Manufacturing Method

A Manufacturing Method like Casting or Additive Manufacturing can be added to create designs tailored for the chosen Manufacturing Method by considering its typical characteristics.

Casting

Draw Directions

Draw Directions need to be added as a vector. At least one is desired or Casting Regions have to be used. There is no maximum limit but more directions will increase the calculation time.
If a Main Draw Direction is set up, a Casting Region for the whole Design Space is set up. This can be standalone or additional to separate defined Casting Regions.

Tapering Angle

Tapering Angle for walls/ribs regarding the Draw Directions. Specified in degree.

Radius

The Radius value influences the behavior of the erosion. Smaller values can create more ribs and cavities in the same area as higher radii.
It also corresponds with the fillet radius of the connection from ribs to other structures.
A default value is defined which depends on the chosen Complexity value.

Minimum Wall Thickness

Minimum thickness of a rib/wall and all other resulting shapes. Specified in world units.

Maximum Wall Thickness

With the Advanced User Settings a maximum wall/rib thickness can be set up.

Casting Region

A Casting Region can be added to the Casting Manufacturing Method. A Casting Region defines casting specific settings for separate regions of the Design Space.
If Casting Regions are used, please make sure that all areas of the Design Space are covered. If a Main Draw Direction is also specified, there is automatically one additional region covering the whole Design Space.

Hints

• More Draw Directions extend the calculation time.

• Big Radius values will extend the calculation time. Too small radii can cause issues during the material erosion.

Additive Manufacturing

Build Plane

A Build Plane can be added to define the XY-build plane of a 3D Printer. The Z-direction is the build direction. If no build plane is added, the global XY-plane will be used.

Scale Target Stress in build direction

A lower maximum allowable stress in build direction is typical for some additive manufacturing methods. The Target Stress in build direction compared to the Target Stress in in-plane directions can be scaled with a value.

Example:

Given are the maximum allowable stress of the material with 100 MPa and the Safety Factor with a value of 5. With a scaled target stress in build direction of 80% we receive the following values considered in the optimization:

Support Reduction

The Support Reduction function reduces the needed support structure for the optimized part in regard to the Build Plane. The target is to reduce the amount of needed support for overhang angles of 45° while maintaining nearly the same mechanical performance as designs without manufacturing constraints.

The overhang angle can be modified with the Advanced User Settings.

Strategy

Three different strategies are available:

• Low

• Medium

• High

The influence of the Support Reduction on the design increases from Low to Medium to High.

This comparison shows the influence of the three different Support Reduction strategies regarding the resulting mass, the maximum deflection and the needed support volume compared to a base design without any support strategy. The influence of the strategies is highly dependent on the model.

Hints

• If a Build Plane is added, this Build Plane will act as the Working Coordinate System for the optimization. Symmetry can only be used with reference to the Build Plane and therefore the defined Working Coordinate System.