Direct Slicing of a Point Set Model for Rapid Prototyping

Recently point set model is getting increasing research attention in many geometric modeling application areas including computer graphics and CAD/CAM. This paper presents a novel approach to directly slicing point set model with the focus on making rapid prototyping part out of point set model without making any mesh or surface. Main challenge in handling point set model lies in how to interpret inter-point empty space and implicit quadric surfel is used in this research. This paper also explains how to utilize the quadric surfel for slicing the point set, so as to obtain contour curves for RP. Also described in this paper is how to extract smooth curve(s) out of the 2D point cloud obtained by slicing the 3D point set model.