Patent ID: 8658250

Claim:
A method for building a three-dimensional model with an additive manufacturing system, the method comprising: providing a marked filament to the additive manufacturing system, the marked filament comprising volume-increment markings that are offset from each other along a longitudinal length of the marked filament by increment lengths that vary to define segments of the filament having volumes that are substantially the same; feeding the marked filament to an extrusion head liquefier retained by the additive manufacturing system; reading the volume-increment markings of the fed marked filament with an optical sensor assembly retained by the additive manufacturing system; transmitting signals relating to the read volume-increment markings from the optical sensor assembly to a control component of the additive manufacturing system; melting the marked filament to at least an extrudable state in the extrusion head liquefier; depositing the melted material from the extrusion head liquefier to form the three-dimensional model in a layer-by-layer manner; and adjusting a feed rate of the marked filament to the extrusion head liquefier based in part on the transmitted signals relating to the volume-increment markings.