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Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Advanced software development of 2D and 3D

model visualization for TwinPrint, a dual-arm 3D
bioprinting system for multi-material printing

1,2
1
Shaddin AlZaid , Noofa Hammad , Hamed I. Albalawi , Zainab N. Khan ,
1
1
Eter Othman , Charlotte A. E. Hauser *
1,2
1,2
1 Laboratory for Nanomedicine, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering,
King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
2 Computational Bioscience Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology,
Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia

Abstract
This research highlights the development of a two-dimensional (2D) and three-
dimensional (3D) preview software for additive manufacturing (AM). The presented
software can produce a virtual representation of an actuator’s path movements by
reading and parsing the orders of the desired geometric code (G-code) file. It then
simulates the coded sections into separate 2D layers and colored 3D objects in a
graphical model. This allows users to validate the shapes before the 3D printing
process. G-code is an operation language which is based on command lines of
code written in an alphanumeric format. Each line of these commands controls
*Corresponding author: one machining operation; this instructs the machine’s motion to move in an arc, a
Charlotte A. E. Hauser circle, or a straight line to perform a specific shape after compiling all code lines. AM
(charlotte.hauser@kaust.edu.sa) technology is widely used in most manufacturing fields (e.g., medical, chemical, and
Citation: AlZaid S, Hammad N, research laboratories) as a prototyping technology due to its ability to produce rapid
Albalawi HI, et al., 2022, Advanced prototyping models. 3D printing creates physical 3D models by extruding material
software development of 2D and 3D
model visualization for TwinPrint, a layer by layer as 2D layers. At present, the most critical challenges in AM technology
dual-arm 3D bioprinting system for are drastically reducing prototyping materials’ consumption and time spent. To
multi-material printing. Mater Sci address these challenges, the proposed software allows for visualization of G-code
Add Manuf, 1(3):19.
https://doi.org/10.18063/msam.v1i3.19 files and predicting the overall layers’ shapes, allowing both structure prediction and
subsequent printing error reduction.
Received: September 9, 2022
Accepted: September 21, 2022
Keywords: Geometric code preview; Three-dimensional preview; Geometric code
Published Online: September 28, simulator; Three-dimensional printing
2022
Copyright: © 2022 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 1. Introduction
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology
provided the original work is used in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. This technique can overcome the
properly cited. limitations of traditional tissue replacement methods, autografts, and allografts as they
[1]
Publisher’s Note: Whoice often suffer from issues related to disease transmission as well as their scarcity . Aside
Publishing remains neutral with from the heterogeneous nature of native tissues, they are made of various biomolecules,
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional different cell types, and other biomaterials; this necessitates using multiple bioinks
[2]
affiliations. simultaneously or sequentially to 3D print biomimetic tissues . Compared with other
Volume 1 Issue 3 (2022) 1 https://doi.org/10.18063/msam.v1i3.19