Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412

www.elsevier.com/locate/cad

A virtual prototyping system for rapid product development

S.H. Choi*, A.M.M. Chan
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong,
Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China

Abstract
This paper describes a virtual prototyping (VP) system that integrates virtual reality with rapid prototyping (RP) to create virtual or digital
prototypes to facilitate product development. The proposed VP system incorporates two new simulation methodologies, namely the
dexel-based and the layer-based fabrication approaches, to simulate the powder-based and the laminated sheet-based RP processes,
respectively. The dexel-based approach deposits arrays of solid strips to form a layer, while the layer-based approach directly forms a
complete layer by extruding the slice contours. The layer is subsequently stacked up to fabricate a virtual prototype. The simulation
approaches resemble the physical fabrication processes of most RP systems, and are therefore capable of accurately representing the
geometrical characteristics of prototypes. In addition to numerical quantification of the simulation results, the system also provides
stereoscopic visualisation of the product design and its prototype for detailed analyses. Indeed, the original product design may be
superimposed on its virtual prototype, so that areas with dimensional errors beyond design limits may be clearly highlighted to facilitate
point-to-point analysis of the surface texture and the dimensional accuracy of the prototype. Hence, the key control parameters of an RP
process, such as part orientation, layer thickness and hatch space, may be effectively tuned up for optimal fabrication of physical prototypes
in subsequent product development. Furthermore, the virtual prototypes can be transmitted via the Internet to customers to facilitate global
manufacturing. As a result, both the lead-time and the product development costs can be significantly reduced.
q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Virtual prototyping; Visualisation; Dexel-based and layer-based simulation

1. Introduction processes include the Laminated Object Manufacturing

1.1. Rapid prototyping
Rapid prototyping is an innovative technology developed
in the past two decades. It aims to produce prototypes
relatively quickly for visual inspection, ergonomic
evaluation, form-fit analysis, and as master patterns for
production tools, etc. to help speed up an entire product
development process. Various RP systems [1,2] are now
commercially available. According to the materials used,
common RP processes can be classified into three main
types, namely powder-based, resin-based and laminated
sheet-based. Powder-based RP processes include the
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and the 3D Printing (3DP)
processes that all use powder material to make prototypes.
Resin-based RP processes, such as the StereoLithography
Apparatus, use a liquid resin, which is solidified by exposure
to a ultra-violet laser beam. Laminated sheet-based
(LOM) process, in which a prototype is fabricated from
laminated materials.
Despite the advantages, current RP technology is far
from ideal. Indeed, it is plagued by some major problems,
which undermine the accuracy and quality of prototypes.
The performance of an RP process is affected by a multitude
of process parameters. It is not an easy task to choose an
appropriate combination of these parameters for optimal
fabrication of a prototype, which depends on the quality
requirements, such as accuracy, build-time, strength and
fabrication efficiency. However, the quality requirements
vary from visual aids to master patterns for secondary
processes. Hence, a significant degree of expertise is
required to produce prototypes of consistent quality.
The process is of a trial-and-error basis and is therefore
both time-consuming and very costly.
1.2. Virtual prototyping

