GitHub

Atomizer: Beyond Non-Planar Slicing for Fused Filament Fabrication

Representative toolpath visualization

This repository contains the implementation of Atomizer, a novel toolpath generation algorithm for fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing. Atomizer introduces the concept of atoms as a replacement for traditional slices. This method enables collision-free toolpaths that tightly conform to complex geometries and offer new fabrication capabilities.

Xavier Chermain, Giovanni Cocco, Cédric Zanni, Eric Garner, Pierre-Alexandre Hugron, and Sylvain Lefebvre

Université de Lorraine, CNRS, Inria, Loria

Computer Graphics Forum (Proceedings of the Symposium on Geometry Processing), 2025

SGP Honorable Mention

Replicability Stamp: http://www.replicabilitystamp.org#https-github-com-xavierchermain-atomizer

Key Features

  • Toolpath generation using frames (i.e., atoms) instead of slices
  • Control of the deposition direction and tool orientation
  • Collision-free toolpath ordering
  • Support for anisotropic appearance on curved surfaces

Replicating One Result (for the Impatient)

This set of PowerShell commands reproduces the colored mesh of Fig. 17 (top left) from the article. You’ll need Windows 10 or newer and Blender to visualize it.

Open PowerShell as Administrator, then run:

winget source update
.\install_git_blender_miniconda.ps1

Close and reopen PowerShell. Then run:

git clone https://github.com/xavierchermain/atomizer
cd atomizer
conda create --name atomizer python=3.10
conda activate atomizer
pip install -e .
python tools/atomize.py data/param/tubes.json
python tools/toolpath_to_ply.py data/toolpath/tubes_smoothed.npz data/mesh/tubes.ply
blender --python see_toolpath_with_blender.py -- "data/mesh/tubes.ply"

Notes

  • The script install_git_blender_miniconda.ps1 sets up Git, Blender, and Miniconda if needed. You have to download the script install_git_blender_miniconda.ps1.
  • pip install -e . installs the local library in editable mode inside the atomizer conda env
  • If blender isn’t on your PATH, use the full path to blender.exe.
  • If something goes wrong, please read the following.

Installation

The code compiles, runs, and is maintained on Windows 10 or newer. It has also been tested on Linux and macOS, but we do not provide installation guidance for those platforms. The following installation instructions target Windows 10 or newer.

Dependencies

To install the dependencies (Git, Blender, and Miniconda), we provide a script that automatically downloads and installs all of them:

.\install_git_blender_miniconda.ps1

The script checks whether the softwares are already installed; if not, it installs them and adds them to the PATH. Alternatively, you can install them manually by following the instructions on the respective software websites.

  • Blender must be installed and added to your executable path. It is used to remesh the model (see tools/process_for_atomizer.py) for the atomizer. We tested with Blender 4.4 and 4.5.
  • Git and Miniconda are optional dependencies if you are already comfortable with code cloning, Python environments, and modules.

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/xavierchermain/atomizer

Install Python and Module Dependencies

This implementation is written in Python 3.10. Supported versions are Python >= 3.7 and < 3.11, as required by the Taichi module dependency. The implementation also relies on the local library src/atom. Please refer to pyproject.toml for the complete list of Python module dependencies.

Conda

We recommend using Miniconda to install a specific version of Python, the dependencies, and the local library src/atom:

conda create --name atomizer python=3.10
conda activate atomizer
pip install -e .

Usage

Atomize

python tools/atomize.py data/param/<json_filename>.json

The parameters in the JSON file are:

  • solid_name: the filename of the STL representing the 3D solid, without the extension. The STL file must be located in the data/mesh/ folder and have the .stl extension.
  • deposition_width: the deposition width in millimeters. The layer height is half the deposition width in our implementation.
  • max_slope: the maximum tilting angle of the tool, in degrees.
  • top_lines and bottom_lines (optional): paths to single-channel, 8-bit-per-pixel PNG files representing the target tangent directions for the top and bottom surfaces, respectively. The mapping is

Read the original on github.com ↗