Abstract: Parallel approaches for packing arbitrary 3D objects into fixed volumes are characterized by rearranging all of the parts simultaneously and evaluating the results. The practical application of each proposed approach to real world problems has been hindered by the computational time required to find a solution or over simplifications made to reduce the time required. A serial approach is proposed in this paper that reduces the complexity of the problem domain by packing each object one a time as `best as possible', thus more closely emulating the way a human might arrange items in the trunk of a car. This technique has enabled the implementation of an efficient packing algorithm that is not limited by working with the object's bounding boxes and or by a restricted set of permissible orientations. Preliminary tests demonstrate that the technique reduces computational times, on average, by a factor of 19 or more compared to an existing technique. Furthermore, the new approach is guaranteed to produce a viable packing arrangement for a subset of the parts even if every part cannot possibly be accommodated in the available volume, a typical situation found in rapid prototyping service bureaus. The same cannot be said for existing parallel packing algorithm implementations.!7
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