Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2004) 23: 358365

DOI 10.1007/s00170-003-1575-4

O R I GI N A L A R T IC L E

C. C. Chang

Direct slicing and G-code contour for rapid prototyping machine

of UV resin spray using PowerSOLUTION macro commands

Received: 28 October 2002 / Accepted: 30 October 2002 / Published online: 18 December 2003

Springer-Verlag London Limited 2003

Abstract Rapid prototyping processes produce parts

layer by layer directly from 3D CAD models. An
important technique is required to slice the geometric
model of a part into layers and to generate a motion
code of the cross-sectional contour. Several slicing
methods are available, such as slicing from sterolithgraphy (STL) les, tolerate-error slicing, adaptive slicing, direct slicing, and, adaptive and direct slicing. This
paper proposes direct slicing from 3D CAD models
and generating a G-code contour of each layer using
PowerSOLUTION software (Delcam International,
Birmingham, UK). PowerSOLUTION includes two
main modules: PowerSHAPE is used to build 3D
CAD models and PowerMILL is used to produce GCode tool paths. It provides macro language, picture
les and cutting paths for secondary development
work.The authors used macro commands to write an
interface generating direct slicing from 3D CAD
models and G-code contours for all layers. Most wellknown controllers in the market accept the G-Code.
Therefore, it is easier to apply this scheme in a CNCmachining center to produce rapid prototyping such as
laminated object manufacturing (LOM) for complex
geometries. The interface was successfully applied the
interface to the UV resin spray rapid prototyping
(UVRS-RP) machine that was developed to produce
RP.
Keywords Direct slicing G-code contour UVRSRP PowerSOLUTION PowerSHAPE
PowerMILL

C. C. Chang
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Kun-Shan University of Technology,
Tainan 710, Taiwan
E-mail: je@mail.ksut.edu.tw

1 Introduction
Rapid prototyping (RP) is a new forming process that
can be classied as layer-by-layer material addition in
manufacturing. It can rapidly manufacture products
without a mould. The rst commercial RP system of
sterolithography apparatus (SLA) emerged in 1988 and
there were 2234 RP systems with about 20 kinds of
processes around the world by the end of 1996 [1]. The
dierent kinds of rapid prototyping machines (RPM)
were developed using dierent mechanisms or materials,
such as SLA, laminated object manufacturing (LOM),
selective laser sintering (SLS), fused deposition modeling
(FDM), and multi-jet modeling(MJM) [2, 3, 4]. System
manufacturers sold 3289 systems around the world by
the end of 1997 [5]. In the early days of RP, the automotive and aerospace industries dominated RP application. Now, RP has spread into many other industries,
such as tooling, product design, medical application,
architecture, and art jewelry, et al.
Most of the commercial RPMs produce parts
through material accumulated in parallel layers. Therefore, the study of slicing methods has become an
important subject of RP techniques. The most common
slicing procedure is producing cross-sectional data from
STL les. Approximating the surface with many small
planar triangular faces comprises the STL format of the
parts. In this way, the complex slicing algorithm is
simplied and the software speed is greatly improved.
Unfortunately, mistakes and errors exist simultaneously
in the nished part after the slicing process [6, 7]. Instead
of using an STL le, another method is to use dierent
format les as data interfaces from CAD to RP. There
are many dierent format les for this purpose, such as:
common layer interface(CLI ) les, rapid prototyping
interface (RPI) les, initial graphics exchange specication(IGES) les, Hewlett-Packard graphics language(HPGL) les, computerised tomography(CT)
data, and layer exchange ASCII format (LEAF). However, none of these les can eliminate mistakes and

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errors. There are several approaches to improving the

slicing method, such as direct slicing, adaptive slicing,
and direct and adaptive slicing [8, 9]. Chen et al. [9]
direct slices PowerSHAPE models so that customers can
use the PowerSHAPE package to develop their products. They use the AutoSection command to perform the
automatic slicing 3D CAD model and save the layers as
a PIC (picture) le. A PIC le in layer by layer can be
used in most RP processes.
This paper not only examines direct slicing from a 3D
CAD model, but also the generation of a G-Code contour for each layer using PowerSOLUTION software.
PowerSOLUTION is a powerful package for building
models in PowerSHAPE and for producing the G-Code
contour in PowerMILL. It provides macro language,
picture les and cutting paths for its secondary development work. The authors propose a direct slicing approach based on 3D CAD models in PowerSHAPE.
Then the G-Code contour of each layer is generated in
PowerMILL. Macro commands are used to write an
interface that combines the direct slicing from 3D CAD
models and produces the G-code contour for all layers.
The interface has been successfully applied to the
developed UV Resin Spray -rapid prototyping (UVRSRP) machine to produce rapid prototyping [10].

