Procedural Bridges-and-pillars Support Generation

Abstract

Additive manufacturing requires support structures to fabricate parts with overhangs. In this paper, we revisit a known support structure based on bridges-and-pillars (see Figure 1). The support structures are made of vertical pillars supporting horizontal bridges. Their scaffolding structure makes them stable and reliable to print. However, the algorithm heuristic search does not scale well and is prone to produce contacts with the parts, leaving scars after removal. We propose a novel algorithm for this type of supports, focusing on avoiding unnecessary contacts with the part as much as possible. Our approach builds upon example-based model synthesis to enable early detection of collision-free passages as well as non-reachable regions.