Spheriolithography

From scripting
Revision as of 20:03, 24 April 2017 by Nickpisca (talk | contribs) (Created page with "<div align="right">Back to Academic_Archives.</div> __TOC__ === History === Spheriolithography is a rapid prototyping file preparation technique invented and developed by...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
Back to Academic_Archives.

History

Spheriolithography is a rapid prototyping file preparation technique invented and developed by Nick Pisca. It involves taking a driver geometry, like a NURBS Surface or polygon, and populate the surface with an even density of merged spheres. Pisca has developed several scripts in different platforms to accomplish this task.


Interpolation

The process requires an algorithm to determine the polygon count or UV count and to interpolate between the principle variables. Depending upon the output file type, users can automate the colorization of each individual cell, or use a universal color for the entire aggregation. Fitness criteria for instantiated aggregation are (1) distance to neighbors, (2) approximation from surface, and (3) gaps in the merging.


Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

  • Ability to print any complex self-intersecting surface
  • Promotes a cellular aesthetic
  • Can produce multiple colors per driver surface

Disadvantages:

  • File sizes can be large, even without facet optimization
  • Difficult to achieve smoothing without large cell counts
  • May require lengthy calculation times
  • May require 64-bit or heavy processing


Pertinent Links

CNC Technology


Posted Projects

MEL Scripts

Construction functions