The Institute Digital Additive Production (DAP) at RWTH Aachen University has released an open-source computational geometry library for developing and optimizing additive manufacturing CAM software.
Called DAPComputationalGeometry, or DAP-CG, the C# library provides geometry-processing algorithms for build orientation, support structure generation, nesting, slicing and scan strategy calculation.
DAP developed the library to reduce the processing time and memory requirements associated with converting design data into manufacturing data. According to the institute, inefficient geometry algorithms can cause processing times to increase from minutes to hours or days as part complexity and data volumes grow.
These computational demands are becoming more significant as additive manufacturing systems produce larger parts and incorporate multiple lasers. DAP argues that more powerful computing hardware can compensate for inefficient software only to a limited extent.
The institute stated that efficient geometry-processing algorithms can avoid much of this additional computational overhead altogether.
Reducing geometry data before processing
AM CAM functions depend on algorithms that analyze, position and modify part geometries before production. These include calculating suitable build orientations and arranging parts within a build volume without overlap.
The algorithms and data structures used for these operations can affect computational workload, memory consumption and therefore software reliability. These factors can subsequently impact the manufacturing process.
DAP-CG builds on the existing open-source geometry3Sharp and Clipper2 libraries. It adds extensions and performance optimizations for processing two-dimensional polygons and vectors.
One included algorithm combines multiple polygons into a single polygon, to reduce the amount of geometry data that must be handled during later, computationally intensive processing stages.
Other functions are designed to prevent self-intersecting polygons and remove redundant polygon vertices. DAP has also used modern C# features, including Span and SIMD (single instruction, multiple data).
Fivefold memory reduction reported during IDAM
Functions included in DAP-CG originated from industrial development projects completed by the Aachen institute.
During the Industrialization and Digitalization of Additive Manufacturing project (IDAM), DAP developed nesting optimization software for arranging components within an additive manufacturing build volume.
Using a polygon compression algorithm reduced the memory required for nesting by a factor of five, according to the institute. Applying the same approach to slicing and scan strategy calculation software reportedly produced savings of a similar magnitude.
DAP said these reductions can determine whether a large build job can be processed on a standard desktop computer with 32 GB of RAM or requires a workstation or server with substantially more memory.
Lower memory requirements may also reduce costs when software is operated using rented computing infrastructure, where users pay according to the resources required.
Supporting part orientation and support calculations
DAP-CG algorithms are also used in the institute’s part orientation software. It evaluates potential build orientations against quality- and cost-related criteria. It determines whether different orientation options require support structures and calculates the extent of those supports.
Support structures can contribute to material use, production costs and post-processing requirements. Reducing or optimizing them can therefore affect the overall economics of an additive manufacturing build. DAP aims to provide software developers with reusable components by making these functions available as an open-source library.
DAP-CG has been released under the Boost Software License. This permissive open-source license allows the library to be used free of charge in research, commercial software and industrial products.
The IDAM project was funded by Germany’s former Federal Ministry of Education and Research, now the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.
Moving software optimization onto the production floor
Faster geometry processing does more than reduce the time needed to prepare a digital file. Automating and optimizing early design stages can reduce lead times and increase production capacity.
Platforms such as AMIS Runtime demonstrate how these calculations feed into production. However, the usefulness of this automation depends on whether the underlying geometry operations can process repeated and increasingly complex jobs efficiently.
Open-source access can also help reduce duplicated software development work. DAP-CG builds on geometry3Sharp and Clipper2, adding functions developed for industrial AM projects. Its permissive license allows software developers to integrate, inspect and modify these components in commercial products.
A broader example is the reAM250 project, which made the entire experimental LPBF platform open source, including its software, design files and control documentation. DAP-CG applies the same principle at the CAM development level, making reusable geometry-processing components available to researchers and industrial software companies.The library does not remove the need for application-specific validation.
CAM developers must still test its functions against their own machines, materials and production requirements. Its immediate value lies in lowering the computational and development barriers surrounding the preparation of increasingly complex AM builds.
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Feature image shows 3D model of a nested build job generated with the DAP Nesting Software. Image via RWTH Aachen.
