Dual lattice representation for crash simulation and manufacturing

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoding instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• obtaining a skeleton model of a lattice structure to be included in a three dimensional model of a physical object to be manufactured, the skeleton model comprising nodes and lines representing beams of the lattice structure;
• constructing a control point frame surface model of the lattice structure using the skeleton model;
• generating a shell mesh model of the lattice structure using the control point frame surface model, wherein the shell mesh model corresponds to hollow versions of the beams of the lattice structure;
• performing dynamic numerical simulation of the physical object, using the shell mesh model included within the three dimensional model of the physical object, to produce a current numerical assessment;
• modifying the skeleton model or the control point frame surface model based on the current numerical assessment to change the lattice structure;
• repeating the constructing, the generating and the performing, or the generating and the performing, one or more times until the numerical simulation indicates the lattice structure satisfies at least one impact response requirement for the physical object;
• producing from the control point frame surface model a solid body model of the lattice structure in which the beams are hollow;
• and
• providing at least the solid body model for use in manufacturing a hollow lattice structure, which corresponds to the solid body model, for the physical object using one or more computer-controlled manufacturing systems.

A system comprising:

• a non-transitory storage medium having instructions of a computer aided design program stored thereon;
• and
• one or more data processing apparatus able to run the instructions of the computer aided design program to perform operations specified by the instructions of the computer aided design program to
• obtain a skeleton model of a lattice structure to be included in a three dimensional model of a physical object to be manufactured, the skeleton model comprising nodes and lines representing beams of the lattice structure,
• construct a control point frame surface model of the lattice structure using the skeleton model,
• generate a shell mesh model of the lattice structure using the control point frame surface model, wherein the shell mesh model corresponds to hollow versions of the beams of the lattice structure,
• perform dynamic numerical simulation of the physical object, using the shell mesh model included within the three dimensional model of the physical object, to produce a current numerical assessment,
• modify the skeleton model or the control point frame surface model based on the current numerical assessment to change the lattice structure,
• repeat the control point frame surface model construction, the shell mesh model generation and the dynamic numerical simulation performance, or the shell mesh model generation and the dynamic numerical simulation performance, one or more times until the numerical simulation indicates the lattice structure satisfies at least one impact response requirement for the physical object,
• produce from the control point frame surface model a solid body model of the lattice structure in which the beams are hollow, and
• provide at least the solid body model for use in manufacturing a hollow lattice structure, which corresponds to the solid body model, for the physical object using one or more computer-controlled manufacturing systems.