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 852-2859-7054; fax: 852-2858-6535. Virtual prototyping (VP) may alleviate the shortcomings
E-mail address: shchoi@hkucc.hku.hk (S.H. Choi). of RP. It makes use of a digital model called a virtual
0010-4485/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0010-4485(03)00110-6
402 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412
prototype, in lieu of a physical prototype, for testing and
evaluation of specific characteristics of a product or a
manufacturing process in a computational environment.
Therefore, in virtual prototyping, faults concerning
fabrications, product design and production planning can
be detected in a compressed time frame before great
expenditures are committed. This significantly reduces the
number of physical iterations and thereby the associated
manufacturing overheads that leads to faster and cost-
effective product development. Once the virtual prototyping
is finished, the model may be sent directly to physical
fabrication or via the Internet to customers to solicit
comments. Since digital models are mostly used in VP,
the cost incurred in repeating the process to optimise
prototype quality is minimal.
Dedicated VP systems have been successfully developed
and used in automobile and aerospace industries.
These systems can be classified into two areas, namely
product design and process simulation. For product design,
various analyses regarding design validation, such as
functional testing, form-and-fit testing, ergonomic testing,
assembly testing and disassembly testing, are performed on
a model in the virtual environment. Bennett presented how
VP could assist the different stages of product development
of complex aerospace products [3]. Rooks described the use
of digital mock-ups for finding out possible errors
concerning product assembly in the early design stage [4].
Jayaram et al. carried out virtual assembly in VR [5].
The parts were firstly designed in a CAD system and
subsequently assembled in a virtual environment. Siddique
and Rosen suggested using VP to generate complete
disassembly processes of a product design [6].
For process simulation, a manufacturing process is
simulated in a computer to determine possible
manufacturing problems or bottlenecks in production such
that expensive physical mock-ups can be saved.
Schulz applied VR technique to simulate the forming
process of stamping products in order to study the residual
stress and material distribution [7]. Bowyer et al. developed
a virtual milling machine that could cut a virtual block to
produce a part with the desired shape by a virtual tool [8].
Bickel developed a virtual welding cell for precise weld
path generation for die re-forging [9].
Apart from manufacturing, VP has also had a profound
impact on the medical field. It was used in training, surgical
planning, and creation of digital human organs [10]. Virtual
organs were created according to the patients data for
subsequent simulations. During surgical education,
students could fly inside and around the organs, which
responded like real ones to operations. They could thus
practise surgeries and other medical procedures.
1.3. A new approach to virtual prototyping
Visualisation has been recognised as an effective way
to present real scenarios that facilitate effective
communication of designs and ideas. An IT manager of a
car company applied this concept to development of new
cars [11]. A car model is built virtually and projected on a
large screen, and people from different departments may
conveniently share a true 3D image of the car by wearing
stereo glasses to evaluate the design and to identify
problems before getting too far down the production.
Tseng et al. combined VP with design to explore the
customer perception on the target products [12]. The VR
technology allows the customer to be immersed in the
virtual environment for detailed design visualisation and
modification. The virtual prototype is then put in
simulations to find out an optimal assembly process.
Chuang and OGrady worked on visualisation of assembly
process to provide the designer with the parts interaction in
assembly operations and at the same time, to track the paths
for subsequent assembly [13]. The design for assembly
process may thus be improved by expressing the results
fully and naturally in a visual manner, rather than in
abstractive numerical figures.
The strength of visualisation has been explored and
applied successfully in many VP systems. However, little
research work has been done to date on using the technique
to study and enhance the quality of prototypes before
physical fabrication. Indeed, VP provides a test-bed and
much valuable information that may otherwise have
required time-consuming and expensive physical exper-
imentation. Furthermore, it provides results in a natural way
that allows the designer to make corrective actions.
This paper therefore proposes a new virtual prototyping
system that exploits visualisation to facilitate product
development. It is based on the mathematical model
developed by the authors for modelling and optimisation
of rapid prototyping [14]. The model incorporates various
process parameters like layer thickness, hatch space,
bed temperature, laser power and sinter factor, etc. to
quantify the measures of prototype quality, which include
accuracy and build-time. The proposed system simulates an
RP process to create a virtual prototype with quantified
measures of prototype quality for assessment of the RP
process. To exploit visualisation to facilitate product
development, the virtual prototype may be superimposed
on the original model to provide a clear visualisation for
direct comparison of the product design and the resultant
prototype that the RP machine will subsequently deliver.
The superimposition allows a designer to perform validation
of the product design and analyses of the dimensional
accuracy conveniently. This is particularly useful in that
the designer can conveniently analyse and compare the
surface texture and the dimensional accuracy point-by-point
of the prototype with the product design. Specific areas of
the prototype where the dimensional deviations are beyond
the design limits can be easily identified and highlighted
for subsequent improvement. With such a virtual prototype
in the computer, the product design can be scrutinised
easily, and its aesthetic and functional characteristics
 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412 403

simulated and analysed accordingly. Subsequently, the

virtual prototype may be transmitted via the Internet to
customers and/or designers in other parts of the world to
solicit improvements of the product design. This facilitates
global manufacturing and hence helps reduce both the
lead-time and the product development cost significantly.
The proposed VP system incorporates two new simulation
methodologies, namely the dexel-based and the layer-based
fabrication approaches, to simulate the powder-based and
the laminated sheet-based RP processes, respectively.
The following sections describe the simulation approaches
and the implementation of the proposed VP system.

