1 Rapid Prototyping Laboratory, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641004.
2 Dept. of Mechnical Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore-641004.
* Corresponding Author.
In Rapid prototyping, slicing of the CAD model of a part to be produced is one of the important steps. Mostly, the cross sectional data is generated from STL (Stereolithography) files. During triangulation, the errors such as gaps, missing facets, etc will be created. To avoid these errors, this paper presents a AutoCAD based direct slicing and adaptive direct slicing approach for the functional model from RPT processes. This approach has been tested on a typical part with cylindrical features and used as a functional model. Further the performance of the approach has been tested with some other file formats also. The sliced layers are saved in .dxf, .sat, and STEP files. Analysis is also carried out to understand the geometrical behavior of the fabricated model using Fused Deposition Modeling. The interface tools and menus had customized for the AutoCAD users towards the Rapid manufacturing as an alternative to RP pre-processing software.
Direct slicing, Adaptive Direct Slicing, Functional Model, Geometrical analysis
