Software Processes Polygon Meshes for 3D Printing Design

MachineWorks Ltd. announces the latest release of its software development toolkit for handling triangulated mesh, Polygonica v2.1. Polygonica is a solid modelling software toolkit that helps additive manufacturers solve complex geometrical problems through creating their own software applications.

Built on MachineWorks' core engines, Polygonica's polygonal modelling technology provides automatic, fast and robust Boolean operations. Main functions of Polygonica include mesh healing, mesh offsetting, mesh analysis, mesh simplification, remeshing and point-cloud manipulation. Other algorithms in Polygonica allow solid healing, simplification, slicing, sectioning and spun profile calculation. Polygonica has a wide range of applications such as repairing defective models with vast numbers of polygons, rapid prototyping and reverse engineering.

Polygonica’s new application programming interface allows users to imprint onto a solid, generating curves on the surface which can be used to trim surfaces and extract regions bounded by the curves. The API also enables users to emboss or engrave a curve or a 2D profile onto a solid, wrapping it onto a 3D surface. This functionality also enables enclosed regions to be offset outwards or inwards.

The latest release also includes smoothing and fairing algorithms, which remove noise from a mesh and ensure that a region of solid is as smooth as possible while maintaining continuity at its boundary.

Polygonica provides a method for defining a lattice, coupled with a function for intersecting lattices with solids, which can help create support structures. The software also enables users to create a 3D shape by moving a 2D profile or 3D solid along an arbitrary 3D path, which can help in creating tubes, pipes or moldings.