2. Dexel-based and layer-based prototyping processes

To perform an accurate analysis of physical prototypes in

VR is not a simple task. An essential and prerequisite
criterion is that a virtual prototype should accurately
represent the physical one. Since there are many RP
processes commercially available in the market, it is not
practical to develop individual modelling approaches for
each of them. Therefore, the proposed VP system focuses on
two major types of RP processes, namely the powder-based
and the laminated sheet-based. Section 2.1 discusses the
characteristics of these two types of RP processes.
2.1. Dexel-based virtual fabrication
Physical prototypes made by powder-based RP systems,
such as SLS and 3DP, may be regarded as being made up of
strips of material that are sintered/solidified by a laser or
binder beam.
During fabrication of a prototype on a powder-based
RP system, the beam is positioned to a point on the
surface to solidify a small portion (typically of the beam
width) of the material. It continues to solidify the
neighbouring points by travelling along a hatch vector,
as shown in Fig. 1. A hatch vector represents the path that
the beam has to follow within a contour to build a portion
of the layer. The scanning motion is so fast that it appears
as if the beam is solidifying a complete strip of material
along the hatch vector at a time.
Hatch vectors are obtained by passing rays onto the layer
contour at grids of resolution of the hatch distance. The beam
moves along successive hatch vectors to build the
layer. Each hatch vector can be considered as a dexel [15,
16], which represents the centre of the beam trajectory.
Hence, a strip of material of a physical prototype may be
represented by building a volume of a specific height and
width around a dexel. Such a volume is regarded as a voxel,
and its width, height and length are the beam diameter, the
layer thickness and the length of the dexel, respectively.
Therefore, building a voxel per dexel simulates the sintering
or the solidification process, and a layer is formed by
building voxels around the dexels in the layer contour.
Fig. 1. Rectangular finite strip of solid built around a dexel.
This is a new approach to virtual fabrication in that
rectangular finite solid strips are laid to form a layer, which
is subsequently stacked up to form a virtual prototype. Fig. 2
shows the process of dexel-based virtual prototyping of a
gearbox housing. It should be pointed out that in order to
represent different RP systems better, the shape of the
voxels may be varied. For example, the end of the voxels
may be changed from square to semi-circular in shape,
which may simulate the material sintering by the laser beam
of SLS process more accurately. However, this would be
graphically complicated for the simulation. Hence, square-
ended voxels are currently adopted in the system.
2.2. Layer-based virtual fabrication
On the other hand, physical prototypes made by
laminated sheet-based RP processes, such as LOM, may
be regarded as being made up of complete layers, instead of
strips, of material. During fabrication, an entire layer is
deposited at a time and subsequent layers are stacked up to
form a physical prototype. Based on this fabrication
approach, the Solid Ground Curing process may also be
classified as laminated sheet-based.
Since a prototype fabricated by this type of RP processes
is composed of entire layers, smoothness of layer edges, and
therefore the absence of the horizontal staircase effect,
characterises the prototypes. However, the vertical
staircase effect still exists. Hence, simulation of laminated
sheet-based RP processes should fabricate a virtual proto-
type layer-by-layer. To achieve this, a layer-based fabrica-
tion approach is developed such that all contours of a layer
are extruded at a time to form a complete layer.
404 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412
Fig. 2. Dexel-based virtual prototyping of a gearbox housing.
2.3. Virtual prototypes for design validation
Virtual prototypes may represent the physical ones
accurately. They facilitate design validation in the early
stage of product development as the designer can have a
clear representation of the product to examine its aesthetic
and structural features. If any problems are identified,
the design can be promptly improved before it goes too far
down the development cycle. This is particularly important
to help enhance the competitiveness of the manufacturing
industry, which is faced with increasing pressure to satisfy
demands for small-batch production of different varieties of
customised products. In such situations, it would not be
economical to make a mould for small-batch production.
On the other hand, rapid prototyping may be a convenient
tool for direct production of customised products, provided
it can fabricate prototypes of the required accuracy and of
appropriate materials. Indeed, some researchers [17,18]
recognised the significance and they have worked on the
techniques to produce metallic or functional prototypes. It is
envisaged that when RP becomes economical for direct
manufacture of customised products, it will be of profound
importance to validate the accuracy and quality of the
prototypes before committing to physical fabrication.
Hence, the significance of the proposed VP system will be
further highlighted.
2.4. Visualisation of RP process
The proposed VP system facilitates design validation
through visualisation of the RP process and the resultant
prototypes. Visualisation also helps the designer understand
what will possibly happen to a particular part of the
prototype. It is not common that all features of the model are
required for a specific analysis [19]. Indeed, numerical
values indicate only the overall average quality of a
prototype. On the other hand, a clear visualisation facilitates
detailed assessment of specific parts of the prototype.
2.4.1. Superimposition of product model
on virtual prototype
For this purpose, the proposed VP system can display a
virtual prototype and the product model simultaneously.
These two images are superimposed for direct comparison
of the resultant prototype with the original design.
This allows point-by-point investigation of any discrepancy
in the characteristics of the prototype and the product
design. For example, the surface texture of the prototype can
be easily studied, and specific areas with dimensional errors
beyond tolerance limits may be clearly identified and
highlighted for subsequent improvement.
 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412 405