2 UV resin spray-rapid prototyping

The UVRS-RP was designed and assembled with the
nancial support of the National Science Council (NSC,
NSC89-2218-E-168-006, 2000) in Taiwan. It is a novel
approach to building an RP in a rather economic way.
The mechanism is shown in Fig. 1. The X-Y motion
table is controlled by a linear stepping motor (lp460460, Powerly Enterprise) and moved by magnetic
force. The table speed can be increased greatly. The
precision is 1 lm and repeatability is 3 lm in X-Y table
(dimensions, 460460 mm) [10]. A server motor (precision, 1 lm) is used to control the Z-direction motion.
Two nozzles (TS 5420, Techcon Systems) are used to
spray the two dierent types UV resins; the acrylic type
is for body material and the PU type is for support
material. The UV light (UV-Light-GY751, max. 3 kw,
UV Light Enterprise) is positioned on the top of the X-Y
table as shown in Fig. 2. The UV-resin is instantly cured
in a 2D cross-sectional layer by layer under UV light
exposure as shown in Fig. 3a. The nozzle diameter is
changeable, and are disposal nozzles as shown in
Fig. 3b. This makes it easier to arrange the various
diameters of the nozzles for dierent paths such as an
automatic tool changer (ATC) mechanism of a
machining center. An interface was created to translate
G-codes to motion paths of the nozzle (Motion Card:
DMC 1700, Galil Company).
The basic machine moves as follows:
1. First the nozzle sprays the cross-sectional area of the
body by the acrylic resin in one layer. Figure 4a

Fig. 1a,b The mechanism of UVRS-RP machine a, the appearance

of the UV-RP machine b

shows the direct slicing from 3D CAD that generates

all cross sections in front view.
2. Instantly, the material in body area is cured with UV
light. The planar deection can be decreased since it
is 2D contour curing
3. If a support must be built, another nozzle sprays PU
resin to ll up the support area. Then, the support
part is cured with UV light. The nozzles raise one
pitch in the Z-direction and continue steps 1 to 3 till
the model is fully built.
Since the properties of materials between body and
support are dierent, they can be clearly distinguished
and separated using proper force. Fig. 4b shows a ow
chart on determining the support area in each layer. The
support area is shown in Fig. 4c in a cross section.

3 STL format
Two main numerical scheme are accounted for in RP
systems:

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Fig. 2 The mechanism of three
direction of nozzle motion

(1) How to slice a 3D model into 2D cross-sectional

contours
(2) How to arrange the nozzle-path to ll materials up
inside the 2D cross-section (or to cut the boundary
of the 2D cross-section for LOM)
The various CAD systems available today have different CAD format les. Therefore, a common interface

between the CAD and the RP systems is required to

design a new RPM.
The STL le is the most common interface between
CAD and RP systems. The STL format is a polyhedral
representation of the part with triangular facets. It is
generated from a precise CAD model using a process
known as tessellation, which generates triangles to
approximate the CAD model. The STL le can either be
in ASCII or binary format. The size of the ASCII STL
format is larger than that of the binary format, but it can
be read. In an STL le, triangular facets are described by
a set of X, Y and Z coordinates for each of three vertices
and a normal unit vector to indicate the side of the facet,
which is outside the object shown in Fig. 5. Errors in
STL format for approaching the 3D CAD model
sometimes can not be avoided. Also, the computing
process consumes too much time. A comparison of the
STL section and direct slicing section is provided in
Fig. 6. The example shows that direct slicing is more
accurate than the STL section.

4 Producing the direct slicing and nozzle paths

from PowerSOLUTION
4.1 Direct slicing from 3D CAD models
in PowerSHAPE

Fig. 3a,b The model accumulated layer by layer through injection

nozzle a The dierent diameters of disposal nozzles b

PowerSHAPE is the CAD module of PowerSOLUTION. The 3D CAD models can be built using
PowerSHAPE. There are three dierent slicing methods
in PowerSHAPE as indicated in the following.

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Fig. 4ac Direct slicing from
3D CAD to generate all cross
sections in front view a, the ow
chart of determining the
support area sprayed b, the
representation of support area,
Asj c

1. Recording sequences of commands in a macro le

2. Writing a macro le in a text editor
3. Developing an interface by PowerSHAPE variables
with C or VB languages
The rst two methods were used to direct slice the
model [9], but the macro commands must be modied
for other models. The third method is more convenient than the other two methods without changing
the macro lesince there are variable parameters in the
interface. An interface that provides automatic and
direct slicing of the model in PowerSHAPE was
developed.
A scheme for producing 2D contour from models is
shown in Fig. 7. First, the X-Y planers for all layers
are produced to slice the model. Then, the boundaries
of the intersection between the X-Y planers and the
model is located in all layers. There are three steps for

developing an interface of automatic slicing algorithm

with VB in PowerSHAPE:
1. Load the link le between PowerSOLUTION and
VB. The name of link-le is SolutionOLE.ocx. This
must be put in drv:\WINNT\system32 and REGSVR32.exe must be executed to connect the VB and
PowerSOLUTION
2. The interface of the automatic slicing is written with
VB language. The ow chart is shown in Fig. 8 and
the dialog box for the slicing interface is shown in
Fig. 9. There are two main parameters, slicing
thickness and slicing number, given in Fig. 9. When
the slicing pitch is entered, it automatically produces
2D contours in the model, as shown in Fig. 10
3. All self-developed macro les must be put into
the PowerSHAPE environment. Firstly, enter the
pulldown menu to nd the function \Application\

