Automatic Parametric Modeling From Non-Feature Based Designs for Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

The integration of Topology optimization (TO) and Generative Design (GD) with additive manufacturing (AM) is becoming advent methods to lightweight parts while maintaining performance under the same loading conditions. However, these models from TO or GD are not in a form that they can be easily edited in a 3D CAD modeling system. These geometries are generally in a form with no surface/plane information, thus having non-editable features. Direct fabricate these non-feature-based designs and their inherent characteristics would lead to non-desired part qualities in terms of shape, GD&T, and mechanical properties. Current commercial software always requires a significant amount of manual work by experienced CAD users to generate a feature-based CAD model from non-feature-based designs for AM and performance simulation. This paper presents fully automated shaping algorithms for building parametric feature-based 3D models from non-feature-based designs for AM. Starting from automatically decomposing the given geometry into “formable” volumes, which is defined as a sweeping feature in the CAD modeling system, each decomposed volume will be described with 2D profiles and sweeping directions for modeling. The Boolean of modeled components will be the final parametric shape. The volumetric difference between the final parametric form and the original geometry is also provided to prove the effectiveness and efficiency of this automatic shaping methodology. Besides, the performance of the parametric models is being simulated to testify the functionality.