TRAvel Slicer: Continuous Extrusion Toolpaths for 3D Printing

Video

DOI

In this paper we present Travel Reduction Algorithm (TRAvel) Slicer, which minimizes travel movements in 3D printing. Conventional slicing software generates toolpaths with many travel movements--movements without material extrusion. Some 3D printers are incapable of starting and stopping extrusion and it is difficult to impossible to control the extrusion of many materials. This makes toolpaths with travel movements unsuitable for a wide range of printers and materials. We developed the open-source TRAvel Slicer to enable the printing of complex 3D models on a wider range of printers and in a wider range of materials than is currently possible. TRAvel Slicer minimizes two different kinds of travel movements--what we term Inner- and Outer-Model travel. We minimize Inner-Model travel (travel within the 3D model) by generating space-filling Fermat spirals for each contiguous planar region of the model. We minimize Outer-Model travel (travels outside of the 3D model) by ordering the printing of different branches of the model, thus limiting transitions between branches. We present our algorithm and software and then demonstrate how: 1) TRAvel Slicer makes it possible to generate high-quality prints from a metal-clay material, CeraMetal, that is functionally unprintable using an off-the-shelf slicer. 2) TRAvel Slicer dramatically increases the printing efficiency of traditional plastic 3D printing compared to an off-the-shelf slicer.