2.4.2. Staircase effects and optimisation

of process parameters
RP machines fabricate prototypes layer by layer. Hence, a
prototype may be regarded as a staircase approximation of
the intended product model. The staircase between two layers
along the build-direction affects adversely the surface texture
and the dimensional accuracy of the prototype. This effect is
directly related to the layer thickness. Furthermore, in
powder-based RP processes, there exists horizontal staircase
effect within a layer. Similarly, it also affects the surface
texture and dimensional accuracy of the prototype.
A horizontal staircase occurs when the laser beam or binder
head deposits one strip of material next to another to form a
layer. Hence, it is related to the hatch space, which is the
distance between two hatch lines.
The surface texture and the dimensional accuracy of a
prototype may be improved by reducing both the layer
thickness and the hatch space. In fact, a curved surface can be
accurately produced only if the layer thickness and the hatch
space are infinitesimally small. However, this will make the
build-time impractically too long. Indeed, the quality and
the build-time of a prototype are significantly affected by
some major process parameters, particularly the orientation,
the layer thickness and the hatch space, etc. Therefore, an
optimal combination of process parameters must be carefully
chosen for efficient production of prototypes of the required
quality.
Visualisation of RP will therefore be very useful to help
choose a proper set of process parameters for optimal
production of prototypes. The designer can see the effects of
changing the process parameters on the prototype quality
clearly. Subsequently, an optimal set of process parameters
may be chosen quickly for efficient production of prototypes. Fig. 3. Flow of the proposed VP system.

3.2. Virtual fabrication

3. The proposed virtual prototyping system
The main objective of the proposed VP system is to
facilitate visualisation and optimisation of RP processes, and
thus faster product realisation. Based on a product model
designed in a CAD package, the system simulates the
characteristics of an RP process to perform virtual fabrication
of product prototypes. The virtual prototypes may then be
used in various analyses. As shown in Fig. 3, the proposed VP
system consists of three main steps, namely (1) creation of a
product model; (2) virtual fabrication; and (3) visualisation
and tuning of process parameters.
3.1. Product model
Creating a product model is the first step to provide the
necessary information of the design, which includes the
geometry and the attributes of material and colour, etc.
In general, the product model is designed using a CAD
package and then converted to a STL model.
Before performing virtual fabrication, preparation work is
carried out in several modules, including the Model Viewer,
the Slicer, the Hatcher, the Contour Sorter and the Part
Fabricator. The Model Viewer reads a model in STL format
and displays it in the virtual world (VW) to allow the designer
to have an idea of the original model. The Slicer and Hatcher
modules are integral part of the VP system developed in the
Department, and they can handle relatively large and
complex STL models [20]. The Slicer slices the STL model
to produce the contour information of each layer. The Hatcher
performs hatching of all the layers to generate the laser/
binder path, while the Contour Sorter constructs the
hierarchical relationship of contours for the layer-based
simulation. Subsequently, the Part Fabricator reads in the
hatch information and simulates the fabrication process to
form a virtual prototype. It allows the designer to visualise
the process by displaying the modelled results, such as the
surface quality, with respect to the process parameters.
Indeed, it is vital to show the effect of different process
parameters on the prototype in real-time.
406 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412

