Research on adaptive slicing method for optimizing STL model manufacturing details

This paper proposes an adaptive slicing method for optimizing STL model manufacturing details, addressing the issue of traditional slicing methods being unable to accurately identify model details in 3D printing. The method utilizes the angle difference between the normal vectors of intersecting triangular facets of neighboring slice planes and the print direction and it sets an angle variation threshold to determine the presence of vertical sharp corners in the current slice. Additionally, the method employs the combined triangle method to calculate the contour curve area of the current slice plane, using an area variation threshold to determine the presence of parallel sharp corners. For slices without model details, the slice thickness is determined using an adaptive slicing method based on triangular plane normal vectors. For slices with model details, the final slice thickness is chosen as the minimum value obtained from the two discriminatory bases mentioned above. Based on MATLAB simulation experiment results demonstrate that the adaptive slicing method of this paper improves the model manufacturing accuracy by 19.3% and the estimated printing time only increases by 4 min, which compared to the adaptive slicing method based on triangular facet normal vectors. The adaptive slicing method of this paper ensures both manufacturing efficiency and accuracy, which effectively preserves the model manufacturing details.