TWI424917B - Control method of three-dimensional make-up machine - Google Patents

Description

Stereo molding mechanism control method

This case relates to a control method, especially a control method of a three-dimensional forming mechanism.

Rapid Prototyping (RP technology) is developed based on the concept of stacking layers of pyramids. The main technical feature is the rapidity of molding, without any tools, molds and tools. Automatically and quickly convert any complex shape design into a 3D solid model (also known as 3DRP technology), which greatly shortens the development cycle of new products and reduces R&D costs, ensuring the time-to-market and new product development of new products. Success rate, which provides a more complete and convenient product design communication tool between technicians and non-technical personnel such as technicians and business decision makers, users of products, thus significantly improving the competition of products in the market. The ability of the company and the company to respond quickly to the market.

However, the stereoscopic molding mechanism control method used by the conventional RP technology often provides an input unit such as a keyboard, a mouse or a button, and provides a display unit such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube screen (Cathode Ray). Tube monitor, CRT monitor) and so on. Display unit and input The input units are independently and separately disposed on the constructed base of the three-dimensional forming mechanism, wherein the input unit is used for the user to manipulate and input information and information, and controls various operations of the three-dimensional forming mechanism; the display unit is used to display, for example, An operation interface composed of a text structure, which can include various information, information, and functional options of the stereoscopic molding mechanism. However, since the display unit and the input unit are independently and separately disposed instead of being presented on the same area, when the user wants to manipulate the conventional stereo forming mechanism, the operation interface displayed by the display unit must be viewed first, and then according to the operation interface. The input unit is controlled correspondingly, so that various functions and messages displayed on the operation interface are executed or displayed, so that the manipulation and operation of the three-dimensional forming mechanism can be completed.

More importantly, the cutting method used by the conventional three-dimensional forming mechanism mostly uses the Topology to achieve the generation of the sliced contour. Since there is no input order of the normalized mesh, the arrangement of the mesh is not sequential. The tangent and tangent of the mesh are also not sequential. Therefore, the connection process that constitutes the mesh and the search process of the contour connection must take a huge amount of computation to perform the layering operation, resulting in a severely low slice speed, which in turn affects the slice software. The execution efficiency, and the method of cutting layer using the topology relationship, when encountering the discontinuity of the surface, the problem that the derived surface and the surface cannot be connected, so that the conventional cutting method cannot be applied to the object of the discontinuous surface Very inconvenient. Moreover, the printing resolution used by the conventional three-dimensional forming mechanism mostly falls on the level of 300 x 450 dots (Dot Per Inch, DPI), which not only has the disadvantage of poor resolution, but also cuts layers due to the topological relationship. The incompleteness of the model caused the three-dimensional model to be inconsistent with expectations, and even caused the problem of molding failure.

Furthermore, the stereoscopic molding mechanism used by the conventional RP technology often needs to be equipped with two or more control computers, which are responsible for internal driving, calculation, and external operation. However, the connection and operation of computers is handled by external operations. The computer transmits the received commands and messages to the internal drive and computing computer, and the internal drive and computing computer starts the calculation and control operations, while the external operation computer enters the idle state at this time; when the operation is completed, The computer for internal drive and calculation transfers the data back to the computer for external operation, and the external operation computer starts outputting and displaying, while the internal drive and calculation computer enters the idle state. Continuous waiting for each other, causing the computer to cross idle, increasing the waste of equipment, time and power costs, and increasing the complexity of user operations, also increases the burden of labor costs in disguise.

In addition, the data transmission interface between the conventional control computer uses the traditional RS-232 serial port, the maximum transmission rate is only 20kbps, and it has no hot plug function, which is easy to cause damage to the internal components of the three-dimensional molding mechanism, and anti-noise effect. Poor, often makes the intersection of the control computer idle and waiting period is too long, if the model of the three-dimensional forming mechanism is more complicated, it may even happen that the external operation computer is idle for more than one day. All of the above situations have caused a lot of tangible and intangible waste of resources, and even affected the ecological environment of the earth, and it is necessary to improve.

The main purpose of this case is to provide a control method for the three-dimensional forming mechanism, which solves the problem of the ease of use of the conventional control method interface, the complexity of the computer system and the idle time, the limitation of printing the pipeline, the use of the low-rate transmission interface, and the risk of equipment damage. High, low print resolution, poor efficiency of the slice method, and the inability to handle discontinuous surface cuts.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a control method for a three-dimensional forming mechanism, which can realize an intuitive and intuitive interface operation, a single and simple computer system, a multi-component and data-portable printing pipeline, and use a high-rate transmission interface to enhance Transmission efficiency, The hot-swap protection mechanism reduces the risk of equipment damage, improves print resolution, and improves the efficiency of the cutting layer and the handling of discontinuous surface objects using the intelligent discontinuous slitting method.

In order to achieve the above object, a wider aspect of the present invention provides a method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism, comprising at least the steps of: providing a three-dimensional forming mechanism comprising at least a main circuit system, an interface system and a universal serial bus ( a USB) transmission interface, the main circuit system controls the interface system, the interface system includes a printing drive platform for the user to operate the stereoscopic molding mechanism; and provides a computer system including a data transmission platform, the data transmission platform is based The operation instruction performs all layers of operations to generate a printed data to convert the sliced program data of the externally operated three-dimensional object into a two-dimensional sliced format image data; the data of the computer system is transmitted through the universal serial bus (USB) transmission interface The two-dimensional slice printing format image data transmission converted by the transmission platform is used for data reception, and the data is interpreted and the data format is arranged, thereby completing the driving pre-work and then transmitting to the printing system of the interface system. The printing drive platform is driven to complete the formation of the printing powder.

