Introducing new products at an increasing rate is critical for remaining competitive in a global economy; decreasing product development cycle times and increasing product complexity necessitate new ways to realise innovative ideas. In response to these challenges, industry and academia have invented a spectrum of technologies that help to develop new products and broaden the number of product alternatives.

Most designers agree that "getting physical prototypes fast" is critical to exploring design concepts. The sooner designers experiment with new products, the faster they gain inspiration for further design changes.

The key idea in rapid prototyping is the decomposition of a difficult problem of manufacturing a complex 3D component into thin slices that are then physically realised in some manner. These slices are stacked and joined, giving us the required physical prototype.

During the art-to-part conversion in RP, none of the traditional manufacturing steps such as process planning, tool design, and material movement for machining are required. What is required is only designing the part and generating it with the help of software (using different operations).