To make full use of these advantages and to exploit the resulting potential, it is necessary that lattice structures are designed using optimization. One crucial advantage of additive manufacturing regarding the optimization of lattice structures is that there is a reduction in manufacturing constraints compared to classical manufacturing methods. The results show that current CAD tools and CAD file formats have insufficient performance in the context of design for Additive Manufacturing and a new file format together with new CAD human interaction needs to be created to overcome these problems.
The current study aims at evaluating current CAD software's performances and proposes requirements for CAD tools to be efficient in design for additive manufacturing. The breakthrough in manufacturing technology is not yet followed by a breakthrough in design and CAD tools.
However, current design methods and Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) tools are not tailored for this type of shapes and are not yet optimized to achieve the great potential offered by this new technology. The creation of complex part forms and lightweight structures have become easier with Additive Manufacturing through large usage of lattice structures. It is mainly based on melting metallic powder layer by layer and turning it into direct end user parts. Metallic Additive Manufacturing is a technology which opens a new world of opportunities in design and manufacturing.