1‧‧‧Three-dimensional forming mechanism

10‧‧‧Touch panel

100‧‧‧ display unit

101‧‧‧ input unit

102‧‧‧Processing unit

103‧‧‧Function Menu Area

104‧‧‧Display operation area

105‧‧‧Status display

106‧‧‧Motor control

107‧‧‧Correction control

108‧‧‧Other controls

109‧‧‧Information display

1000‧‧‧ touch area

11‧‧‧Printing module

12‧‧‧Main circuit system

121‧‧‧ temporary storage powder tank

122‧‧‧ temporary storage powder tank

1221‧‧‧Advanced Reduced Instruction Set Machine

1222‧‧‧Digital Signal Processor

1223‧‧‧FlexRISC processor

1224‧‧‧Flash memory

1225‧‧‧ Dynamic Random Access Memory

1226‧‧‧Reading memory

1227‧‧‧Motor drive

13‧‧‧Interface system

131‧‧‧ powder supply tank

132‧‧‧ powder supply tank

1321‧‧‧Stepper motor

1322‧‧‧DC brushless motor

1323‧‧‧Glue system

1324‧‧‧Continuous glue supply system

1325‧‧‧heating system

1326‧‧‧ powder supply system

1327‧‧‧Powder recycling system

1328‧‧‧Human Machine Interface Control System

1329‧‧‧Servo motor

14‧‧‧ lifting equipment

24‧‧‧ computer system

25‧‧‧Transport interface

26‧‧‧Storage media

41‧‧‧Grid

42‧‧‧cut plane

43‧‧‧cut points

P, Q, R, S, T, U, V‧‧‧ cut points

44‧‧‧discontinuous grid

45‧‧‧cut plane

8‧‧‧Powder filter

9‧‧‧Building the base

S1~S3‧‧‧Control method steps of the three-dimensional forming mechanism

S501-S510‧‧‧ This case applies to the cutting step procedure of the three-dimensional forming mechanism

Vt‧‧‧ touch signal

0°‧‧‧polar axis

Θ1, θ2, θ3, θ4, θ5‧‧‧ angle

Fig. 1A is a perspective view showing the three-dimensional structure of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1B is a circuit block diagram of the touch panel shown in FIG. 1A.

1C to 1D are schematic diagrams showing when different functions of the operation interface displayed by the touch panel shown in FIG. 1A are executed.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view showing the disassembly of the powder filtering device of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the present invention.

Figure 3A is a flow chart of the control method of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the preferred embodiment of the present invention Figure.

Fig. 3B is a schematic view showing the structure of the control method of the three-dimensional molding mechanism of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3C is a schematic diagram showing the control of the hardware structure of the control method of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4A: It shows a continuous tangent point connection diagram of a continuous surface object in all planes.

Figure 4B: It is a schematic diagram showing the connection of a discontinuous surface object to a tangent point in all planes.

Figure 5: It is a layering method suitable for a three-dimensional forming mechanism of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 6A: It is a schematic diagram of the structure of a discontinuous surface object.

Fig. 6B is a schematic diagram showing the outline of a non-closed slice layer of all layer planes in Fig. 6A.

Figure 6C: This is a schematic diagram of the non-closed slice profile of Figure 6B joined to a closed slice profile.

Fig. 6D is a schematic view showing the printing of achromatic liquid inside the closed slit profile shown in Fig. 6C.

7A to 7D: It is a schematic diagram of the position of the polar axis of the polar coordinate.

Fig. 8A to Fig. 8F are diagrams showing the connection flow of connecting the non-closed slice contours to the closed slice contours.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram showing the selection of the connection path of the tangent point Q shown in Fig. 8A.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the selection of the connection path of the tangent point T shown in Fig. 8C.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram showing the selection of the connection path of the tangent point V shown in Fig. 8E.

Some exemplary embodiments embodying the features and advantages of the present invention are described in detail in the following description. It is to be understood that the present invention is capable of various modifications in the various aspects of the present invention, and the description and drawings are intended to be illustrative and not limiting.

Please refer to FIG. 1A , which is a perspective view of a three-dimensional structure of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1A , the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1 of the present invention mainly comprises a touch panel on a construction base 9 . 10, a printing module 11, a plurality of temporary storage powder tanks, a plurality of powder supply tanks and a lifting device 14 and a construction tank (not shown), the construction tank has a construction platform inside, and is connected with the lifting device 14 The lifting and lowering of the inside of the construction tank is mainly carried out according to the driving of the lifting device 14 (not shown), so that the construction platform is used to provide the construction powder placement required for producing the three-dimensional object, and the layer stack is printed by the printing module 11 Glue molding. The plurality of powder supply tanks may include two powder supply tanks 131 and 132, which are mainly disposed on the left and right sides of the three-dimensional molding mechanism 1 for providing the construction powder required for producing the three-dimensional object. For example, the plurality of temporary storage powder slots may include two temporary storage powder slots 121 and 122, which are respectively disposed on the left and right sides of the printing module 11, and are connected to the left and right sides together with the printing module 11 for powder supply. The slot 131 is disposed on the same side as the temporary storage powder tank 121 for providing the construction powder to the temporary storage powder tank 121 for subsequent construction and paving, and the powder supply tank 132 is disposed in cooperation with the temporary storage powder tank 122. On the same side, to provide the construction powder to the temporary storage powder tank A subsequent two-way construction of the paving layer is performed in the 122, and the printing module 11 is constructed on the construction base to control the displacement, and the powder is sprayed on the internal construction platform of the construction tank to form a three-dimensional object.

