# From 3D Models to 3D Prints: an Overview of the Processing Pipeline

## TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the 3D printing process pipeline, classifying algorithms, objectives, and technologies, and discusses open challenges in additive manufacturing from academic and industrial viewpoints.

## Contribution

It offers a detailed classification of process planning algorithms, objectives, and additive manufacturing technologies, highlighting current challenges and research directions.

## Key findings

- Classification of process planning algorithms and objectives
- Analysis of additive manufacturing technologies and their features
- Discussion of open problems and future research directions

## Abstract

Due to the wide diffusion of 3D printing technologies, geometric algorithms for Additive Manufacturing are being invented at an impressive speed. Each single step, in particular along the Process Planning pipeline, can now count on dozens of methods that prepare the 3D model for fabrication, while analysing and optimizing geometry and machine instructions for various objectives. This report provides a classification of this huge state of the art, and elicits the relation between each single algorithm and a list of desirable objectives during Process Planning. The objectives themselves are listed and discussed, along with possible needs for tradeoffs. Additive Manufacturing technologies are broadly categorized to explicitly relate classes of devices and supported features. Finally, this report offers an analysis of the state of the art while discussing open and challenging problems from both an academic and an industrial perspective.