A method of printing a 3D object comprising a plurality of discrete elements, the method comprising: receiving a 3D digital model of a shell group comprising one or more shells representing the plurality of discrete elements; defining, in the 3D digital model, a unifying shell to at least partly envelop one or more shells of the shell group to provide a unified digital model comprising the shell group and the unifying shell; assigning the unifying shell with at least one transparent building material that is transparent upon dispensing and solidifying thereof; assigning the one or more shells of the shell group with one or more building materials; and dispensing, in layers, the at least one transparent building material and the one or more building materials according to the unified digital model to form a 3D object comprising one or more discrete elements that are at least partly connected by a unifying element.

In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for creating a fabricable segmented design for a physical device is provided. A computing system receives a design specification. The computing system generates a proposed segmented design based on the design specification. The computing system determines two or more loss values based on the proposed segmented design. The computing system combines the two or more loss values to create a combined loss value. The computing system creates an updated design specification using the combined loss value. At least some of the generating, determining, combining, and creating actions are repeated until a fabricable segmented design is generated.

A method for performing a thermal simulation of an additive manufacturing process that includes accessing a voxel model representing a representative system using one or more processors. The voxel model includes a first transition associated with a first group of one or more voxels transitioning between liquid and vapor, a second transition associated with a second group of one or more voxels transitioning between solid and liquid, a third transition associated with a third group of one or more voxels undergoing sinter, and a fourth transition associated with a fourth group of one or more voxels undergoing a solid state phase change. The method determines a flux imbalance metric based on a flux, a rate of change of the first transition, a rate of change of the second transition, a rate of change of the third transition, and a rate of change of the fourth transition. The method determines one or more temperatures for the representative system based on the flux imbalance metric.

The present disclosure provides a method for fabricating an integrated circuit (IC). The method includes receiving an IC layout having active regions, conductive contact features landing on the active regions, and a conductive via feature to be landing on a first subset of the conductive contact features and to be spaced from a second subset of the conductive contact features; evaluating a spatial parameter of the conductive via feature to the conductive contact features; and modifying the IC layout according to the spatial parameter such that the conductive via feature has a S-curved shape.

A three-dimensional object model is divided into slices that are targeted for an additive manufacturing process operable to deposit material at a variable deposition size ranging between minimum and maximum printable feature sizes. For each of the slices, a thinning algorithm is applied to contours of the slice to form a meso-skeleton. Topological features of the thinned slice are reduced over a number of passes such that a portion of the meso-skeleton is reduced to a single pixel wide line. Based on the number of passes, a slice-specific printable feature size within the range of the minimum and maximum printable feature sizes is determined. An adjusted slice is formed by sweeping the meso-skeleton with the slice-specific printable feature size. The adjusted slices are assembled into an object model which is used to create a manufactured object.

A method for determining a patterning device pattern. The method includes obtaining (i) an initial patterning device pattern having at least one feature, and (ii) a desired feature size of the at least one feature, obtaining, based on a patterning process model, the initial patterning device pattern and a target pattern for a substrate, a difference value between a predicted pattern of the substrate image by the initial patterning device and the target pattern for the substrate, determining a penalty value related the manufacturability of the at least one feature, wherein the penalty value varies as a function of the size of the at least one feature, and determining the patterning device pattern based on the initial patterning device pattern and the desired feature size such that a sum of the difference value and the penalty value is reduced.

Determining a quality score for a part manufactured by an additive manufacturing machine based on build parameters and sensor data without the need for extensive physical testing of the part. Sensor data is received from the additive manufacturing machine during manufacture of the part using a first set of build parameters. The first set of build parameters is received. A first algorithm is applied to the first set of build parameters and the received sensor data to generate a quality score. The first algorithm is trained by receiving a reference derived from physical measurements performed on at least one reference part built using a reference set of build parameters. The quality score is output via the communication interface of the device.

The present invention is a system for optimizing the shipping of wall panels, comprising: analyzing a building model, wherein a set of wall panels are isolated; processing a first set of data associated each of the set of wall panels, wherein the first set of data is related to members of the wall panel and the interface between these members; grouping a first group of the set of wall panels into a bundle, wherein the first group of wall panels is based on the processed first set of data; analyzing the bundle relative to the volume of a shipping vessel, wherein it is determined if the shipping vessel can container the vessel; manipulating, by at least one processor the bundle of wall panels based on limitations of the shipping vessel; and generating a graphical representation of the bundle and the position of the bundle within the shipping vessel.

An example method includes obtaining a geometric compensation profile characterising a relationship between a location of an object within a first fabrication volume having a first depth of build material and a geometrical compensation to be applied to a model of said object. The method further includes determining that a first object is to be generated in a first build operation having a second fabrication volume which has a second depth. The method may further include determining a geometrical compensation to be applied to a model of the first object by: determining a first offset of the first object from the top of the second fabrication volume; identifying the geometrical compensation value associated with a location having the first offset from the top of the first fabrication volume; and determining the compensation to be applied to the model of the first object based on the identified geometrical compensation value.

Two or more computational services are defined that each represent a respective different manufacturing capability used to partially create a target part model. A common space shared among the computational services is defined to reference the target part model and manufacturing primitives corresponding to each capability. The computational services are queried to construct a logical representation of the planning space based on intersections among the primitives. One or more process plans are formed using the different manufacturing capabilities to manufacture the part.