Moreover, one of the three-dimensional forming mechanisms provided in the present invention further uses an intuitive and graphical human-machine interface architecture. The touch panel 10 is used to display the control input and the device state in the same area. The user can intuitively use the touch operation and directly observe the graphical display effect by the touch panel 10; compared with the conventional stereoscopic molding The mechanism uses a button and a small LCD, and the control unit composed of a keyboard or knob-type operation interface cannot achieve intuitive operation. In addition, the input and display units cannot be presented in the same area, which leads to the planning of two spaces during the design of the mechanism, resulting in an additional burden of space use and aesthetic design. The intuitive graphical interface proposed in this case utilizes a page-based switching method to match the touch effect, and the display unit and the input unit are presented in the same area to achieve a more intuitive operating environment. Intuitive and graphical human-machine interface not only achieves more intuitive operation, but also improves the readability of the device state, the user can understand and learn the operation of the device more clearly, and the functional interface provides better operating efficiency. It also brings extra benefits to the aesthetic design of the institutional space.

Please refer to FIG. 1B and FIG. 1A. FIG. 1B is a circuit block diagram of the touch panel shown in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the touch panel 10 is substantially disposed in the construction. The upper area of the pedestal 9 is not limited thereto, and the touch panel 10 can be, but not limited to, a resistive touch panel, an infrared touch panel or a capacitive inductive touch panel, and the touch panel 10 is An operation interface (as shown in FIG. 1C and FIG. 1D) is displayed. The operation interface includes the function options, related information and information of the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1. In addition, the user can touch the display of the touch panel 10. Functional options of the operation interface to drive the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1 to correspond to the function selected by the user Start functioning.

In this embodiment, the touch panel 10 can be, for example, but not limited to, a resistive touch panel, an infrared touch panel, or a capacitive touch panel, and includes a display unit 100, an input unit 101, and a processing unit. Unit 102. The display unit 100 can be, but is not limited to, a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube monitor (CRT monitors), etc., for displaying an operation interface, wherein the operation interface is selected. The display unit 100 further has a touch area 1000 on the touch panel 10, and the touch range of the touch area 1000 is substantially Corresponding to the area that can be displayed by the touch panel 10, that is, corresponding to the operation interface, when the user wants to select the function option of the operation interface displayed by the touch panel 10, it is selected by touching the touch panel 10 The function selects a specific contact corresponding to the touch area 1000 to control the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1 to perform a corresponding function operation.

The input unit 101 is substantially corresponding to the touch area 1000 of the display unit 100. When the user touches any contact of the touch area 1000 to select the corresponding function, the input unit 101 corresponds to the touch. The contact outputs a touch signal Vt at the position of the touch area 1000.

The processing unit 102 is electrically connected to the input unit 101 for receiving the touch signal Vt outputted by the input unit 101, and controls the stereo forming mechanism 1 to perform a corresponding function operation according to the touch signal Vt. In addition, in the present embodiment, the processing unit 102 is also electrically connected to the display unit 100. When the processing unit 102 receives the touch signal Vt, the processing unit 102 controls the display unit 100 to display a corresponding screen according to the touch signal Vt.

Since the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1 of the present invention integrates the display unit 100 and the input unit 101 to form the touch panel 10, the display unit 100 and the input unit 101 are actually presented on the same area, and thus, when the user is performing When the three-dimensional forming mechanism 1 is operated, the function of the operation interface displayed on the display unit 100 can be intuitively touched to control the three-dimensional forming mechanism 1 to perform corresponding functional operations. Therefore, the three-dimensional forming mechanism 1 of the present invention is more convenient and The user-friendly operation mode, in addition, the space utilization ratio of the construction base 9 of the present invention can also be improved by the touch panel 10 which only needs to be provided as a single component.

The operation interface displayed by the touch panel 10 of the present invention will be exemplarily described below. Please refer to FIG. 1C and FIG. 1D, together with FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, wherein FIG. 1C and FIG. 1D respectively show different functions of the operation interface displayed by the touch panel shown in FIG. 1A are executed. Schematic diagram. As shown in the figure, the operation interface displayed by the display unit 100 of the present embodiment may be, but is not limited to, including a function menu area 103 and a display operation area 104, wherein the function menu area 103 indicates that the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1 has The functional options include, for example, a status display 105 showing the current operational state of the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1, a motor control 106 for controlling the internal motor operation of the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1, a correction control 107 for causing the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1 to perform a correlation correction function, and other controls 108 and The function information display 109 and the like of the related information of the machine of the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1 are displayed, and when the user selects the function option displayed in the touch function menu area 103 to select the function to be executed by the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1, the function menu area 103 The displayed function options may be, but are not limited to, switching in a webpage-type page switching manner. At the same time, the display operation area 104 may display an operation button and/or an operation button of the function option corresponding to the function option selected by the user. Related information, etc.

