Workspaces for powderbed fusion machines
Netfabb's metal machines, or more specifically powderbed 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. This is done using Autodesk® Simulation Utility for Netfabb® included in Netfabb Ultimate.
Netfabb comes with several metal-additive (and polymer-additive) machine workspaces addressing actual machine models available on the market, and there is also a generic metal-additive workspace available if the model of choice is not available.
Definitions for toolpath generation rules come in three variants:
Toolpath definition
Metal machines use configurations to describe global settings that are usually aimed at powder material's properties. An example of a configuration could be named AlSi10Mg Defaults (30µm, 100W). 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. An example of a strategy name could be Solid part.
- A
simple, table-based definition
The settings available here are partly direct-access process parameters like laser speed, partly shortcuts to more complex calculation macros not unlike the repair or support scripts. These macros cannot be edited directly, only their exposed parameters can; however, they can be converted into editable ones.
- Complex, editable and configurable definitions that have two interchangeable methods to view and edit them:
- An XML-based definition, edited in syntax-highlighted plain text
- A flowchart-like graph that visualizes the relationship of the individual toolpath-generating filters and methods, and a graphical UI to create and modify such graphs
- Encrypted Build Processor Archives (EBPA) that may contain complex and fully programmed toolpath generation rules under the hood as defined by the creator and developer of an EBPA while exposing only elected parameters for adjustment to the operating user