A Method to Generate Exact Contour Files for Solid Freeform Fabrication

Existing methods to create contour files generate a polygonal approximation of the contours instead of an exact representation. This paper presents a method to generate exact contours from Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) representations. The method preserves the accuracy of the contour files provided the primitives used to generate the CSG tree are polygonal or quadric objects. Due to the inclusion of quadric objects into the primitive set an additional effort to solve for the intersection points between two quadric curves is required. The paper also presents a method to convert piecewise quadratic contours to toggle point files for raster scanning solid freeform fabrication processes.