A Graph Grammar Based Approach to 3D Print and Assemble Furniture

A Plethora of user generated 3D models are available online. With rapid proliferation and diffusion of additive manufacturing machines in households, it has now become possible to download these virtual objects and print them out as physical parts. Although printing small size parts (within print volume of low cost 3D printers) is relatively an easy task, additive fabrication of large size parts (part volumes greater than print volume of low cost 3D printer) remains a challenging task for novice 3D printer users. In this paper the authors present a computational pipeline to 3D print large size 3D models that can be easily downloaded from online websites. The pipeline essentially enables decomposition of large objects into smaller parts that can be 3D printed and then assembled. To assemble the printed parts a three-pronged approach is outlined. First, an interface based on graph grammar rules has been developed to generate assembly instructions. Second, an interactive segmentation of the desired 3D model is carried out using a Segmentation Guide Interface (SGI). SGI has been developed to assist a user to carry out component to sub-component segmentation. Third, we have also developed an interface that aids a user in printing small size pieces that can be printed in print volume of a commercial 3D printer (such as Makerbot®) and then assembled to create components that are too large to be printed in print volumes of low cost 3D printers. We demonstrate the efficacy of developed pipeline by creating assembly instructions for multiple large sized 3D table models available online.