Comparison of CAD Software for Designing Cellular Structures for Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies provide significant design freedom, which is highly desirable in today’s fast-paced product design processes. However, most of the parametric CAD software tools used today do not fully utilize this potential for freedom of form and design. Design mechanisms, such as topology optimization (TO), generative design (GD), and lattice structures, are available on the market to help designers minimize weight and material cost while maximizing the stiffness and flexibility of planned designs. This paper proposes a benchmarking approach for designers and engineers to select a suitable software tool for lattice structure generation for their specific applications. The approach includes preselecting software tools based on a weighted point evaluation of seven significant criteria. The tools are then evaluated based on key metrics such as computing time and file size of exported structures, as well as the following six distinctive attributes: usability, reliability, availability, performance, support, and cost. The evaluation process considers a total of 32 defined features. The investigation produced clear recommendations regarding overall performance, reliability, and user experience. The findings indicate that the option of a comprehensive support offering, as well as the initial and operational costs, are significant drivers in the decision-making process.

Keywords

• additive manufacturing (AM)
• topology optimization (TO)
• generative design (GD)
• lattice structures
• cellular structures
• base cells