For example, when the user touches the status display 105 on the function menu area 103, As shown in FIG. 1C, the input unit 101 outputs a touch signal Vt indicating that the status display 105 is touched corresponding to the position of the touched contact in the touch area 1000, so the processing unit 102 touches The control unit 100 controls the display unit 100 to display the corresponding screen, and even if the display operation area 104 correspondingly displays the current operation state of the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1, when the user touches the motor control 106 on the function menu area 103, As shown in FIG. 1D, the input unit 101 outputs a touch signal Vt representing the touch of the motor control 106 corresponding to the position of the touched contact in the touch area 1000, so the processing unit 102 responds to the touch signal Vt. The manipulation display unit 100 displays the corresponding screen, and even the display operation area 104 correspondingly displays a plurality of direction buttons and/or related information that can control the movement of the motor in the X, Y, and Z axis directions.

In addition, dust powder which is lighter in weight or smaller in particle size may fly in the inner working space during the spreading process, and may also hit the partial structure and cause rebounding dust when the construction powder falls from the through hole of the dusting and dustproof member. Powder, and the construction powder falling into the powder collecting tank may also raise dust powder due to impact rebound, causing contamination of the internal working space. In this embodiment, the powder filtering device is further utilized to improve the recovery efficiency of the dust powder, so that the three-dimensional The forming mechanism can operate normally in a non-polluting environment. Referring to Fig. 2, the powder filtering device 8 of the present invention is mainly used for sucking and filtering the dust powder which is flying during the operation of the three-dimensional forming mechanism 1.

The design concept of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the present case further uses a printable printable pipe. Portable printing is based on the mobile media used today, such as USB memory. When the stereo forming mechanism is installed in an unsuitable computer system environment, it can be regarded as a device directly through the mobile storage device. The data input source transmits the printed data that has been sliced through the USB transmission interface to the device for printing. The only printing tube compared to the conventional three-dimensional forming mechanism The channel uses the transmission interface to send the data of the external operation computer through the layering program to the device for printing. If the printing environment lacks the external operation computer, the device will no longer have the printing function.

Portable printing can provide additional printing channels for the three-dimensional forming mechanism. In addition to the printing method of inserting and printing, when the same molded product is to be printed, the cut data of the molded product can be reused, saving the cutting layer. The processing time of the program, and the elimination of the unstable factors that may be caused by the external operation of the computer, directly print.

Therefore, the present invention proposes an architecture in which a stereoscopic molding mechanism uses a universal serial bus (USB) interface. Using a USB with a high transfer rate as a transmission interface, it is possible to transfer print data to the device side for printing operations. Compared with the conventional three-dimensional forming mechanism, RS232 is used as the transmission interface, and the theoretical specification transmission rate is about 20K. Bps, however, the data transmitted by the three-dimensional forming mechanism is the data after the cutting process of the molded product. According to the size of the molded product and the thickness of the cut layer, the total amount of data may reach thousands of image data, and such a large amount of data must pass through the transmission interface. It can be transferred to the device for printing. If a lower rate transmission interface is used, the overall molding speed will be slowed down.

In this case, the universal serial bus is used as the transmission interface, which will enable the data transmission to be completed more efficiently. With the improvement of the technical specifications and versions, the opportunity for increasing the forming speed of the three-dimensional forming mechanism is increased. Therefore, the stereoscopic molding mechanism of the present invention can use the structure of the hot plug protection mechanism, and the hot plugging mechanism can effectively suppress the damage of the internal parts of the device, and provide a safety protection mechanism for the internal electronic components of the device, compared with the conventional stereoscopic molding mechanism. With hot plugging mechanism, users must pay attention to any link at any time when operating the equipment, avoiding inadvertent insertion and removal, resulting in internal parts of the equipment being affected by abnormal currents and causing damage to the parts. As a habit, the equipment will be damaged over time, increasing the user's operational burden. The hot-swap protection mechanism can provide the function of inserting and removing the connecting device without turning off the power when the three-dimensional forming mechanism is operated, and does not cause the device or the computer system parts to be burnt, and the plug-and-play function can be realized.

Please refer to FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B , which are respectively a flow chart of the control method of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the preferred embodiment of the present invention and a schematic diagram of the control method of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B, the control method of the three-dimensional molding mechanism of the present invention includes the following steps. First, as shown in step S1, a stereoscopic molding mechanism is provided, including at least one main circuit system, one interface system, and a universal A serial bus (USB) transmission interface, the main circuit system controls the interface system, the interface system includes a printing drive platform for the user to operate the three-dimensional molding mechanism. Please refer to FIG. 3C, which is a schematic diagram of the main control of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the main circuit system includes an Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) 1221 and a digital signal processor (Digital Signal). Processor, DSP) 1222, FlexRISC processor 1223, flash memory 1224, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) 1225, read-only memory (ROM) 1226 a control system composed of a wafer such as a motor driver 1227; and the interface system 13 includes a printing drive platform including a stepping motor 1321, a DC brushless motor 1322, and a servo motor 1329. A motor drive system, a glue application system 1323, a continuous glue supply system 1324, a heating and temperature control system 1325, a powder supply system 1326, a powder recovery system 1327, a human machine interface control system 1328, and the like are formed.