3.3. Visualisation and tuning of process parameters

Once a virtual fabrication simulation process is

completed, the designer can manipulate the resultant
virtual prototype using the utilities provided to visualise
the quality of the product prototype that the RP machine
will subsequently deliver. The designer can navigate
around the internal and opaque structures of the prototype
to investigate the product design. Furthermore,
superimposing the STL model on its virtual prototype
may highlight dimensional deviations. The system also
calculates the maximum and the average cusp heights that
indicate the overall accuracy of the prototype. To study the
dimensional errors, a tolerance limit may be set and
any locations with deviations beyond the limit will be
clearly highlighted. The designer may thus identify and
focus on the parts that need modifications. To improve the
accuracy and the surface quality of specific features of the
prototype, the process parameters, such as the orientation
of the model, the layer thickness or the hatch space, may be
changed accordingly. Fig. 4. Normal (un-offset) and offset slicing approaches.

4. Implementation the surface converges in the upward direction, there are

The proposed virtual prototyping system has been
implemented in C language, with the WorldToolKit
(WTK) virtual reality support libraries.
4.1. The Model Viewer module
The Model Viewer displays the product model is in a VR
environment created by WTK. It provides two modes for
viewing, namely the normal mode and the stereo mode.
The stereo mode provides 3D stereoscopic viewing of the
virtual prototype. The system adopts a semi-immersive VP
interface [21], which requires only an emitter and a pair of
CrystalEyes shutter glasses. The designer wears a pair of
shutter glasses that generates a stereoscopic feeling
by synchronising with the display device to switch on and
off the images to the left eye and the right eye alternatively.
This creates a depth perception and therefore a being there
illusion. However, if stereoscopic display of the prototype is
not required, the normal mode can be chosen, and no emitter
and glasses are needed.
4.2. The Slicer module
The Slicer consists of a slicing algorithm [20] that slices
a STL model into a number of layers of a predefined
thickness. It generates layer contours by determining the
intersection points of the slicing plane and the facets.
The Slicer module offers two slicing approaches, as shown
in Fig. 4. The model in Fig. 4a was sliced with the normal
un-offset approach, which is generally adopted in most
commercial RP systems. It can be noticed that when
excessive materials at the edges of each layer.
Consequently, this leads to deformation and the original
round shape of the prototype becomes a little oval, as shown
in Fig. 4c. To solve this problem, the offset slicing shown in
Fig. 4b is proposed. It performs slicing at the middle of each
layer. Hence, by forming a layer by extruding the slice both
upward and downward, the prototype will not be deformed
in a particular direction and its shape can be maintained, as
shown in Fig. 4d.
The layer contours are stored in a data file in Common
Layer Interface (CLI) format, which will be further
processed to represent the virtual part. The designer can
perform slicing with a different layer thickness to suit the
fabrication requirements. The layer contours are
subsequently hatched for virtual fabrication.
4.3. The Contour Sorter module
The Contour Sorter is used to identify the topological
hierarchy relationship of contours for sorting out different
levels of internal contours to prepare for layer extrusion in
the layer-based virtual fabrication [20]. It first establishes
the parent-and-son relationships of the contours in the same
layer, and then groups them into different families. Fig. 5
shows an example of the contour hierarchy relationship of a
layer. According to the result of grouping, hierarchy
information is generated to represent the relationship of
contours. During layer extrusion, only the contours in the
same family are extruded at the same time for creation of
internal details in a solid layer.
 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412
Fig. 5. Example of topological relationship of contours.
4.4. The Hatcher module
The Hatcher processes the layer contours in CLI format
to determine the coordinates of the endpoints of each hatch
line for virtual fabrication. The hatch information is stored
in another CLI file. As virtual fabrication normally involves
complex layer contours, hatching errors due to ambiguity
may sometimes occur when hatch lines are very close to
