RWTH Aachen releases open-source geometry library for AM CAM
RWTH Aachen University's Institute Digital Additive Production (DAP) has launched DAP-CG, an open-source C# library designed to streamline additive manufacturing CAM software by optimizing geometry processing algorithms.
The Institute Digital Additive Production (DAP) at RWTH Aachen University has introduced DAP-CG, an open-source computational geometry library aimed at enhancing the development and optimization of additive manufacturing Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software. This C# library offers a suite of geometry-processing algorithms essential for critical CAM functions, including build orientation determination, support structure generation, part nesting, slicing, and scan strategy calculation.
DAP developed DAP-CG to address the significant processing time and memory requirements often encountered when converting design data into manufacturing-ready data. The institute highlighted that inefficient geometry algorithms can escalate processing times from minutes to hours or even days, particularly as part complexity and data volumes increase. This challenge is amplified by the trend towards larger parts and multi-laser additive manufacturing systems, where increased computational demands can only be partially offset by more powerful hardware.
The library builds upon existing open-source foundations, geometry3Sharp and Clipper2, incorporating extensions and performance optimizations specifically for processing two-dimensional polygons and vectors. Notable features include an algorithm that consolidates multiple polygons into a single one, thereby reducing the volume of geometry data handled in subsequent, computationally intensive stages. Additionally, DAP-CG includes functions designed to prevent self-intersecting polygons and eliminate redundant vertices, leveraging modern C# features like Span and SIMD for improved efficiency.
During the Industrialization and Digitalization of Additive Manufacturing (IDAM) project, DAP utilized some of these algorithms to develop nesting optimization software. This application reportedly achieved a fivefold reduction in memory usage for nesting operations by employing a polygon compression algorithm. Similar memory savings were observed when applying these techniques to slicing and scan strategy calculation software. DAP suggests these reductions can be crucial in determining whether a large build job can be processed on standard desktop computers or necessitates more powerful workstations or servers, potentially leading to cost savings, especially in cloud-based computing environments.
The release of DAP-CG is significant as it tackles a core bottleneck in additive manufacturing: the computational overhead of CAM software. By providing optimized, open-source geometry processing tools, RWTH Aachen aims to reduce processing times and memory demands. This directly supports the industry's push for greater efficiency, scalability, and accessibility, potentially enabling more complex and larger-scale AM applications, including those relevant for aerospace and in-situ manufacturing.
Edited by the news editor with AI from the original report — please refer to the original source.