Working with Multi-scale Material Distributions (2013)
article⁄Working with Multi-scale Material Distributions (2013)
abstract⁄At present, computer aided design CAD software has proven ill equipped to manage the spatial variations in material properties. Most digital design packages employ a surface modeling paradigm where a solid object is that which is enclosed by a set of boundaries known as boundary representations or ‘Brep’ for short. In surface models, material representations are often treated as homogenous and discrete. Yet, natural materials are capable of structures where the variability of material within a volume is defined at a multiplicity of scales and according to various functional criteria. With the advent of new 3D printing techniques, a new possibility emergesallowing new multimaterial composite objects to be fabricated in a single build volume with a high degree of dimensional accuracy and repeatability. However, a big limitation facing complex high resolution digital fabrication comes from the software’s inability to represent or handle material variability. This paper proposes a new digital interface for working with multimaterial distributions at a variety of scales using a rasterization process. Beyond the immediate benefit of precise graduated control over the material distribution within a 3D printed volume, our interface opens new creative opportunities by enabling the use of existing image processing techniques such as filtering, mapping, etc. which can be applied to threedimensional voxel fields. Examples are provided which explore the potential of multiscale material distributions.
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| Year |
2013 |
| Authors |
Michalatos, Panagiotis; Payne, Andrew. |
| Issue |
ACADIA 13: Adaptive Architecture |
| Pages |
43-50 |
| Library link |
N/A |
| Entry filename |
working-with-multi-scale-material-distributions |
