Density aware shape modeling to control mass properties of 3D printed objects

Abstract

When creating a physical model to 3D print, the density distribution of an object is important because it determines the mass properties of objects such as center of mass, total mass and moment of inertia. In this paper, we present a density aware shape modelling method to control the mass properties of 3D printed objects. We generate a continuous density distribution that satisfies the given mass properties and generate a 3D printable model that represents this density distribution using a truss structure. The number of nodes and their positions are iteratively optimized so as to minimize error between the target density and the density of the truss structure. With our technique, 3D printed objects that have desired mass properties can be fabricated.