An additive manufacturing system includes one or more processors configured to determine one or more geometrical characteristics of each of multiple segments of a build part at a candidate position of the build part relative to an additive manufacturing instrument. The one or more geometrical characteristics include an angle of incidence between a beam line extending from an electromagnetic energy source of the additive manufacturing instrument and a surface normal of a respective skin of the corresponding segment proximate to the beam line. The one or more processors are configured to determine, based on one or more geometrical characteristics of the segments at the candidate position, one or more locations of support material to be formed adjacent the build part during a build process of the build part.

An additive manufacturing system includes one or more processors configured to determine one or more geometrical characteristics of each of multiple segments of a build part at a candidate position of the build part relative to an additive manufacturing instrument. The one or more geometrical characteristics include an angle of incidence between a beam line extending from an electromagnetic energy source of the additive manufacturing instrument and a surface normal of a respective skin of the corresponding segment proximate to the beam line. The one or more processors are configured to determine, based on one or more geometrical characteristics of the segments at the candidate position, one or more locations of support material to be formed adjacent the build part during a build process of the build part.

A method (1) for optimizing a production process for a component (20, 32) that is to be manufactured by additive manufacturing by means of simulation (2) of the production process (50) includes: a) ascertaining a position of the component (20, 32) in a production space that has been optimized according to a process optimization criterion (7); b) calculating displacements and/or stresses in the component (20, 32) that can be caused by the production process (50); c) ascertaining supporting structures (31) that counteract the displacements and/or stresses that have been optimized according to the process optimization criterion (7); and d) ascertaining at least a portion of the design of the component (20, 32) that has been optimized according to a component optimization criterion (8).

A method for slicing a three-dimensional model for printing of a corresponding object by a 3D printer, comprises: obtaining the envelope of the object as polygons, then for each region of a predefined work area within the slicing plane: identifying the closest polygon of said envelope that is positioned above said respective pixel; where no polygon is identified, then marking a corresponding region as a no-print region; if the direction vector of said closest above polygon has a positive component in the Z direction, then marking said corresponding region as a model region; and if the direction vector of said polygon has a negative component in the Z direction, then marking the region as a support region, and printing accordingly. An advantage of the above procedure is that the slicing, and in addition texture mapping, can be efficiently carried out on a graphics card or GPU.

An example system for printing three-dimensional (3D) objects includes a computer processor and a computer memory including instructions that cause the computer processor to receive a 3D model of a 3D object to be printed. The computer memory also includes instructions that cause the computer processor to generate a perforated brim model of a perforated brim object to be printed based on the 3D model. The perforated brim model includes a perforation pattern. The computer memory also further includes instructions that cause the computer processor to cause a 3D printer to print the perforated brim object and the 3D object. The perforation pattern of the perforated brim object is to be coupled to the 3D object.

A computer system for dynamically controlling printing parameters within a three-dimensional printer receives an indication for printing a target object by the three-dimensional printer. The computer system accesses a materials attribute dataset. The materials attribute dataset describes different material properties of a plurality of thermoset materials or mixtures thereof. Based upon the materials attribute dataset, for each of the plurality of extruders, the computer system selects one or more thermoset materials among the plurality of thermoset materials for each of the plurality of extruder to form an extrudate and determines an extrusion configuration for the selected one or more thermoset materials. The computer system then generates a command to cause the plurality of extruders of the thermoset three-dimensional printer to implement the extrusion configurations for the plurality of extruders while printing the target object.