{"id":240,"date":"2020-11-17T10:13:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T15:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/?p=240"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:59:16","slug":"aa-e7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/aa-e7\/","title":{"rendered":"Advancing Additive #7 &#8211; The Silver Bullet for Print Quality Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>People often look for silver bullets when trying to solve a problem.&nbsp; The term, of course, comes from the slaying of mythical creatures with a special item or substance.&nbsp; In the case of werewolves, the item for sending them to their \u201ceternal rest\u201d is a silver bullet.&nbsp; In everyday speak, a \u201csilver bullet\u201d is a one-shot answer to a complex problem.&nbsp; Which brings to mind the question \u201cIs there a silver bullet for solving AM print problems?\u201d&nbsp; That\u2019s where our AM Build Optimizer comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In many regards, you can call print orientation optimization just such a silver bullet.&nbsp; By optimizing print orientation, you can minimize distortion resulting from the printing process.&nbsp; In our testing, we\u2019ve found that more than 80% of print quality issues can be solved by optimizing the print orientation during printing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, finding the optimal orientation for distortion minimization using manual methods is nearly impossible.&nbsp; Many companies architect techniques and rules of thumb for this after years of printing and experimentation.&nbsp; However, those guidelines may improve the problem, but they rarely ever generate the <em>optimal<\/em> orientation.&nbsp; To generate the optimal orientation the AM Build Optimizer tries one hundred different orientations, only returning the orientation that best fits the desired criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"https:\/\/videos.mentor-cdn.com\/mgc\/videos\/5400\/e36c04fc-d31b-47d4-b558-a46106793119-en-US-video.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption>Optimizing build orientation with the AM Build Optimizer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The only way to handle such a workload is through parallel processing and the AM Build Optimizer uses the cloud to parallel process the multitude of orientation possibilities, examining each possibility to find the result with the minimal distortion.&nbsp; This takes a task that normally would take a person months and brings a result in a matter of hours or minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s be honest, there is no such thing as a \u201csilver bullet\u201d for any problem.&nbsp; However, by utilizing the power of parallel processing in the cloud, we can take a very difficult problem and generate an optimal answer in a matter of minutes.&nbsp; The AM Build Optimizer is about as close to a silver bullet for fixing print problems as there is likely to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can sign up for a free trial of the AM Build Optimizer <a href=\"https:\/\/atlas3d.xyz\/demo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-vivid-green-cyan-background-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About the writer<\/strong>:<br><em><strong>Aaron Frankel<\/strong>&nbsp;is Vice President of Siemens&#8217; additive manufacturing software program. He has over 20 years of experience in the PLM software industry and has held various positions in engineering services, product management, and marketing \u2013 all focused on helping manufacturers take advantage of the latest digital design and manufacturing technology.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People often look for silver bullets when trying to solve a problem.&nbsp; The term, of course, comes from the slaying&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61920,"featured_media":243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,114],"tags":[116,117,120,119],"industry":[66,89],"product":[398],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-video","tag-3d-printing","tag-additive-manufacturing","tag-cloud","tag-computer-aided-manufacturing-cam","industry-automotive-transportation","industry-industrial-machinery-heavy-equipment","product-nx-additive-manufacturing"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/11\/AA-7-BuildOptimizer-Blog.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/additive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}