A PORTABLE GRAPHICS PROGRAM FOR RAPID PROTOTYPING FILE DISPLAY, REPAIR, AND INTERCHANGE

摘要

This paper describes a portable interactive graphics program that can be used to preview, repair, and interchange rapid prototype files. Named glstl, this program uses the OpenGL graphics API to achieve high 3D performance. Because it uses the GLUT windowing toolkit and the GLUT user interface package, glstl has been able to be ported to UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh systems, glstl is also freely available on the web. gistl is able to: 1. Import ASCII and binary STL files 2. Import color STL files using an ASCII color STL extension 3. Display and interactively transform in 3D 4. Display as points, lines, reduced lines, shaded surfaces, or shrunk triangles 5. Scale and re-orient parts 6. Detect and fix model cracks and reversed triangles 7. Use color to show difficulty of LOM de-scrapping in particular orientations 8. Use color to show difficulty of mold creation in different orientations 9. Display parts using 3D ChromaDepth 10. Export parts in STL, color STL, or PLY (used by color Z Corp machine) The paper shows examples of these features and will explain the algorithms behind them. Using this program, our RP operation has become very efficient. We have used RP not just for mechanical design prototyping, but for scientific visualization as well.