Field Guide¶a>

Mesh¶

Meshes represent 3D objects to be printed. A mesh consists of 3D geometry, a name, an affine transform, and optional texture images.

• geom is the 3D geometry, a collection of triangles that define the exterior surface (and possibly multiple interior surfaces) of the 3D object. 3D geometry can include UV coordinates for texture mapping using the texture images.
• name is a UTF8 string suitable for display to the end-user.
• transform represents affine transform positions and scales the mesh in the printer’s three dimensional build space. It is specified as the first three columns of a 4x4 matrix in which the last column is implicit and set to [ 0, 0, 0, 1 ].

  In order to compute the positions of mesh vertices under the transform, the position vectors are implicitly extended to four elements with the scalar 1.0 and premultiplied as a row vector by the affine transform matrix. The last component is discarded and the result is the new position.

  The unit of length in the endpoint is centimeters, so a scale factor that converts each unit to centimeters may be required in the affine transform.

Meshes are immutable: Mesh endpoints that appear to modify an existing mesh actually return a new mesh and leave the original mesh unchanged.

Meshes can be created from 3MF, binary STL, ASCII STL, OBJ, or a zip file containing an OBJ file with associated MTL file and texture images. The support formats for texture images (if specified) are PNG and JPEG.

{
  "id": "8f7ef44b-d4ef-41c8-8ded-a0c9d0999e55",
  "name": "image_damaged",
  "geom": {
    "num_vertices": 10046,
    "num_triangles": 20081,
    "has_uvs": false
  },
  "transform": [
    [
      1,
      0,
      0,
      0
    ],
    [
      0,
      1,
      0,
      0
    ],
    [
      0,
      0,
      1,
      3
    ]
  ],
  "analyzed": true,
  "problems": [
    {
      "triangles": [
        {
          "v0": [
            5.918893814086914,
            33.73568344116211,
            9.202703475952148
          ],
          "v1": [
            5.848534107208252,
            33.87462615966797,
            9.152109146118164
          ],
          "v2": [
            5.913722991943359,
            33.85252380371094,
            9.214763641357422
          ]
        }
      ],
      "type": "duplicate_triangles"
    }
  ]
}

Tray¶

Trays are printable files, set up to match the build-platform (the tray) of a particular printer type. During tray preparation the mesh positions, slicing parameters and material settings are optimized for the intended printer. Completed trays can be output to the 3D printer. Tray creation uses printer type settings and print profiles from the Print Definitions section.

Trays are immutable: Tray endpoints return a new tray and leave the original tray unchanged.

Tray coordinate systems originate at the bottom center of the build volume. The X-axis points to the right for a user facing the front of the printer. The Y-axis points to the back of the printer and the Z-axis points up. The tray coordinate system is in units of centimeters.

{
  "id": "c88a02c2-4868-4a6e-b7af-793ae23c76ff",
  "printer_type_id": "7FAF097F-DB2E-45DC-9395-A30210E789AA",
  "settings": {
    "support_angle_tol": 1.3,
    "layer_height": 0.0020,
    "burn_in_layers": 3
  },
  "meshes": [
    {
      "id": "19f38eb7-4cb5-429c-8e25-0e440f8bfd2b",
      "name": "mage_damaged",
      "geom": {
        "num_vertices": 10046,
        "num_triangles": 20080,
        "has_uvs": false,
        "bounding_box": {
          "max": [
            12.562538146972656,
            56.06819534301758,
            16.380802154541016
          ],
          "min": [
            -16.40504264831543,
            -0.0002610000083222985,
            -13.500799179077148
          ]
        }
      },
      "transform": [
        [
          1,
          0,
          0,
          0
        ],
        [
          0,
          1,
          0,
          0
        ],
        [
          0,
          0,
          1,
          0
        ]
      ],
      "analyzed": true,
      "problems": [
        {
          "type": "nonmanifold_vertices"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "mesh_attrs": {
    "19f38eb7-4cb5-429c-8e25-0e440f8bfd2b": {
      "reposition": true,
      "reorient": true,
      "support": true
    }
  },
  "state": "created",
  "ready": false,
  "default_material_id": "426F14FE-E6AF-496F-BBC7-7D6C0E16861D"
}

Task¶

Most print preparation endpoints are asynchronous; they do not halt execution of your program and instead initiate a task that runs in the background.

