A Parametric Design Method for Engraving Patterns on Thin Shells.

ABSTRACT

Designing thin-shell structures that are diverse, lightweight, and physically viable is a challenging task for traditional heuristic methods. To address this challenge, we present a novel parametric design framework for engraving regular, irregular, and customized patterns on thin-shell structures. Our method optimizes pattern parameters such as size and orientation, to ensure structural stiffness while minimizing material consumption. Our method is unique in that it works directly with shapes and patterns represented by functions, and can engrave patterns through simple function operations. By eliminating the need for remeshing in traditional FEM methods, our method is more computationally efficient in optimizing mechanical properties and can significantly increase the diversity of shell structure design. Quantitative evaluation confirms the convergence of the proposed method. We conduct experiments on regular, irregular, and customized patterns and present 3D printed results to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.