Injection molds can be fabricated using 3D printing technology. An inverse computer aided design (CAD) file may be generated based upon a visualization file that represents a 3D object. The inverse CAD file can then be altered based upon various parameters associated with the 3D object. One or more injection molds can be fabricated using a 3D printer based on the altered inverse CAD file.

A process includes: a first casting modelling stage producing resulting casting parameters; a second casting modelling stage performed using the resulting casting parameters of the first casting modelling stage and of higher fidelity than the first casting modelling stage; in parallel with the second casting modelling stage, a casting trial using the resulting casting parameters of the first casting modelling stage; and evaluating the casting trial.

A computer-implemented method for designing a virtual garment or upholstery in a three-dimensional scene comprising the steps of: a) providing a three-dimensional manikin, a set of pattern parts of said virtual garment or upholstery and a set of seam specification; b) receiving from a user a plurality of declarations of assembly tasks (A, B, C, D1, D2, E1, E21, E22, F2) for assembling the garment or upholstery; c) receiving from the user at least a declaration of a partial ordering relationship between two or more of said assembly tasks; d) executing said tasks according to said partial ordering relationship, each task changing a state of the garment or upholstery under assembly; characterized in that it further comprises a step of: e) while executing the tasks, generating a tree data structure comprising nodes linked by directed arcs, each node being associated to a state of the garment or upholstery and each arc being associated to an assembly task. A computer program product, non-volatile computer-readable data-storage medium and Computer Aided Design system for carrying out such a method. Application of the method to the manufacturing of a garment or upholstery.

A forming simulation method of an elastic-plastic material, which includes: calculating an element equivalent nodal force vector from stress tensor using a finite element method for one or a plurality of finite elements of a target configuration of the elastic-plastic material; and calculating the total equivalent nodal force vector of areas by integrating the element equivalent nodal force vector for the calculated one or more finite elements over all the areas or specified areas of the elastic-plastic material.

In order to provide an efficient and favorable simulation method for obtaining the disappearance of a number of air bubbles in one entire shot or the like, for example, there is provided a simulation method for simulating a film forming process of forming a film by coating an upper part of a substrate with a curable composition in a form of a plurality of droplets and bringing a mold into contact therewith. The simulation method includes a first step of computing a size of each air bubble at a time when air bubbles become trapped due to the mold brought into contact therewith and a time of becoming trapped, and a second step of obtaining a disappearing process of each of the air bubbles on the basis of information of the size of each of the air bubbles and the time.

A method for designing a flat device to be thermoformed into a shape-retaining non-flat device using a mold is provided. The flat device comprises two concentric annular layers: a carrier layer, having an outer radius (R.sub.Cout) and a carrier layer width (W.sub.C); and a support layer having a support layer width (W.sub.S). The support layer is mechanically attached to the carrier layer wherein an inner distance (GAP) is formed between an inner edge of the carrier layer and an inner edge of the support layer. The method comprises obtaining predetermined values for the outer radius of the carrier layer, the support layer width and the inner distance, obtaining a geometry of the mold, and obtaining material properties of the support layer and the carrier layer. The method further comprises performing at least two simulations of thermoforming a simulated flat device into a non-flat device using the mold, based on the obtained predetermined values, material properties, and geometry of the mold for at least two different carrier layer widths. The method further comprises determining a circumferential strain at an outer edge of the support layer in each of the simulated non-flat devices. The method further comprises determining, based on the determined circumferential strains, a linear relation between the circumferential strain and a dimension ratio defined by

[00001]$\mathrm{ratio}=\left(W_C-\left(W_S+\mathrm{GAP}\right)\right)/R_{\mathrm{Cout}}.$

The method further comprises determining (1070), based on the determined linear relation, a value (ratio.sub.MNB) of the dimension ratio for which the strain is zero and determining, from the dimension ratio for which the strain is zero, the width of the carrier layer in the flat device as

[00002]$W_C=\mathrm{ratio}*R_{\mathrm{Cout}}+W_S+\mathrm{GAP}.$

Rotational moulding system configured for determining at least one suitable temperature-time program and at least one suitable motion-time program for the rotational moulding of an object by means of the rotational moulding system on the basis of a predetermined rotational moulding thermal characteristic of a raw material to be used for the rotational moulding of the object. Computer-implemented method for using the rotational moulding system.

A computer-implemented method for generating an output computer-aided design (CAD) model representing a mould for use in moulding a part represented by an input CAD model is disclosed. The method comprises: generating a mesh over the external surfaces of the input CAD model; analysing the mesh to generate a visibility data structure defining the visibility of each point on the mesh; for each of a group of three orthogonal axes, identifying and selecting, using the visibility data structure, a set of directions such that every point in the mesh is visible from the set of directions in combination; for each direction, defining one or more candidate pieces covering the visible regions of the mesh from that direction; selecting a combination of the candidate pieces which together cover the whole mesh; dividing the combination of candidate pieces about one or more parting lines into a set of shells; and generating the output CAD model to include a set of model parts, each of which corresponds to a respective one of the set of shells and has a surface which conforms to the shape of the respective shell.

A press forming fracture determination method determines the presence or absence of fracture occurrence in a portion of the metal sheet in which a deformation path changes from compressive deformation to tensile deformation in press forming on the metal sheet, and includes: a step of deriving a forming limit condition related to fracture occurrence in the metal sheet based on a basic forming test in which a metal sheet is deformed in a deformation path that changes from compressive deformation to tensile deformation and FEM analysis therefor; and a step of determining the presence or absence of fracture occurrence in a portion in which the deformation path changes from compressive deformation to tensile deformation in the press forming on the metal sheet based on the derived forming limit condition.

A method for predicting probability and distribution of local mechanical properties of a casting using a single casting process simulation and a process variability parameter to predict the probability distribution of local microstructure based mechanical properties and local damage factors; and applying respective local damage factors to the local microstructure based mechanical properties at each part of the casting to predict local weakening in the respective material performance and a probability distribution thereof. The method further includes statistical analysis for a single cast part or a virtual Design of Experiments using parametrized sets of input variables to determine local defect probability and process capability for each part of the casting.