Follow Along: Post Processing

Now that we’ve completed our topology optimization, we need to do some post-processing to finalize our part. We have topology optimization results, but no implicit body with the resulting geometry. We’ve also lost some of the interfaces of the bracket, which are essential to the functionality of the part. We’ll create a new section called post-processing.

We’ll begin by adding an Implicit Body from Topology Optimization block to our notebook. Our topology optimization results in, and this will pull the resulting geometry from the topology optimization back into nTop form. Then we’ll use this as an input in a Smooth and Body block. This will smooth the jagged resulting surfaces from the topology optimization. We can modify the grid size and the number of smooth iterations as needed.

With this linear interpolation, we can see geometric artifacts on the surface of our part. A cubic interpolation type will typically produce a smoother, more continuous body than linear. Since I want to smooth the entire body rather than a section in a bounding box, I can leave this domain input blank. I’ll right-click and make this a variable called Smooth Body. Now we have a nice smooth body with geometry driven by our topology optimization results.

Next, we want to recreate our interfaces that we lost at the three holes. Previously, in our geometry section, we created this CAD facelist variable called Interfaces. I’ll use an Implicit Body from CAD Body block and then a Thicken Body block to make these three holes into implicit bodies. I’ll set the thickness here at 4 mm. Then I’ll add this implicit body list to a Boolean Union block, so the three interfaces are now one implicit body.

Isolating this with the hotkey “I”, we now have one implicit body for the interfaces and one implicit body for our topology optimization result. I’ll add another Boolean Union block, and I’ll merge these three holes with our smooth body to make one single part with our interfaces and topology optimization results. I’ll apply a slight blend radius, and now we have one single part.

Now if I scroll back up to our initial design region and turn the visibility on, I see that some of this part falls outside of our initial design region, and these holes have gotten a bit smaller because of the Thicken Body. So I’ll add a Boolean Intersect block, and I’ll add our new body and our initial design region to trim any excess material outside of our design region from our Thicken Body operation, and to ensure the holes in this interface are the same size as the initial region. Now if I isolate this final part using the hotkey “I”, I have a nice trimmed and topology optimized part that can be used in nTop or exported as needed. I’ll right-click on this block to make it a variable and call that Final Part.