Direct Shape Optimization for Strengthening 3D Printable Objects

Abstract

Recently there has been an increasing demand for software that can help designers create functional 3D objects with required physical strength. We introduce a generic and extensible method that directly optimizes a shape subject to physical and geometric constraints. Given an input shape, our method optimizes directly its input mesh representation until it can withstand specified external forces, while remaining similar to the original shape. Our method performs physics simulation and shape optimization together in a unified framework, where the physics simulator is an integral part of the optimizer. We employ geometric constraints to preserve surface details and shape symmetry, and adapt a second-order method with analytic gradients to improve convergence and computation time. Our method provides several advantages over previous work, including the ability to handle general shape deformations, preservation of surface details, and incorporation of user-defined constraints. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on a variety of printable 3D objects through detailed simulations as well as physical validations.