the position centers, and determining the printing sequence of the subareas in the same horizontal subarea in a mode of solving the shortest path by using the traveling quotient problem. Further, when the split body is used as the source position of the path jump, the geometric center of the horizontal plane where the top of the split body is located is used as the position center of the split body; when the split body is the target position of path jumping, the geometric shape of the horizontal plane where the bottom of the split body is located is taken as the position center of the split body.

Specifically, if the division body a and the division body B are arranged in the same horizontal partition, then when the distance from the division body a to the division body B is calculated, the geometric centroid of the horizontal plane on which the top of the division body a is located is taken as the position center a1 of the division body, and the geometric centroid of the horizontal plane on which the bottom of the division body B is taken as the position center B1 of the division body, then the distance between the a1 and the B1 is the distance from the division body a to the division body B. When the distance from the split B to the split A is calculated, the geometric centroid of the horizontal plane on which the bottom of the split A is located is taken as the position center a2 of the split, and the geometric centroid of the horizontal plane on which the top of the split B is located is taken as the position center B2 of the split, so that the distance between the B2 and the a2 is the distance from the split B to the split A. After the distances between the sub-sections are determined, how to determine the printing order of the sub-sections can be converted into a typical traveler problem. For the geometric characteristics of the determined sub-areas and the distances among the sub-areas, as long as a route passing through the sub-areas and passing through the sub-areas once is found, and the route does not return to the starting sub-areas, the total length of the route is the shortest, and the sequence of the route is the printing sequence of the sub-areas in the horizontal subarea. In this embodiment, the shortest path can be solved by an intelligent algorithm such as an ant colony algorithm.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned manner of determining the position center is only a preferred manner, and certainly, the position center of the split may also be determined by other manners, such as determining other preset horizontal planes in the horizontal partition, taking the geometric centroid of the cross section of the split on the preset horizontal plane as the position center when the preset horizontal plane intersects with the split, and taking the geometric centroid of the projection of the nearest top surface or bottom surface of the split and the preset horizontal plane on the preset horizontal plane as the position center when the preset horizontal plane does not intersect with the split. Of course, the geometric centroid of the projection of the split body on the preset horizontal plane can also be directly taken as the position center. The geometric center of the split can also be directly used as the position center of the split. Or based on the idea of the present invention, the technical solutions not specifically illustrated in the present application should fall within the protection scope of the present application.

A storage medium having stored thereon a program executable by a computer, the program when executed implementing an optimization method as defined in any one of the preceding claims.

A 3D printing device comprising a storage medium as described above.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention in any way. Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it is not intended to be limited thereto. Therefore, any simple modification, equivalent change and modification made to the above embodiments according to the technical spirit of the present invention should fall within the protection scope of the technical scheme of the present invention, unless the technical spirit of the present invention departs from the content of the technical scheme of the present invention.