In some embodiments, the motor drive system utilizes a motor of the main circuit system 12 The driver 1227 sends the control signals required by the motors (the positive/reverse signal (CW/CCW) of the X-axis servo motor 1329, the pulse width modulation signal (PWM) of the Y-axis DC brushless motor 1322, and the Z-axis step. The forward/reverse signal (CW/CCW) of the motor 1321 is advanced, and each motor is driven by each corresponding motor driver 1227 (X-axis servo motor 1329, Y-axis DC brushless motor 1322, and Z-axis stepping motor). 1321), start the exercise, and complete the required action according to the function.

The glue dispensing system 1323 includes the above-mentioned printing module 11 . The printing module 11 is configured to be displaced on the construction base 9 and includes a magnetic ruler and a heater head for performing a spray. Printing action, and the printing module 11 prints the best resolution of 500 to 600 dots per inch, ie 600 x 500 dpi (dots per inch), and the glue system 1323 The closed circuit system of the main circuit system 12 with the magnetic ruler is used to confirm the position signal of the inkjet head and control whether the heater of the inkjet head needs to select and act on the glue, that is, the closed loop system of the magnetic ruler is provided. The position signal of the ink jet head is supplied to the main circuit system 12, and the main circuit system 12 supplies a start signal to the heater of the ink jet head. The continuous glue supply system 1324 is independently operated and attached to the glue dispensing system 1323 to directly supply continuous glue supply to the ink jet head for continuous ink supply printing.

The heating thermostat system 1325 includes a temperature sensor disposed at a position near the temporary storage powder tank of the three-dimensional forming mechanism 1, and the main circuit system 12 is matched with the temperature sensor to return a type of analog signal, and the ratio is compared. The signal is converted into a digital signal (AC/DC) and transmitted to the main circuit system 12, and the heater circuit for controlling the inkjet head is transmitted by the main circuit system 12 by using the signal, and the heater is appropriately adjusted according to the set space temperature. Turn on or off, 俾 complete the heating and constant temperature action.

The powder supply system 1326 is further provided with a relay system provided by the main circuit system 12. The characteristics of the pull-in and release, in the circuit to achieve the effect of conduction, blocking (ie open or closed), is responsible for determining whether the motor for powder supply is rotating or not.

The powder recovery system 1327 includes a powder filtering device 8 provided with a control unit, a powder suction unit and a filtering unit, and sends a switching signal to the control unit according to the main circuit system 12 to complete the function of powder recovery.

The human interface control system 1328 includes the touch panel 10 described above, and communicates with the touch panel 10 via the main circuit system 12 via a serial communication protocol (Modbus) through the main circuit system 12 and the human interface control system 1328. Commands and responses, to achieve control of the human interface control system 1328, the display unit 100 and the input unit 101 are all completed by the human interface control system 1328.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the universal serial bus (USB) transport bread contains a main print application form (Print Form Host Application) or an image data processor to connect external data through printing. The Print Form Host Application or the image data processor interprets the data and rearranges the data format to cope with the printing driver and transmits it to the main circuit system 12 and the interface system. 13; and the universal serial bus (USB) transmission interface can be plugged in the power-on state, the running state or the startup state of the three-dimensional forming mechanism, and the hot plugging action can also be performed.

Next, as shown in step S2, a computer system is provided, including a data transmission platform, and the data transmission platform performs a layer operation according to the operation instruction to generate a printed data, and converts the sliced program data of the externally operated three-dimensional object into two dimensions. Slice formatted image data, where the computer system is a single computer, a single server or a single As shown in FIG. 3B, the computer system 24 can read the sliced data stored in the storage medium 26 connected to the transmission interface 25 according to the operation instruction, and generate the printed data after the layering operation; The print data pre-stored in the storage medium 26 connected to the transmission interface 25 is read according to the operation instruction, and the print data is generated by the layering operation and stored in the storage medium 26 in advance, and the print data is transmitted to the interface system. 13. The printing module 11 is caused to perform a printing operation. In other words, the computer system 24 can read the sliced data to be sliced through the external storage medium 26, or directly read the printed data to be printed, and accordingly, the printing and molding operations have data. Portable convenience. The transmission interface 25 and the storage medium 26 can be a serial high-tech configuration SATA port and a serial high-tech configuration hard disk (SATA HDD) or a universal serial bus connection port and a flash disk drive ( Flash Disk), external hard drive, external CD player or memory card reader, but not limited to this.

Then, as shown in step S3, the data transfer platform of the computer system is transmitted through the Print Form Host Application or the image data processor of the universal serial bus (USB) transmission interface. The converted two-dimensional slice printing format image data transmission is used for data reception, and the data is interpreted and the data format is arranged, thereby completing the driving pre-operation, and the printing driving platform is driven to complete the molding action of the printing powder. By.

Referring to FIG. 3B and FIG. 3C, the computer system 24 used in the stereoscopic molding mechanism 1 of the present invention includes a data transmission platform, wherein the data transmission platform is printed by the main application of the universal serial bus (USB) transmission interface 25. The Print Form Host Application or the image data processor receives the data and interprets the data and formats the data format, and transmits the data to the main circuit system 12 and the interface system 13, thereby completing the driving. Predecessor Work.

