A Method for Creating a Manufacturing Cost Heatmap Based Purely on Part Geometry

Abstract

It is now common for computer-aided engineering tools to show a performance parameter — like von Mises stress — over the surface of a solid part. In this paper, a heatmap is generated for part cost where high values (shown in red) indicate regions with a high impact on manufacturing cost. This is accomplished by slicing the provided part many times in multiple orientations and evaluating the total costs of each side of the part at each slice. The costs from all the directions considered are combined to generate a heatmap to show how different regions affect cost, enabling the designer to make informed improvements to the part geometry. In this paper, our method for generating these heatmaps is presented with three primary manufacturing cost models: bar stock, forging, and metal 3D printing. In all cases, a machining operation is then applied to get to the final part shape. Results are shown to validate the approach and demonstrate its usefulness.