small and intrinsic contours such that it is difficult
to determine whether there is an intersection. Therefore,
to enhance the stability of the Hatcher module, a
small tolerance zone is implemented. It will be regarded
as an intersection if any part of a contour is within the
tolerance zone around the hatch line.
4.5. The Part Fabricator module
The Part Fabricator incorporates both the dexel-based
and the layer-based fabrication approaches. For the
simulation of powder-based RP processes, the dexel-
based approach is chosen, with a hatched contour file as
input. The hatch information is read in and the
rectangular solid strips will be displayed one by one
accordingly at an appropriate z-height to simulate the solid
material solidified by the laser/binder head. For the
407
simulation of laminated sheet-based RP processes, the
layer-based approach is used, for which the input contour
file does not include hatch information. The contours
together with the topological hierarchy information are
read to form an entire layer directly by extrusion. Based
on the choice of the fabrication approach, the Part
Fabricator simulates the RP process to build a virtual
prototype in VW. During fabrication, the designer can
observe how the prototype is built. When the virtual
fabrication is completed, the virtual prototype is dis-
played and/or superimposed on the product model for the
visual inspection. Similar to using the Model Viewer, the
designer may choose the stereo mode to view the virtual
prototype in a virtual environment.
5. Case studies
Examples are now presented to demonstrate how the VP
system facilitates quality analyses and parameter
optimisation for RP process planning. For the sake of
clarification, parameters that produced relatively rough
texture were adopted for the fabrications.
408 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412
5.1. Prototypes fabricated by the dexel-based simulation
5.1.1. A turbine fan
To demonstrate the use of the system for optimisation of
RP process parameters, fabrication of a turbine fan on a
Sinterstation 2000 SLS machine with nylon was simulated,
and the result is shown in Fig. 6. The laser diameter was
0.04 mm, while the hatch space and the layer thickness were
both set as 0.1 mm. The turbine fan has different features
like a hollow cylinder and several freeform surfaces around
it. Depending on the distribution of the facets, the surface
accuracy and build-time could be different for different
orientations.
Fig. 6 also indicates the surface accuracy, build-time, and
the number of layers when the part was rotated about the
x-axis. The surface accuracy was mainly dependent on the
cosine of the angle between the facet normal and the build-
direction. Thus, it was only necessary to rotate the part
between 0 and 908. The part at orientation of 08 gave the
minimum build-time of 0.71 h and the surface accuracy of
0.033 mm. The possibilities of reducing the build-time while
achieving the best surface accuracy possible at this
orientation were thus further considered. Simulations were
also performed to reduce the build-time by increasing
the layer thickness to 0.15 mm and the hatch space to
Fig. 6. Simulation result of a turbine fan.
0.2 mm while keeping all the other values constant. It was
observed that the increase in the layer thickness changed the
surface accuracy from 0.033 to 0.049 mm, while the build-
time was reduced from 0.71 to 0.51 h. This was expected
since the number of layers was reduced from 127 to 84.
Despite the fact that the scan-distance per layer was not
changed, the total laser scan-time was reduced because
the number of layers scanned was reduced. It was also found
that increasing the hatch space to 0.2 mm did not affect the
surface accuracy. However, the build-time was reduced from
0.71 to 0.60 h, when the hatch space was increased from 0.1
to 0.2 mm.
5.1.2. A spider
A toy spider was chosen to demonstrate the study of the
dimensional deviations of a prototype from its STL model,
and the normal (un-offset) slicing approach was used to slice
the model. Fig. 7a shows two spiders, one of which was a
STL model and the other a virtual prototype. Without the
VP system, it would be difficult to study the dimensional
deviations even if a real prototype was available. However,
when they were superimposed in a virtual environment, as
shown in Fig. 7b, the surface texture and the dimensional
deviations were clearly illustrated. The prisms indicated the
excessive materials in fabrication, which were located
 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412 409

Fig. 7. STL model and virtual prototype of a spider.

