An Architecture for Interoperability of Layered Manufacturing Data

In this paper, we address the lack of interoperability of data in commercial layered manufacturing systems. Since it is a new field, all machines require users to deal with vendor specific softwares and data formats. We propose a simple architecture, one that already exists in the NC machining domain, to address this issue. Analogous to CLData, we propose LMData that is not vendor specific and can be used on a variety of LM machines. Implementation and examples are presented.