In the control method step S2 of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the present invention, the computer system 24 performs the layering operation according to the operation instruction to generate the printing data, and the layering operation is used as a smart discontinuous layer cutting method, and the intelligent discontinuous cutting method The layer method is mainly applied to, for example, a powder type three-dimensional rapid prototyping system (3DRP), and the printing method is achromatic (ie, the inside of the outline of the object, generally printed using, for example, a transparent glue) with color (ie, the outer contour of the object, Generally, for example, printing with color glue is used for printing, and the printing module 11 of the three-dimensional forming mechanism 1 sprays liquid glue to respectively bond the inside of the contour of the object and the peripheral contour of the object, and the plane of each layer of the object is cut. The layer contour is derived from the tangent point intersection of the mesh and the slice plane. Generally, the non-color slice contour and the color slice contour after the object layer are closed, but if the object has a discontinuous surface, it indicates the slice contour. It is not closed, and the range of achromatic printing cannot be confirmed.

Since the achromatic cut layer outline prints the inside of the outline of the object, and the color cut layer outline only prints the outer contour of the object, if the object has a discontinuous surface, the range of the achromatic print cannot be confirmed, so the color The sliced profile and the black sliced profile must be processed separately.

The slice profile is generated according to the relationship between the mesh and the slice plane. Each time a mesh is processed, the mesh is segmented by the two tangent points cut by the slice plane to form a line segment until each mesh is processed. After that, the sliced contour can be obtained. Figure 4A is a schematic view showing a continuous tangent point connection of a continuous surface object in all planes. As shown, a plurality of grids 41 are connected to each other, so that each grid 41 is tangent to the slice plane 42. The resulting tangent point 43 will be joined to produce a desired tangent contour, while the 4B graph shows a discontinuous surface object being cut at all planes. The connection diagram, as shown, shows that the discontinuous mesh 44 does not have a tangent point because it does not exist and cannot be connected to the tangent point 43 of the adjacent mesh 41, thereby producing a sliced profile having a discontinuous surface.

The achromatic cut layer profile must be closed to confirm the print range. Regardless of whether the color cut layer outline is closed or unclosed, it is independent of the achromatic cut layer outline. If the achromatic cut layer outline generation can be closed, it is equivalent to Solved the problem of contour errors caused by discontinuous faces. Please refer to FIG. 5 , which is a method for cutting a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In this case, it is proposed to connect the achromatic cut layer contour having a discontinuous surface into an actual closed layer contour. The problem of contour error caused by the discontinuous surface is solved. As shown in the figure, first, a plurality of cut point information generated by tangentially cutting all the planes of an object with a plurality of meshes (step S501), for example, FIG. 6A The information of the plurality of cut points P to V generated by the tangent plane 45 of the object 6 being tangent to a plurality of grids (not shown), wherein each of the cut point information includes coordinates and colors of each of the cut points And map information, and each point has its own representative index, and each of the grids counterclockwise to determine whether the tangent point is a point tangent point or an end point tangent point, and the definition is generated in the direction of the path down. The tangent point is set as the starting point tangent point, and the tangent point generated in the upward direction of the path is set as the end point tangent point, wherein the index of the starting point tangent point can be defined as 0 or an even number, and the index of the end point tangent point can be defined as an odd number. The number is not repeated, but the pointcut information will be repeated. The tangent point will repeat to indicate that the two grids where the tangent point exists are adjacent, so when some point only occupies an index, it means that it exists only in one grid. In this case, the tangent point starts the discontinuous surface, and the rules for connecting the two tangent points are: (1) The starting point tangent point is only connected to the end point tangent point, and cannot be connected with the starting point tangent point and the starting point tangent point or the end point tangent point and the end point tangent point〞 (2) If all points are one after another When the end point of the continuous surface is a tangent point of the starting point of a discontinuous surface, when the discontinuous surface is connected, it must not be connected to the starting point of the continuous surface.

Next, it is determined whether the printing module of the current stereo forming mechanism is to perform achromatic liquid printing (step S502). If the determination result is no, step S503 is performed, that is, each grid is obtained by the plurality of cutting point information. The two tangent points generated when tangential to the plane of the slice are connected to form a color slice profile (step S503), for example, the slice profile described in FIG. 6B, and the print module is colored according to the color The sliced outline is subjected to color liquid jet printing (step S506). On the other hand, when the determination result is YES, the two tangent points generated when each grid is tangent to the plane of the slice plane are connected by the plurality of tangent point information to form a first slice layer profile (step S504), wherein The contour of the first layer is the same as the shape of the contour shown in Fig. 6B, with the difference that the color cut contour formed in step S503 contains the printed color information.

Then, it is determined whether there is a discontinuous surface in the first sliced contour (step S505). When the determination result is YES, the pairing is performed with the polar coordinates and the connecting path with the smaller angle is selected, that is, the non-closed cut layer contour is connected to the closed cut. The method of layer contour is achieved in a polar coordinate pairing manner, and a suitable connecting end is determined by the angle size to connect the first cutting layer contour into a closed slice contour (step S507).

Then, achromatic liquid printing is performed in the closed layer contour (step S506), and after the printing is completed, it is determined whether all the printing of the cutting plane is completed (step S508), that is, color printing and/or non-printing. Color printing, if the result is no, step S502 is re-executed; otherwise, if the result is YES, it is further determined whether printing of all the slice planes of the object is completed (step S509), and if the result of step S509 is no, Then, step S501 is re-executed; otherwise, if the result is YES, the layering process of the object is completed (step S510).