mainly at the upper part of the model. This was because the
layers were normally formed on the sliced planes during
physical fabrication. When the surface converged in the
upward direction, such as the body of the spider, there were
excessive materials at the edges of each layer. This shows
the phenomena that most RP machines cannot produce a
regular sphere, which generally becomes a little oval.
Through this simple case study, the strength of visualisation
is explored.
The system also calculated the cusp heights to
evaluate the overall accuracy of the prototype. In this
case, the average and the maximum cusp heights were
0.601 and 1.278 mm, respectively. Suppose that any
deviations more than 1.270 mm were not acceptable, the
designer might choose to highlight the areas which are
out of the design limit for subsequent investigation of
these important features. Fig. 8 shows the same spiders
with some pins on them. The pins indicated the facets

Fig. 8. Areas of spider with dimensional deviations beyond design limit.

410 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412
Fig. 9. Comparison of spider prototypes of different layer thickness and hatch spacing.
of the STL model with cusp heights more than
1.270 mm. The colour of the pins may be red or green.
The red ones pointed to the maximum deviations,
while the green ones pointed to the unacceptable
deviations. The process parameters may be deemed
acceptable, unless unsatisfactory deviations were located
at important parts of the model, in which case the
designer might choose either to change the model
orientation to shift the deviations or to reduce the layer
thickness and the hatch space to improve the cusp
heights. Fig. 9 shows a comparison of the two virtual
prototypes of different layer thickness and hatch space.
Although 0.02 mm thickness and 0.05 mm hatch space
gave a finer prototype as in Fig. 9b, such process
parameters may not be practical for most SLS processes.
5.2. Prototypes fabricated by the layer-based simulation
5.2.1. A hand skeleton
Applications of RP in the medical field for making
prototypes of human skeletons and organs have become
widespread in the past decade. A hand skeleton, as shown in
Fig. 10, was thus chosen to illustrate possible applications of
the VP system in the medical field.
In a surgery, for example, a patients hand was
scanned to produce a prototype for doctors to study
injury or deformity more clearly. Suppose a prosthesis
was to be put into the fourth finger of the patients hand.
Fig. 10. Hand skeleton.
Visualisation of the virtual prototype would therefore be
helpful for doctors to choose a prosthesis that would best
fit to minimise the possibility of mismatch. Fig. 11a
shows two virtual hands superimposed on each other.
The model was sliced with the offset approach and the
excessive materials were thus evenly distributed. Its
average and maximum cusp heights were 0.946 and
1.866 mm, respectively. Fig. 11b highlights the
deviations that exceeded 1.854 mm.
Although there appeared many unacceptable deviations,
the highlighted deviations actually represented a very small
portion of the total 110,000 facets of the hand model.
Moreover, most of the deviations were located at the back of
the hand, whilst the main concern of the surgery was the
fourth finger. Therefore, this prototype may be deemed good
enough and physical fabrication can be carried out using
these process parameters. In general, it is not necessary to
aim at producing a prefect prototype. Instead, an optimal
prototype with good accuracy at selected areas will be more
practical and economical.
6. Limitations and further development
A major limitation of the current system is that it does not
incorporate shrinkage and warpage effects to enhance
accuracy estimation. In fact, for RP processes that employ
heat energy to solidify/sinter the material, the subsequent
 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412
Fig. 11. Prototype of hand skeleton fabricated by the layer-based simulation.
prototypes tend to shrink after cooling, resulting in
dimensional deviations and geometric distortion of
a physical prototype. Warpage is another kind of inaccuracy
caused by uneven distributions of heat energy and
the resultant binding force. These dimensional errors vary
with the geometry of the prototypes and the characteristics
of the RP processes. Indeed, to predict the effects of
