3D manufacturing platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9821517-B2
Application number	US-201313928287-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2013
Priority date	Jun 26, 2013
Publication date	Nov 21, 2017
Grant date	Nov 21, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments relate to an operating system configured to enable arbitrary applications to output 3D models to be physically formed by arbitrary 3D manufacturing devices. The operating system manages the 3D manufacturing devices, including installation of related software, device drivers, device properties, and so forth. The operating system also provides a path through which the arbitrary applications pass arbitrary print jobs (or documents) of 3D models, in a standard format, to the 3D manufacturing devices. The operating system handles queuing and spooling on behalf of the applications and the 3D manufacturing devices. Drivers of the 3D manufacturing devices may translate the 3D models outputted by the applications (in the standard format) to instructions or device language content that is specific to the respective 3D manufacturing devices.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method performed by a computing device for enabling applications on the computing device to print to two-dimensional (2D) printer and a three-dimensional (3D) manufacturing devices connected to the computing device, the method comprising:
executing an operating system, the operating system comprising an application programming interface (API) and a printing service on the computing device that is accessible to the applications on the computing device, wherein the applications communicate with the printing service via the API, the printing service comprising:
a print queue configured to queue a 2D print job and a 3D print job;
a submit function invocable via the API to add the 3D print job to the print queue; and
a query function invocable via the API to query for indicia of whichever 2D printers and 3D manufacturing devices are connected to the computing device;

receiving, by the operating system, query and submit requests through the API from the applications executing on the computing device, wherein the query requests invoke the query function via the API to obtain the indicia and wherein the submit requests invoke the submit function via the API to submit the 2D print job and the 3D print job, and wherein the submitted 3D print job comprises a 3D model;
directing, by the printing service,, the 3D print job from the queue to a device driver of the 3D manufacturing device in accordance with the 3D manufacturing device being identified by a corresponding identifier of the 3D print job, the device driver executing on the computing device and controlling operations of the identified 3D manufacturing device by providing bi-directional communication between the operating system and the 3D manufacturing device; and
translating by the device driver, the 3D model in the 3D print job received from the print queue into instructions implemented by the 3D manufacturing device, the instructions passed to the 3D manufacturing device by the operating system, wherein operations of the 2D printer are controlled based on the 2D print job and the operations of 3D manufacturing device are controlled based on the 3D print job.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the 3D model comprises 3D model data that conforms to a standard 3D model format, wherein the printing service comprises two or more printing components that form a printing pipeline on the computing device, the components configured to parse the 3 D model data conforming to the standard 3 D model format.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein one of the printing components of the printing pipeline comprises a spooling service, the method further comprising receiving a submit request by the spooling service and the spooling service parsing the submit request to identify a 3D manufacturing device to which the submit request is directed.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising providing, by the operating system, bidirectional communication between the applications and the 3D manufacturing device.

5. A method according to claim 4 , further comprising, through the bidirectional communication, receiving a query directed to the 3 D manufacturing device specified by an application, accessing the 3 D manufacturing device or the device driver thereof to obtain an answer to the query, and forwarding the answer to the application.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the answer is formatted according to a standard device schema associated with the operating system.

7. A computing device comprising:
storage storing an operating system, the operating system comprising a print pipeline configured to handle two-dimensional (2D) print jobs for a 2D printer and three-dimensional (3D) print jobs for a 3D printer, the 2D print jobs and 3D print jobs originated by applications executed by the operating system, the 2D printer and the 3D printer performing the 2D print jobs and the 3D print jobs through bus and/or network connections between the 2D printer and the computing device and between the 3D printer and the operating system;
the print pipeline comprising a queue through which the 2D print jobs and the 3D print jobs pass from the applications to the 2D printer and the 3D printer;
the operating system configured to provide an API used by the applications to submit the 2D print jobs and to submit the 3D print jobs;
the 3D printer comprising a device that produces 3D physical objects that correspond to 3D models in the 3D print jobs;
the API configured to be used by the applications to query for indicia of whichever 2D printers and 3D printers are in communication with the operating system through the bus and/or network connections;
wherein each 3D print job respectively comprises an identifier of the 3D printer and a 3D print document comprising a 3D model generated by a corresponding application;
wherein the print pipeline is configured to direct, according to the identifiers of the 3D print jobs, the 3D print jobs from the queue to a device driver of the 3D printer executing on the computing device, wherein the device driver is configured to translate the 3D print jobs into instructions implemented by the 3D printer; and
a processor configured to, when powered, execute the operating system.

8. The computing device according to claim 7 , the print pipeline further comprising a spooling service that handles the 2D print jobs and the 3D print jobs.

9. The computing device according to claim 7 , wherein a 3D print job comprises a 3D model outputted by an application, the 3D model comprising a mesh or a stack of slices, and wherein the device driver is managed by the operating system and receives the 3D print job, produces an output that a corresponding 3D printer can use to print a physical object that corresponds to the 3D model.

10. The computing device according to claim 9 , wherein the device driver comprises a plurality of filters that process the 3D model.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Mcgatha Jesse
• Fenelon Michael
• Iverson Kristofer
• Jin Yulin
• Ivanov Hristo
• Peterson Erik
• Yue Feng

Classifications

• B29C67/0051 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B29C67/0088

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B29C64/393 Primary

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title