The following is a description of the way in which the case is paired with polar coordinates to determine the more suitable connection path. Please refer to Figure 7A to Figure 7D, which is a schematic diagram of the position of the polar axis. As shown in the figure, the polar coordinates can be divided into four. The phases are the first phase (0°~90°), the second phase (90°~180°), the third phase (180°~270°), and the fourth phase (270°~360°), respectively. The position of the axis (0°) is determined according to the “previous path direction”. As shown in Figure 7A, when the “previous path direction” is in the fourth phase, the position of the polar axis (0°) is Y-axis negative direction; as shown in Fig. 7B, when the "previous path direction" is in the first phase, the position of the polar axis (0°) is the positive direction of the X-axis; as shown in Fig. 7C, When the "previous path direction" is in the second phase, the position of the polar axis (0°) is the Y-axis forward direction; as shown in FIG. 7D, when the "previous path direction" is in the third phase, The position of the polar axis (0°) is the negative direction of the X-axis.

In this case, the polar coordinates are matched to determine the more suitable connection path. The position of the polar axis (0°) is determined according to the position of the “previous path direction” in the polar coordinates, and the polar axis (0°) is placed. After the position is determined, select the connection path with the smaller angle between the polar axis (0°), and select the appropriate tangent point for the connection. Please refer to the 8A to 8F drawings, which show that the non-closed slice contour is connected to the closed cut. A schematic diagram of the connection flow of the layer profile, wherein FIG. 8A is a schematic diagram of the unclosed slice profile shown in FIG. 6B. The following description will be made to connect the non-closed slice profile shown in FIG. 8A to the 8F. Close the connection process of the slice contour. First, the cut point Q is the end point of the PQ line. The possible cut point is the starting point of the RS line or the starting point of the UV line. Please refer to Figure 9, according to The position of the "previous path direction" P→Q selection pole axis (0°) is the X-axis forward direction (as shown in Fig. 7B), where the angle θ1 starts at the polar axis (0°) and stops at The angle of the QR connection, and the angle θ2 is Starting from the polar axis and stopping at the angle of the QU connection, when selecting the appropriate path, a connection path with a small angle is selected. For example, θ1 < θ2, so Q→R is selected as a suitable connection path (such as Figure 8B shows).

Next, please refer to Figure 8C. The tangent point T is the end point of the ST connection. The possible tangent point is the starting point of the UV connection or the starting point of the PQ line. Please refer to Figure 10, according to the previous The direction of the path "S→T selects the polar axis (0°) in the negative direction of the X-axis (as shown in Fig. 7D), where the angle θ3 starts at the polar axis (0°) and stops at the TU The angle of the line, and the angle θ4 is the angle that starts at the polar axis and stops at the TP connection. When the suitable path is selected, the connection path with a small angle is selected. For example, θ3 < θ4, so T→U is selected. A more suitable connection path (as shown in Figure 8D).

For the following, please refer to Figure 8E and please refer to Figure 11 at the same time. The cut point V is the end point of the UV connection. According to the “previous path direction” U→V, the placement position of the polar axis (0°) is negative for the Y axis. Direction (as shown in Fig. 7A), where the angle θ5 is the angle starting from the polar axis (0°) and stopping at the VP line, and is the smallest angle, so V→P is selected as the more suitable connection path ( As shown in Fig. 8F, the non-closed slice profile having three discontinuous faces shown in Fig. 8A can be joined to form a closed slice profile (as shown in Figs. 8F and 6C). In order to confirm the range of the achromatic printing, the printing module of the stereoscopic molding mechanism can internally spray the achromatic liquid according to the achromatic cut layer profile shown in FIG. 6B (as shown in FIG. 6D).

In summary, the control method of the three-dimensional forming mechanism of the present case mainly includes human-machine interaction, hard firmware control driving, and software platform structure and operation mechanism of the software slice, and the human-computer interaction has 1. intuitive graphic human-machine Interactive interface 2. Single computer system 3. The advantage of portable printing, the hard firmware control driver has a high rate transmission interface, Hot swap protection mechanism, high print resolution, and intelligent discontinuous slice method of the software slice, solve the problem of poor usability of the conventional control method interface, complicated computer system and long idle time, limitation Print pipelines, use low-rate transmission interfaces, high risk of equipment damage, low print resolution, poor efficiency of the slice method, and the inability to handle discontinuous surface cuts. In addition, interface operation is easy to use, simple computer system, multi-component and data-capable printing pipeline, improve transmission efficiency, reduce equipment damage risk, improve printing resolution and improve cutting efficiency by using intelligent discontinuous layering method And the advantages of processing discontinuous surface objects, thereby achieving a humanized, stable, high efficiency three-dimensional rapid prototyping equipment control method. Therefore, the control method of the three-dimensional molding mechanism of this case is of great industrial value, and the application is filed according to law.

The present invention has been described in detail by the above-described embodiments, and is intended to be modified by those skilled in the art.

