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Cover-it: An Interactive System for Covering 3D Printed Objects
(2014-11-03) Mahdavi-Amiri, Ali; Whittingham, Philip; Samavati, Faramarz
The ubiquity of 3D printers has made it possible to print various types of objects, from toys to mechanical objects. However, most available 3D printers are single or double colors. Even printers that can produce objects with multiple colors do not offer the ability to cover the object with a desired material, such as a piece of cloth or fur. In this paper, we propose a system that produces simple 2D patches that can be used as a reference to cover the 3D printed object. The 2D patches are created by optimizing a fitness function that measures a number of criteria such as planarity of patches, smoothness of patch boundaries, and visibility of the seams on the 3D print. The system allows for user interactions to correct and modify the patches, and provides guidelines on how to wrap the printed object via small curves illustrating the patch boundaries etched on the printed object as well as an animation showing how the 2D patches should be folded together.