Methods, systems, and apparatus for computer aided design of physical structures include: producing a quad parameterization computer model (including quad parameter domains) of a polygon mesh, where quad parameter domain(s) adjacent to a boundary curve interpolate the boundary curve; and forming a computer model of a three dimensional object by constructing locally refinable surface representation(s) from the quad parameterization computer model, refining a boundary of the locally refinable surface representation(s) to approximate the boundary curve within a first tolerance value set in accordance with a smallest dimension representable by a geometry modeling kernel, freezing control points of the locally refinable surface representation(s) at the boundary, and modifying remaining interior portions of the locally refinable surface representation(s) to approximate the polygon mesh within a second tolerance value that is at least an order of magnitude larger than the first tolerance value.

In an example implementation, a method of compensating for dimensional variation in 3D printing includes receiving a voxel space model that represents a 3D object to be printed within a build volume of a 3D printing system, asymmetrically eroding voxels from the voxel space model, and printing the 3D object based on the asymmetrically eroded voxel space model.

Disclosed are methods and systems for manufacturing a lighting product. The method can comprise transmitting 3D CAD model files containing 3D CAD models of standardized functional components to a computing device and receiving an assembly CAD model file and a plurality of part CAD model files containing 3D CAD models of the lighting product from the computing device. The method can also comprise verifying whether the 3D CAD models satisfy a plurality of design requirements and generating a set of optimized CAD model files based on the assembly CAD model file and the plurality of part CAD model files if the 3D CAD models do not meet the design requirements. The method can further comprise 3D printing parts of the lighting product based on machine-readable instructions converted from the set of optimized CAD model files and assembling the 3D-printed parts together with the standardized functional components.

In an example, a method includes receiving, at least one processor, object model data representing at least a portion of an object that is to be generated by an additive manufacturing apparatus by fusing build material within a fabrication chamber, wherein the object model data comprises a mesh model comprising data describing a surface of the object. A geometrical compensation vector may be determined for the object model data, the geometrical compensation vector having a first component applying to a first axis of the fabrication chamber and a second component applying to a second axis of the fabrication chamber. A geometrical compensation to apply to at least one location on the surface of the object may be determined by determining a product of the geometrical compensation vector and a vector indicative of the normal of the object surface at the location and the determined geometrical compensation may be applied to the object model data to generate modified object model data.

Disclosed are example embodiments of methods and systems for identifying and quantifying manufacturing defects of a manufactured dental prosthesis. Certain embodiments of the system for performing quality control on manufactured dental prostheses includes: a quality control module configured to determine whether the dental prosthesis is a good or a defective product based at least on a differences model generated by comparing a design model and a scanned model of the manufactured dental prosthesis.

Provided is a method for creating a 2D slicing polyline based support structure for 3D printing. A method for creating a support structure according to an embodiment of die present invention comprises: slicing a 3D model into a plurality of 2D layers; comparing the 2D layers to calculate a support position for each of the 2D layers; and creating supports at the calculated positions. As a result, the supports can be created at precise and meaningful positions, a stable output is possible, and additional slicing work is not necessary on the created supports, whereby improvement of speed can be expected.

Methods and associated systems and apparatus for determining a tool path for use in additively manufacturing a structure. The methods may include receiving placement data indicative of a relative placement of a plurality of nodes, each node including one or more regional tool paths and each regional tool path for additively manufacturing a region of the structure. The methods may also include receiving operation data indicative of an operation to be performed in relation to at least one of the plurality of nodes, and resolving the at least one of the plurality of nodes into a resolved tool path for use in additively manufacturing the structure based on the received placement data and operation data.

The present disclosure relates to a method for the lightweighting and/or designing of an additively manufactured article. The disclosure further relates to a computer program product adapted for executing the method of the present disclosure as well as an additively manufactured article obtainable by the method according to the present disclosure. The method includes the step(s) of infilling and/or building each of the one or more integral article parts with a quasi-crystalline structure. The additively manufactured article obtainable by performing the method includes a quasi-crystalline structure and/or a quasiperiodic minimal surface infill and/or quasiperiodic minimal surface design structure and/or aperiodic minimal surface design structure and/or aperiodic minimal surface infill. The disclosure further relates to a method of use of a skeleton graph for a preprocessing in an additive manufacturing process.

Methods of simulating additively manufacturing an object may include generating a simulated additively manufactured object based at least in part on a plurality of approximate consolidation domains that respectively correspond to a plurality of consolidation tracks determined from one or more digital representations of an additively manufactured object, and determining a predictive inference with respect to one or more material properties of the object to be additively manufactured based at least in part on the simulated additively manufactured object. Methods may include generating, for an object to be additively manufactured, a CAD file and/or a build file based at least in part on a simulated additively manufactured object and/or based at least in part on one or more predictive inferences with respect to one or more material properties of the object to be additively manufactured. An object may be additively manufactured based at least in part on a simulated additively manufactured object and/or a CAD file and/or the build file corresponding thereto.

Described herein are absorbers for absorbing vibrations acting upon a structure and methods for making the same. In one example, the absorber may be designed by defining a design domain for the absorber and utilizing a topological optimization process to design a shape of the absorber within the design domain to maximize the absorption performance of the absorber.