<AlEx>

S1~S3‧‧‧Control method steps of the three-dimensional forming mechanism

Claims (17)

A method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism includes at least the steps of: (a) providing a three-dimensional forming mechanism including at least a main circuit system, an interface system, and a universal serial bus (USB) transmission interface, the universal serial bus (USB) The transmission interface includes a Print Form Host Application and an image data processor, and the main circuit system controls the interface system. The interface system includes a print drive platform for the user. The stereoscopic molding mechanism operates; (b) providing a computer system, comprising a data transmission platform, the data transmission platform performs a polar coordinate discontinuous slice operation according to the operation instruction, and generates a first slice contour by generating a plurality of tangent point information through an object, Determining whether there is a discontinuous surface in the first slice contour, and if the judgment result is YES, pairing with the polar coordinates, connecting the first slice contour to a closed slice contour, and generating a print data to cut the externally operated three-dimensional object Layer program data is converted into two-dimensional slice printing format image data; and (c) the three-dimensional forming mechanism transmits The universal serial bus (USB) transmission interface transmits the two-dimensional sliced format image data converted by the data transmission platform of the computer system to receive data, and interprets the data and formats the data format, thereby completing The driving front work is transmitted to the printing driving platform of the interface system, and the printing driving platform is driven to complete the formation of the printing powder. The method for controlling a three-dimensional molding mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the main circuit system comprises an Advanced RISC Machine (ARM), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), and a FlexRISC. Processor, Flash Memory, Dynamic Random Access Memory (Dynamic Random Access Memory, DRAM), read-only memory (ROM) and motor driver (Motor Driver) control system. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the printing driving platform of the interface system comprises a motor driving system, a glue spraying system, a continuous glue supply system, a heating constant temperature system, a powder supply system, and a powder recycling. System, and human interface control system. The control method of the stereoscopic molding mechanism of the third aspect of the invention, wherein the human interface control system comprises a touch panel, the touch panel comprises a display unit, an input unit and a processing unit, the display The unit is configured to display an operation interface and has a touch area, wherein the operation interface selectively displays function options, messages, and information of the stereoscopic molding mechanism, and the touch area is touchable to perform the a function interface of the operation interface, the input unit is disposed corresponding to the touch area, and when the user touches a contact of the touch area to select the operation interface, the input unit is generated according to the position of the touch Corresponding to one of the touch signals, the processing unit is electrically connected to the input unit for receiving the touch signal, and controls the stereoscopic molding mechanism to perform a function operation according to the touch signal, and the processing unit is coupled to the display The unit is electrically connected to control the display unit to display a corresponding screen according to the received touch signal. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the computer system is a single computer, a single server or a single workstation. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the step (a) further comprises the step of: (a1) the universal serial bus (USB) transmission interface can be directly inserted into the mobile storage device to obtain data. In an unsuitable computer system environment, the data source can be directly input through the mobile storage device, and the printed data that has been sliced is transmitted to the interface system for data reception, and the data is interpreted and formatted. The action, in turn, completes the driving pre-operation, prompting the printing drive platform to drive the formation of the printing powder. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 3, wherein the dispensing system comprises a printing module, and the printing resolution of the printing module is 500 to 600 per inch. ink point. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the slice operation system is a smart discontinuous slice operation method, and at least comprises the steps of: (b1) accessing all layer planes of an object and (b2) determining whether a printing module performs achromatic liquid printing; (b3) when the determination result is yes, each network is determined by the plurality of cutting points information The two tangent points generated when the grid is tangent to the plane of the slice are connected to form a first slice profile; and (b4) determining whether the first slice profile has a discontinuous surface, and when the determination result is yes, Pairing with polar coordinates and selecting a connecting path with a smaller angle between one pole axis and one end point of the pole axis to one of the other tangent points to connect the first slice contour into a closed slice contour Achromatic liquid printing is performed within the closed cut contour. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 8, wherein the step (b3) further comprises the step of: (b31) determining that the result is no, each of the meshes is obtained by the plurality of cut points information The two tangent points generated when the slice plane is tangent are joined to form a color cut layer profile, and the print module performs color liquid jet printing according to the color cut layer profile. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 8, wherein the cut point information includes coordinates, color, and texture information of each of the cut points. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 8, wherein each of the grids determines that the tangent point is a point tangent point or an end point tangent point in a counterclockwise direction, and the definition is generated in a downward direction of the path. The tangent point is set to the starting point tangent point, and the tangent point generated in the upward direction of the path is set as the end point tangent point. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 11, wherein the connection between the two tangent points is connected to the end point tangent point by the starting point tangent point, and the starting point is not tangent to the starting point or the end point tangent point Connected to the end point of the point. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 8, wherein in step (b4), the pairing is performed with a polar coordinate and the connecting path having a smaller angle is selected according to a previous path direction in a polar coordinate position. Determining a position of the polar axis such that the polar axis is disposed in parallel with the direction of the previous path. After the placement position of the polar axis is determined, the end point of the polar axis and the end of the polar axis is selected to the other slice. A connection path with a small angle between the connection paths. The control method of the three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 13, wherein the position of the polar axis is the X-axis positive direction, the X-axis negative direction, and the Y-axis positive direction of the corresponding rectangular coordinate system. Or the Y-axis negative direction. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 8, wherein the step (b4) further comprises the step of: (b5) determining whether all printing of the slice plane is completed. The control method of the three-dimensional molding mechanism according to claim 15, wherein if the determination result of the step (b5) is NO, the step (b2) is re-executed. The method for controlling a three-dimensional forming mechanism according to claim 16, wherein if the result of the step (b5) is YES, the step (b6) is performed to determine whether the printing step of all the slice planes of the object is completed. If the result of the determination is no, the step (b1) is re-executed, and if the result of the determination is YES, the layering process of the object is completed.