Surface macro-texture design for rapid prototyping

Rapid prototyping technologies can create a physical part directly from a digital model by accumulating layers of a given material. Providing tremendous flexibility in the part geometry that they can fabricate, these technologies present an opportunity for the creation of new product attributes that cannot be made with existing technologies. For this to be possible, however, various design environments including different fabrication processes need to be considered at the time of design. This paper proposes an extended design automation paradigm for design and fabrication of a new product attribute, surface macro-texture.