A support material for printing a support structure with an electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system, the support material including a composition having a charge control agent and a thermoplastic copolymer having aromatic groups, (meth)acrylate-based ester groups, carboxylic acid groups, and anhydride groups, with a high anhydride conversion. The composition is provided in a powder form having a controlled particle size, and the support material is configured for use in the electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system having a layer transfusion assembly for printing the support structure in a layer-by-layer manner, and is at least partially soluble in an aqueous solution.

A shaping system of a three-dimensional object includes a control unit which performs an operation of supplying data of a calibration marker to the material layer forming unit and stacking a material layer formed based on the data of the calibration marker on the stage, and an operation of supplying, to the material layer forming unit, data for arranging the shaping material in an entire area of the shaping area excluding an arrangement area of the calibration marker after the material layer formed based on the data of the calibration marker and stacking, on the stage, a material layer formed based on the data for arranging the shaping material in the entire area of the shaping area excluding the arrangement area of the calibration marker.

A water dispersible sulfopolymer for use as a material in the layer-wise additive manufacture of a 3D part made of a non water dispersible polymer wherein the water dispersible polymer is a reaction product of a metal sulfo monomer, the water dispersible sulfo-polymer being dispersible in water resulting in separation of the water dispersible polymer from the 3D part made of the non water dispersible polymer.