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Among the various scaffold design methods, function-based modeling is of great interest due to its accurate controllability for designing pore architectures. Parameters, such as the pore size, pore shape, porosity, and channel interconnectivity, should be designed according to actual skeleton characteristics. To this, an effective modeling method of trabecular bone is proposed, combining triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) and fractal geometry. First, the surface morphology of real trabecular bone is obtained based on the binary processing of computed tomography images. Then, the fractal pore-making element using TPMS is built and constructed into a complex porous structure. Finally, the customized scaffold model is manufactured with an additive manufacturing method.

Due to the advantages of control over shape and properties, multimaterial parts have potential for a broad range of biomedical engineering applications. A type of multimaterial part processing method based on digital design and manufacturing has been put forward to solve the problems associated with multimaterial part formation. A modeling platform for a heterogeneous object (HEO) part based on a material distribution control function and hierarchical contour loop was designed and utilized to characterize the material distribution in the HEO model. The hierarchical algorithm of the point color and surface texture based on the topological structure was studied and provided the basic data for the material construction area. An HEO part was fabricated using a custom-made 3-D printing system. The results showed that the digital processing method could effectively solve the problem of HEO part material definition and could realize the integrated design and manufacture of the geometry, material and function of biological parts.

A kind of digitally designing and manufacturing system for the gradient heterogeneous 3-D printing was designed. The molar model of PLY format was composed based on the CT images, and a novel method for the gradient heterogeneous material model designing based on the material distribution control function and the sliced edge rings was proposed. The point color slicing algorithm based on the topological structure was achieved. Based on the system, a gradient heterogeneous dental model was prepared. The algorithm used for constructing and slicing of the molar model could store the geometry and material information effectively, and maintain the compatibility for the heterogeneous 3-D printer. The system supplied a fast and integrating method for the heterogeneous 3-D bio-model printing.