shrinkage and warpage may require complex
thermodynamics and binding force models, which are not
yet available.
Hence, for the time being, the VP system builds a
virtual prototype without taking the shrinkage and the
warpage effects into account. However, the individual
voxels of a dexel-based virtual prototype may provide
a convenient vehicle for analysis of such effects, when
appropriate thermodynamics and binding force models
become available for incorporation into the VP system.
Indeed, voxels may be treated as finite strips of solid for
modelling the energy density and binding force
distribution based on heat dissipation of such strips.
Research effort is now being devoted to developing a
simulation model that incorporate voxels with finite
element analysis technique. When it becomes available,
the VP system may be able to predict the dimensional
changes due to shrinkage and warpage effects. It would
then be possible to modify the model design to
compensate for these effects, and consequently,
fabrication of high precision prototypes would become
possible.
411
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the Research
Grant Council of the Hong Kong SAR Government and
the CRCG of the University of Hong Kong for their
financial support for this project.
References
[1] Pham DT, Gault RS. A comparison of rapid prototyping technologies.
Int J Mach Tools Manufact 1998;38:125787.
[2] Yan X, Gu P. A review of rapid prototyping technologies and systems.
Comput-Aided Des 1996;28(4):307 18.
[3] Bennett GR. The application of virtual prototyping in the develop-
ment of complex aerospace products. Aircraft Engng Aerospace
Technol 1997;69(1):1925.
[4] Rooks B. A shorter product development time with digital mock-up.
Assembly Automat 1998;18(1):348.
[5] Jayaram S, Connacher HI, Lyons KW. Virtual assembly using virtual
reality techniques. Comput-Aided Des 1997;29(8):575 84.
[6] Siddique Z, Rosen DW. A virtual prototyping approach to
product disassembly reasoning. Comput-Aided Des 1997;29(12):
847 60.
[7] Schultz J. Technology transfer through prototypes. Commun ACM
1996;39(9):267.
[8] Bowyer A, Bayliss G, Taylor R, Willis P. A virtual factory. Int J Shape
Model 1996;2(4):21526.
[9] Bickel D. 3D real-time simulation and VR-tools in the manufacturing
industry. Virtual Reality for Industrial Applications, Berlin: Springer;
1988. p. 12338.
412 S.H. Choi, A.M.M. Chan / Computer-Aided Design 36 (2004) 401412
[10] Zajtchuk R, Satava R. Medical applications of virtual reality.
Commun ACM 1997;40(9):63 4.
[11] Rippinner H. Visualising success. Manufact Engr 1999;April:57 60.
[12] Tseng MM, Jiao J, Su CJ. Virtual prototyping for customized product
development. Integrated Manufact Syst 1988;9(6):33443.
[13] Chuang WC, OGrady P. Assembly process visualisation in
feature-based design for assembly. Int J Agile Mgmt Syst 1999;
1(3):17789.
[14] Choi SH, Samavedam S. Modelling and optimisation of rapid
prototyping. Comput Ind 2002;47(1):3953.
[15] Hook TV. Real-time shaded NC milling display. Comput Graph 1986;
20(4):1520.
[16] Stifter S. Simulation of NC machining based on the dexel model: a
critical analysis. Int J Adv Manufact Technol 1995;10:14957.
[17] Greul M, Pintat T, Greulich M. Rapid prototyping of functional
metallic parts. Comput Ind 1995;28:23 8.
[18] Jeng JY, Peng SC, Chou CJ. Metal rapid prototype fabrication using
selective laser cladding technology. Int J Adv Manufact Technol
2000;16(9):6817.
[19] Gadh R, Sonthi R. Geometric shape abstractions for internet-based
virtual prototyping. Comput-Aided Des 1998;30(6):473 86.
[20] Choi SH, Kwok KT. Hierarchical slice contours for layered-
manufacturing. Comput Ind 2002;48:21939.
[21] Weyrich M, Drews P. An interactive environment for virtual
manufacturing: the virtual workbench. Comput Ind 1999;38:515.
S.H. Choi is associate professor in the IMSE
Department at the University of Hong Kong.
He obtained both his BSc and PhD degrees at
the University of Birmingham. He worked in
computer industry as CADCAM consultant
before joining the University of Hong Kong.
His current research interests include CAD-
CAM, advanced manufacturing systems and
virtual prototyping technology.
A.M.M. Chan got her BEng degree from the
IMSE Department at the University of Hong
Kong. She continued her postgraduate
research study in the Department, and her
research interest is in virtual prototyping
technology.