Abstract: A method of measuring the viscosity of a resin in a bottom-up additive manufacturing apparatus, includes the steps of: (a) providing an additive manufacturing apparatus including a build platform and a light transmissive window, said build platform and said window defining a build region there between, with said window carrying a resin; (b) advancing said build platform and said window towards one another until said build platform contacts said resin; (c) detecting the force exerted on said build platform by said resin; and (d) generating in a processor a viscosity measure of said resin from said detected force.

Abstract: A method of enhancing a performance characteristic of an additive manufacturing apparatus, the method including: (a) dispensing a batch of a light polymerizable resin into the additive manufacturing apparatus, the batch characterized by at least one physical characteristic; (b) determining the unique identity of the batch; (c) sending the unique identity of the batch to a database; then (d) either: (i) receiving on the controller from the database modified operating instructions for the resin batch, which modified operating instructions have been modified based on the at least one physical characteristic, or (ii) receiving on the controller from the database the at least one physical characteristic for the specific resin batch and modifying the operating instructions based on the at least one physical characteristic; and then (e) producing the object from the batch of light polymerizable resin on the additive manufacturing apparatus with the modified operating instructions.

Abstract: A method of making a three-dimensional object (31) is carried out by: (a) providing a carrier (15) and an optically transparent member (12) having a build surface, the carrier (15) and the build surface defining a build region therebetween, the optically transparent member (12) carrying a polymerizable liquid (21); (b) advancing the carrier (15) and the optically transparent member (12) away from one another to draw the polymerizable liquid (21) into the build region; then (c) optionally, partially retracting the carrier (15) and the optically transparent member (12) back towards one another; and then (d) irradiating the build region with light to form a growing three-dimensional object (31) from the polymerizable liquid (21); and then (e) cyclically repeating steps (b) to (d) while maintaining a continuous liquid interface (22) between the growing three-dimensional object (31) and the optically transparent member (12) until at least a portion of the three-dimensional object (31) is formed, while during at le

Abstract: To find a management server, a computer selects one of plural techniques of obtaining an address of the management server. One of the plural techniques comprises the computer exchanging configuration messaging with a configuration server to obtain the address of the management server.