Workspaces for powderbed-based processes
Metal machines, or more specifically powder-bed fusion machines, address the workflow centered around additive methods that repeatedly lay down layers of material powder and use directed energy beams, usually lasers, to sinter or melt traces into it, rendering the material solid and also fusing it with material rendered during previous passes. One notable feature of this workspace type is the direct access to simulation of thermo-mechanical effects that occur during the manufacturing cycle, such as transmission of heat, tension and distortion, or events such as recoaters colliding with warped parts.
Netfabb comes with several metal-additive (and polymer-additive) machine workspaces addressing actual machine models available on the market, but there is also a generic metal-additive workspace available if the model of choice is not available.
Metal machines use configurations to describe global settings that are usually aimed at powder material's properties. Configurations include one or more strategies which are the actual rules for toolpath generation, and you can choose different strategies for different parts on the same platform.
Definitions for toolpath generation rules come in three variants: