In-filling for additive manufacturing

1. A method for dynamically generating a pattern for an infill structure in a fused deposition modeling-process based on layered extrusion of a build material, the method comprising:

identifying a surface of a desired structure, the desired structure having an unspecified interior configuration;

enclosing the desired structure in a cell;

identifying an interior configuration by iteratively:

partitioning the cell into sub-cells;

discarding sub-cells that are entirely contained in an exterior of the structure; and

merging sub-cells that:

are entirely contained in an interior of the structure; and

satisfy a merging condition;

determining whether a stopping condition is satisfied;

if the stopping condition is not satisfied, repeating steps to identify the interior configuration until the stopping condition is satisfied; and

if the stopping condition is satisfied, printing the structure with the identified interior configuration on a three-dimensional printer such that the interior of the structure includes a support structure formed by remaining walls of the sub-cells and enclosing one or more void volumes within the structure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cell and sub-cells are cubical.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein partitioning cells includes partitioning a cube into eight mutually congruent cubes.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the merging condition includes the condition that a given cell is adjacent to a specified number of other cells that are all contained in the interior of the structure.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the specified number is seven.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the merging the sub-cells is performed only in a specified direction.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the specified direction is selected from the group consisting of horizontal and vertical.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cell and sub-cells are tetrahedral.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein partitioning includes barycentric subdivision.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stopping condition allows partitioning to be carried out to a maximum resolution of the three-dimensional printer.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stopping condition includes a constraint on at least one of a total required build material, a total required build time, a desired density of the structure, a minimum void volume, and a maximum void volume.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the merging condition includes a constraint selected from the group consisting of: a constraint on an overall mass of the structure, a constraint on a density of the structure, and a constraint on a location of a center of mass of the structure.