Systems and methods for growth-based design
AssigneeDesktop Metal, Inc.
InventorsAndrew Fiske ROBERTS, Christian GOMEZ
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed for generating designs for mechanical parts in a computer aided design (CAD) context. One method includes generating a mechanical part modeling design space including a first cell, the first cell comprised of a parameterized representation of a physical material property; determining, for the first cell, fixed location parameters and a first growth vector; receiving a target location inside the modeling design space; associating the received target location with the first growth vector; generating, along the first growth vector, a second cell, the second cell being positioned between the first cell and the target location; and generating a third cell positioned between the second cell and the target location.
Claims20
A method of generating a design for a mechanical part, the method comprising:
- generating a mechanical part modeling design space including a first cell, the first cell comprised of a parameterized representation of a physical material property;
- determining, for the first cell, fixed location parameters and a first growth vector;
- receiving a target location inside the modeling design space;
- associating the received target location with the first growth vector;
- generating, along the first growth vector, a second cell, the second cell being positioned between the first cell and the target location;
- and
- generating a third cell positioned between the second cell and the target location.
A system for generating a design for a mechanical part, the system comprising:
- a data storage device storing instructions for generating a design for a mechanical part;
- and
- a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform a method including:
- generating a mechanical part modeling design space including a first cell, the first cell comprised of a parameterized representation of a physical material property;
- determining, for the first cell, fixed location parameters and a first growth vector;
- receiving a target location inside the modeling design space;
- associating the received target location with the first growth vector;
- generating, along the first growth vector, a second cell, the second cell being positioned between the first cell and the target location;
- and
- generating a third cell positioned between the second cell and the target location.
A non-transitory computer readable medium for use on a computer system containing computer-executable programming instructions for performing a method of generating a design for a mechanical part, the method comprising:
- generating a mechanical part modeling design space including a first cell, the first cell comprised of a parameterized representation of a physical material property;
- determining, for the first cell, fixed location parameters and a first growth vector;
- receiving a target location inside the modeling design space;
- associating the received target location with the first growth vector;
- generating, along the first growth vector, a second cell, the second cell being positioned between the first cell and the target location;
- and
- generating a third cell positioned between the second cell and the target location.
A non-transitory computer readable medium for use on a computer system containing computer-executable programming instructions for performing a method of generating a design for a mechanical part, the method comprising:
- generating a model of a mechanical part, the model including one or more cells, wherein each cell is comprised of a parameterized representation of a physical material property;
- determining, for each cell, a cell-specific parameter value associated with the parameterized representation of the physical material property;
- comparing at least one cell-specific parameter value to a threshold parameter value associated with the representation of the physical material property;
- and
- generating at least one additional cell or removing at least one of the one or more cells based on the comparison of the at least one cell-specific parameter value to the threshold parameter value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.