Importing and reshaping digitized data for use in rapid prototyping: a system for sculpting polygonal mesh surfaces

Focuses on the development and testing of software for reading and formatting digitized data and exporting it to rapid prototyping (RP). Research and development over two years has involved the implementation of special computer‐aided sculpting software that runs on UNIX workstations and which imports 3D polygonal mesh data in STL, OBJ and DXF formats, then re‐shapes it, much like the pushing and pulling on the surface of a rubber membrane. Specifying a wall thickness gives the model volume, prior to exporting an STL file. Describes how data has been imported form laser digitizing systems, had its shape changed and then how RP parts have been created from the model data.