Copy of How we understand Geometry - to be checked by Lennart

For the optimisation we define different areas of the geometry. These are mainly Design and Non-Design Spaces.

The Design Space is the most important space and complies with the imported/created solid CAD geometry. It includes any space where material is allowed to be or has to be, to provide maximal freedom for the algorithm. If the Design Space is limited, so is the optimisation algorithm and the optimisation potential is reduced.

The Non-Design Space contains the necessary geometries of the part. Any part for which you need a clearly defined geometry should be a Non-Design Space. To create Non-Design Spaces the geometry needs to be either split into cells or a constraint is applied to a surface, edge or point which automatically creates a Non-Design Space for this geometry. Cells are partitions of the Design Space. They can be created with the split tool, directly in the Non-Design Tool or with a Boolean operation using two or more solids.

Void Spaces are spaces within your part where no material is allowed to be and free space for example for other parts of the assembly is needed. These spaces can be easily created with the Access Region and Clearance Region Tools. Especially for realising Part Consolidation these Tools assist to prepare the Design Space and the geometry for the optimisation.

Intersections are necessary after each optimisation to get the defined surfaces of the Non-Design Spaces as well as the printing geometry with Machining Allowance. These defined shapes are needed for example for the post processing of the manufacturing process. The intersection is done automatically for every iteration and can be seen in the Post Processing.

To realize a post processing of additive manufactured parts an Machining Allowance needs to be considered for all functional surfaces. The Machining Allowance Tool helps to create these offset automatically so that the optimisation directly produces a manufacturable design with offsets as well as the final geometry for the CAD/CAM system.

Tip: Avoidance of stress rising on Design Space boundaries. Sometimes it is useful to reduce the Design Space a little bit for the optimisation by subtracting an offset. The optimisation is carried out with this reduced Design Space. However, the intersection afterwards is done with the originally defined Design Space in order to avoid sharp edges and thus stress risings. This way you avoid stress risings on the boundaries after you have combined your optimisation result with your original Design Space.

You might also be interested in this tutorial:

• Design Space Generation - Bookshelf