Surface skeleton generation based on 360-degree profile scan

A rapid prototyping method is invented, which works on a specific data structure produced by an optical metrology technique: 360-degree surface profile scanning. A computer algorithm takes an object profile data, restructure the format, generate horizontal and vertical ribs, lay out the ribs on a 2D canvas and output the geometries to a file format compatible with laser cutters. A laser cutting machine is subsequently used to cut all the ribs from sheet materials. Then, the ribs are manually assembled based on computer-generated assembly codes. Through this process, the original object’s 3D surface can be prototyped rapidly at an arbitrary scale, which may well exceed the working dimension of the laser cutter.