Integrating Design and Optimization Tools: A Designer Centered Study

• Main Authors: Burnell, Edward Ned (Contributor), Stern, Michael (Contributor), Flooks, Ana R. (Contributor), Yang, Maria (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Lincoln Laboratory (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: ASME International, 2019-01-15T14:25:51Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 Exploring design options for additively manufactured parts generally requires separate, sequentially applied software for design, analysis, and optimization. To evaluate the effect of integrating these capabilities within a single tool we conducted a controlled human subjects study. Three tools with different degrees of integration were created for two test cases of structural trusses, and it was found that increased integration improved quality, speed, and efficiency of the design process. After a quarter of their total time with the problems, 50% of designers with a fully integrated tool had a better design than 75% of other designers ever would. After that point, the top 50% of designers went on to explore a design space unreached with other tools. It appears that integration, and in particular the integration of optimization, leads to better performance by making it possible to explore complex designs and achieve outcomes which would be inaccessible to conventional tools.