Your program must call the GET tasks/:id endpoint to monitor execution and get the response to the asynchronous endpoint.

{
  "id": "34F0E39A-9389-42BA-AB5A-4F2CD59C98E4",
  "status": "running",
  "progress": 0.75
}

{
  "id": "5253850e-e876-49a0-bf94-aae1e7ef03ab",
  "progress": 1,
  "status": "done",
  "task_update_time": "2016-05-15T07:06:30.348Z",
  "result": {
    "id": "d7a326ba-5208-4712-a67a-8f4929945676",
    "name": "testPrintFlow",
    "geom": {
      "bounding_box": {
        "max": [
          31.225000381469727,
          22.575000762939453,
          12.225000381469727
        ],
        "min": [
          -31.225000381469727,
          -41,
          -12.225000381469727
        ]
      },
      "has_uvs": false,
      "num_triangles": 4278,
      "num_vertices": 2131
    },
    "analyzed": false
  }
}

{
  "id": "1d2400b5-b9c8-417b-ba51-49aba007eddb",
  "progress": 1,
  "status": "error",
  "task_update_time": "2016-06-06T06:45:31.980Z",
  "error": {
    "error_id": "84257912-cfb9-4761-96b0-9d64a0f95e5c",
    "message": "",
    "code": -1
  }
}

Printer Type¶

Printer types describe a particular 3D printer model. Data is provided by the printer manufacturer. Forge supports printers with a rectangular build volume.

{
  "id": "7B7F944D-5F30-4C49-AA95-837D4B441260",
  "manufacturer": "Autodesk",
  "model": "Ember",
  "technology": "DLP",
  "firmware": "Custom",
  "output": "PNG-GZIP",
  "supported_connections": [
    "TCP_IP",
    "SD"
  ],
  "preferred_connection": "TCP_IP",
  "connections": {},
  "build_volume": {},
  "materials_types": [
    "PHOTORESIN"
  ],
  "max_materials": 1,
  "dlp_specs": {}
}

Material¶

Materials provide a variety of information about the substances used in 3D printing, including associated printing technology, color, extrusion details, and associated printer types.

{
  "id": "426F14FE-E6AF-496F-BBC7-7D6C0E16861D",
  "version": 1,
  "name": "PHOTORESIN BLACK",
  "technology": "PHOTORESIN",
  "printer_types": [
    "7FAF097F-DB2E-45DC-9395-A30210E789AA"
  ],
  "cost": 100,
  "exposure_power": 1,
  "cure_time_adhesion": 1,
  "cure_time_intermediary": 1,
  "cure_time_nominal_layers": 1,
  "color": "0b0b0a",
  "protein_ref": 1234,
  "manufacturer": "Autodesk",
  "composition": "urethane"
}

Profile¶

A profile is a set of slicing parameters associated with a printer type.

{
  "id": "34F0E39A-9389-42BA-AB5A-4F2CD59C98E4",
  "version": 1,
  "technology": "PHOTORESIN",
  "name": "Ember High Quality",
  "printer_types": [
    "7FAF097F-DB2E-45DC-9395-A30210E789AA"
  ],
  "support_angle_tol": 45.0,
  "support_contact_tol": 0.0,
  "support_min_radius": 0.0,
  "support_min_separation": 0.0,
  "layer_height": 0.02,
  "layer_height_first": 0.2,
  "img_width": 912,
  "img_height": 1140,
  "brightness_blur_radius": 21,
  "brightness_input_min": 0.01,
  "brightness_input_max": 0.25,
  "brightness_output_min": 1.0,
  "brightness_output_max": 0.88
}