Techniques for generating materials to satisfy design criteria

A computer-implemented method for fabricating a custom material, the method comprising:

• determining, based on applying one or more design approaches to a design problem described in a problem specification, a set of material attributes that satisfies at least one design criterion associated with a design problem;
• generating a plurality of candidate material designs that have the set of material attributes, wherein a first candidate material design in the plurality of candidate material designs includes a custom material formed from two or more pre-existing materials;
• selecting the first candidate material design from the plurality of candidate material designs;
• generating instructions for fabricating the custom material from two or more pre-existing materials;
• and
• displaying, via a graphical user interface (GUI), a design space that includes:
• one or more components of the design problem, and
• a custom material geometry representing a repeatable pattern of the custom material, wherein the custom material geometry includes component geometries for each of the two or more pre-existing materials that combine to form the custom material;
• and
• causing, based on the material design, a manufacturing machine to fabricate the custom material from the two or more pre-existing materials by fabricating the custom material geometry.

A system for fabricating a custom material, comprising:

• a memory storing a design application;
• and
• a processor that executes the design application to:
• determine, based on applying one or more design approaches to a design problem described in a problem specification, a set of material attributes that satisfies at least one design criterion associated with a design problem;
• generate a plurality of candidate material designs that have the set of material attributes, wherein a first candidate material design in the plurality of candidate material designs includes a custom material formed from two or more pre-existing materials;
• select the first candidate material design from the plurality of candidate material designs;
• generate instructions for fabricating the custom material from two or more pre-existing materials;
• and
• display, via a graphical user interface (GUI), a design space that includes:
• one or more components of the design problem, and
• a custom material geometry representing a repeatable pattern of the custom material, wherein the custom material geometry includes component geometries for each of the two or more pre-existing materials that combine to form the custom material;
• and
• cause, based on the material design, a manufacturing machine to fabricate the custom material from the two or more pre-existing materials by fabricating the custom material geometry.