Abstract
Additive manufacturing methods are growing significantly and are currently the focus of intense scientific research including biomedical applications, the automotive industries, and aerospace. An important advantage of these techniques is the freedom of geometric complexity. The geometric complexity of a CAD model is a whole research topic. The main idea is that part complexity has an impact on the design and especially in the fabrication. Part building orientation is another major factor in additive manufacturing because it affects the building time, the support structures, the dimensional accuracy, the surface finish, and the part costs. Several parameters and constraints specific to the layered manufacturing process must be considered when choosing the part building orientation. The selection of an optimal part building orientation is a complicated and long task, as it requires the integration of various objectives, such as the surface finish of the part and the building time. This paper presents and compares the various attempts undertaken to select the part building orientation of different parts using a geometric complexity model based on part CAD information as well as heat shrinkage due to material phase changes which often lead to final shape deviations.