Additive Manufacturing Enhancements
aPriori 2023 R1 provides this enhancement for several process groups including Additive Manufacturing.
aPriori 2023 R1 uses an improved algorithm for calculating part thickness for Additive Manufacturing that improves accuracy and ensures consistency across process groups.
In recent releases the part thickness algorithm was updated for the Plastic Molding, Assembly Molding, Assembly Plastic Molding, Casting-Die, Casting-Sand, and Casting-Investment process groups. The updated algorithm produces more accurate results for the maximum thickness and average thickness values of parts. In aPriori2023 R1, the Forging, Powder Metal, and Additive Manufacturing process groups were also enhanced to use the improved thickness algorithm.
In a set of test parts, this change had only a miniscule impact on Additive Manufacturing estimates. These results were expected because the cost model for Additive Manufacturing relies only very slightly on thickness.
Due to the improved accuracy and consistency of the new algorithm, aPriori recommends its use. However customers that choose to can continue to use the previous thickness algorithm by setting the site variable castThicknessAlgorithm to Legacy Voxel-Based. This site variable must be set separately for each process group.