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Fig. 5 The triangular format
for STL les

Fig. 7 The scheme of producing 2D contours from the model in

PowerSHAPE

Add-Ins\Manager, and load in the name and path

of macro les for automatic slicing in PowerSHAPE
After nishing the above procedures, the interface for
automatic slicing can be tested as follows:

Fig. 6ac 2D contour by direct slicing from 3D CAD model a,

2D contour by slicing from STL format b, the errors between two
cases c

1. Load 3D CAD model have into PowerSHAPE as

shown in Fig. 6a
2. Execute the macro le for auto-slicing. The dialog
box, which includes slicing thickness and slicing
number, is shown in Fig. 9

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Fig. 10 An example for the direct slicing from a model (the green
lines are 2D slicing contours)

Fig. 8 The ow chart of automatic slicing algorithm by VB

language

paths of each layer are generated and then the motion

code is transmitted to the controller(DMC 1700, Galil
Company) to drive the nozzle. Another interface for
translating G-codes into special codes that can be accepted by DMC 1700 must also be developed.
All application interfaces for UVRS-RP machine
have been successfully developed. In Fig. 11 the yellow
lines show the nozzle path of all layers on the right hand
side, the various nozzle diameters can be chosen on the
left hand side, and the red lines show nozzle path in the
Z-direction form bottom to top.

5 Results and Discussion

Fig. 9 The dialog box of the interface of automatic slicing included
slicing thickness and slicing number

3. 2D contours can be generated in the macro command

as shown in Fig. 10. The green lines represent the 2D
contour of all layers

4.2 Motion path of the nozzle from PowerMILL

The motion path of nozzles is generated in PowerMILL,
which is the CAM module of PowerSOLUTION. The
main purpose of PowerMILL is to produce the G-code
of the tool path. The main dierence between the cutting
tool and the nozzle is the motion in the Z-direction. The
nozzle is used to spray materials on each layer from
bottom to top while the tool is upside down. Nozzle

In Fig. 12a, it is clear that the boundaries of both

body and support material are quite smooth when
using direct slicing scheme. Also, the support material
(PU resin) is easy to separate from the body material
(acrylic resin) as shown in Fig. 12b. PU resin is soft
and bendable at room temperature while acrylic resin
is hard and stretchable. It is shown in Fig. 12c. An
example of RP that was completely built using the
UVRS-RP machine is given in Fig. 13. Advantages
resulting from applying the VB to develop direct
slicing and nozzle path interfaces in PowerSOLUTION are:
1. When direct slicing from a 3D CAD model, errors
and mistakes can be greatly reduced, and the speed of
calculation can be accelerated
2. Nozzles can be arranged like machining tools, so it
is possible to assign dierent nozzle diameters to

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Fig. 11 An example for
producing Nozzle paths
generated from 2D contour for
all slicing layers (The dierent
diameter of nozzles can be
chosen in the left side)

dierent paths. The smaller nozzle, for example, can

be used to spray the boundary of each layer, while
the larger nozzle can be used to ll up the inside of
boundary. This can greatly increase the accuracy
and speed of RP. This method will also be used in
future studies
3. For most of printing types from RP manufacturers
such as Sanders, Actua, 3D Printing, etc., the life of
nozzle is limited and expensive. The disposal nozzle is
easy to maintain and is very inexpensive
4. Generally, it is dicult to write control systems and
interfaces for developing a RP system within a short
time period. This paper presented an easy way of
developing the interface for the needs of dierent
RPMs using macro commands in PowerSOLUTION
The scheme and RP machines have a number of
limitations as well, such as:
1. The control system and transfer interfaces must be
mounted in PowerSOLUTION environments
2. The amount of material sprayed is dicult to predict
in the starting and ending periods of all paths. This

aects the accuracy of the RP model. Therefore, each

nozzle path must be extended to avoid these two
periods when the RP body is being built
3. The support material in the inner structure is hard to
remove cleanly
4. The concentration in the material depends on many
parameters and is hard to control. The Taguchi
Method was used here to nd optimal conditions for
the present

6 Conclusion
Using macro commands in a commercial CAD/CAM
system is a good way to develop control system and
transfer interfaces through VB or C languages in an RP
machine. This paper demonstrates that it performs well
in direct slicing scheme and in arranging nozzle paths
through PowerSOLUTION environments. There are
still some limitations in both software and hardware, but
these should be improved in the future.

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Fig. 13 Rapid prototyping made by UVRS-RP machine (slicing

thickness: 1 mm, nozzle diameter: 0.5 mm)

Fig. 12ac The body (acrylic resin) and support (PU resin)
material cured by UV lamp in one layer

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