Patent ID: 7045033

Claim:
A method for facilitating the removal of residue regions for use in a system for constructing a three-dimensional object by selective attachment of a plurality of sheets of flexible material, each sheet being cut along at least one contour line so as to subdivide the sheet into at least one object forming region corresponding to the shape of a layer of the object bounded by a corresponding contour of the object and at least one residue region not required in the constructed object, at least part of each object forming region being attached to object forming regions of adjacent layers, the method comprising producing selective attachment of at least part of a plurality of the residue regions to the residue regions of adjacent sheets in such a manner as to form, from at least part of the residue regions of a plurality of the sheets, a plurality of residue elements non-rigidly interconnected in a generally Z-fold arrangement such that manual removal of each of said residue elements from the sheet leaves the object portion of the sheet in place and initiates removal of a subsequent one of said residue elements from the subsequent sheet leaving the object portion of the subsequent sheet in place.