Section: New Software and Platforms

IceSL

Participants : Jérémie Dumas, Jean Hergel, Sylvain Lefebvre, Frédéric Claux, Jonas Martínez Bayona, Samuel Hornus.

IceSL exploits parallel algorithms running on the GPU to afford for interactive modeling of objects described by a Constructive Solid Geometry (Boolean operations between solids: difference, union, intersection.) scripting language. This also enables direct slicing for additive manufacturing by considering the printer bed as a screen onto which each object slice has to be drawn as quickly as possible. During display and slicing the CSG model is converted on the fly into an intermediate representation enabling fast processing on the GPU. Slices can be quickly extracted, and the tool path is prepared through image erosion. The interactive preview of the final geometry uses the exact same code path as the slicer, providing an immediate, accurate visual feedback.

IceSL allows practitioners to design and combine complex objects with unprecedented ease. Our latest version can combine meshes as well as analytical primitives (i.e., shapes described by an equation), and outputs printer instructions for filament printers as well as stereolithography printers and laser cutters.

We also augmented IceSL with a modern UI that allows users to immediately visualize changes made to the script, as well as expose a set of parameters to non-expert users who are interested in customizing a model created with IceSL. https://youtu.be/I2y_yZ4VEgk .

IceSL is the recipient software for our ERC research project “ShapeForge”, led by Sylvain Lefebvre and includes several research results from the project.