Review of Computer Aided Design (CAD) Data Transformation in Rapid Prototyping Technology

Manufacturing of any product involves not only in design and material selection but also selection of appropriate manufacturing process required to obtain the desire shape and properties of the product. Prototyping is a process of structure pre-production models of a product to test various aspects of its design. Rapid Prototyping (RP) techniques are methods that allow to quickly producing physical prototypes with the important benefit to reduce the Time to Market. In these RP processes the part is produced from CAD model which is transferred to machine computer in STL format. Prototyping or model making is one of the important steps to finalize a product design. It helps in conceptualization of a design, before the start of full production a prototype is usually fabricated and tested. This paper provides a review on data transfer between the CAD and the RP system.