The EMA VM toolkit bridges dissimilar approaches to 3D modelling, joining togetherpoint, surface, and continuum representations under one abstract voxel framework.

Different 3D data structures are suited to different tasks within the EMA framework. Point clouds handle well real-world data from 3D scans; whereas multi-material 3D printing necessitates the specification of materials and their ratios at arbitrary points along a toolpath curve. Meanwhile, meshes are ideal starting points for generating those toolpaths.

When each step of the biopolymer 3D printing workflow is served by a different data structure, interoperability can become a challenge. Forming the missing link between these different paradigms, regularized 3D voxel grids powered by the OpenVDBdata structure provide a unified way to define fully 3D objectsfrom modelling to fabrication to monitoring.