Design Engine
Quick Start Guide

41min
Accessing Design Engine
Direct Link | design.carbon3d.com﻿
Carbon Website | carbon3d.com
A login link for Design Engine is persistent at the top of all pages on Carbon's website.
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Carbon Printer Dashboard | print.carbon3d.com
Carbon printer users can access Design Engine on the printer dashboard.
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Need a Design Engine Account? Sign up here for a 1 month free trial.
Basic Workflows
Create New Design
Design Engine is a software that modifies design spaces in a variety of ways for additive manufacturing. The first step is to create a design by importing your design space or optionally begin with provided shapes.
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Create New Design
Sample parts available without a model or...
Upload one or more models (STL or STEP format)
Adjust name (optionally)
Choose a material (optionally)
Adjust units
Click Create
You can also use the Add Shape tool to create simple design spaces (cube, cylinder, or sphere) directly within Design Engine.
Design Workflows
Design Engine offers many design functions. Below are the most common workflows to get you started, each generating a downloadable mesh for your application.
﻿Tet Strut Lattice﻿ 
with underlying tet mesh
﻿Hex Strut Lattice﻿
with underlying hex mesh
﻿Combine﻿ 
multiple STLs into one part
﻿Texture - Noise﻿ 
random noise pattern on surface
﻿Texture - Tile﻿ 
tiling pattern on surface
Images shown above are representative of their design category. More choices are available within each.
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Combine
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Upload model file(s) to combine
Combine
Select Combine
Select the input meshes to combine
Overlap parts to obtain a proper connection
Click Generate
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Texture - Noise
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Texture
Select Input Mesh
Select Patch to Texture
Select Noise Pattern
Select Depth of texture
Optionally set a distance for fading the texture at edges
Click Generate
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Texture - Tile
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Remesh (for best results)
Select input mesh
Select target edge size
Select default 1% target edge ratio in most cases
Select default settings for remaining options in most cases
Click Generate
[Before/after] Original mesh - Remesh
Texture
Select the remesh as input mesh
Extract patch to texture
Select a contiguous patch
Patch cannot have disconnected areas
Select tile pattern
Select size of texture tile
Select depth of texture
Optionally set a distance for fading the texture at edges
Click Generate
Repeat to texture remaining areas as needed
Download Design
The final step in Design Engine is to download the mesh file(s) to use in additive manufacturing.
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Option 1: Download from mesh menu
Select file type: STL, PLY, OBJ
Option 2: Download Files from button
Select files to download - STL type only
Essential Lattice Information
Understanding the core behavior of Design Engine will give you the keys to make the most successful lattice design. Below are the topics that all new users should be aware of when creating a lattice.
The Mesh and Unit Cell
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Lattice Parameters
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Performance and Feel
Choosing your mesh and lattice parameters provides a vast array of options for the performance of your lattice, but the relationships between these variables is simple.
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Strut Lattice and Solidify
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Design Space Boundary Interface
The default strut lattice generation builds outwards from the boundary mesh (your design space) by 1/2 the strut diameter.
Strut relative to Boundary Mesh
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Lattice example in section
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Design Engine offers to adjust the default lattice if the boundary mesh is a hard boundary. Reference Trim﻿ and Offset﻿.
Trim Example
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Offset Example
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Essential Resources
Setting up CAD Design Files
Reference File Preparation﻿﻿
Navigating Design Engine
Reference Navigation and Options﻿﻿
Choosing Mesh Type
Reference Mesh Guidelines﻿﻿
Selecting a Material
Reference Material Guidelines﻿﻿
Selecting Unit Cell Manually
Reference Lattice Type﻿, Cell Size﻿, Strut Diameter﻿ Guidelines
Selecting Unit Cell via Lattice Search
Reference Lattice Search﻿﻿
Understanding What Design Engine Can Do
Reference Tools and Features﻿﻿
Assessing Manufacturability
Reference Unit Cell Manufacturability﻿﻿
FAQ
General Design Engine
On Carbon’s Design Engine product page, click TRY FOR FREE to begin a trial.
You will have the option to continue with a paid subscription when the trial ends.
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Parts must be an STL or STEP file type to import into Carbon Design Engine.
All STEP files will be converted to an STL upon import. Meshes cannot be downloaded in STEP format (STL, PLY, and OBJ are the available download format options).
The origin of the model is preserved from the originating CAD software.
Check that your model was imported in its native units.
Click View info on the mesh menu to see the units in which the model was imported
Models imported with the units in which they built will be converted to their correct scale. Note that Design Engine operates in mm only, so any models imported in inches will be converted to metric units.
Tip: If your model imports at a very small or large scale, use the Zoom to Fit (F) functionality to fit the model to the screen.
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Option 1: Download from mesh menu
Select file type: STL, PLY, OBJ
Option 2: Download Files from button
Select files to download - STL type only
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A strut lattice must be solidified to be downloaded as an STL.
Strut Lattice is the foundational structure, derived from your specified parameters. At its core, this is a structure of unprintable lines.
Solidified lattices are derived from Strut Lattices but have been converted into a triangulated mesh, or STL file, for printing.
Many operations in combination with large files of high triangle count may take a few minutes for processing. 
Try using the Generate to Here function to limit the number of operations generated at once.
Use the Decimate tool to reduce the complexity and triangle count of large meshes.
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Typically this occurs when another mesh is covering up the results you are looking for. Hide or adjust transparency of other meshes to view operation output(s). Reference Mesh Options﻿.
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Yes. You have options on how to view meshes in the design.
Input Meshes: Shaded | Triangle
Generated Meshes
Strut Lattice: Volumetric | Paths & Nodes | Diameter
Solidify: Default View Only
Reference Mesh Options﻿ for more information on visibility.
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Yes. Your work in Design Engine on a single model can be turned into a repeatable program that can be used to automatically create custom or personalized parts according to the rules and parameters in your program. Design automation can be integrated seamlessly with other systems (eg, ordering system; MES...). 
﻿Contact Carbon for assistance with this functionality. 
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Strut Lattices
Launch Lattice Search﻿ from the quick-access button on the upper right of the design user interface.
You can also launch Lattice Search from inside the Strut Lattice﻿ tool, under Lattice Type. This will enable you to apply a unit cell that you find directly to an input mesh.
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The Stress at 25% Strain will be approximately 0-20 kPa for an extra soft lattice and 20-80 kPa for soft lattices. Use Lattice Search﻿ to find performance criteria for lattices.
Generally a 10-15% volume fraction is also a good rule of thumb for soft lattices, although lattice type and material will vary results.
There are two options to set up your design space for multiple zones.
Use the Add Shape﻿ tool in Design Engine.
Set up zones in your CAD file.
Reference Multi-Zone File Preparation﻿﻿
Define zones in the Strut Lattice operation under the Zones﻿ tab.
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Multi-zone lattices enable control over the performance of your lattice across a single design space. Lattice type, cell size and strut diameter can be modified in zones, along with specifying a transition distance to maintain connection between varying parameters.
Changing strut diameter is the most common use case, enabling the lattice to feel stiffer in some areas and softer in others.
Tip: Hovering over a strut will reveal the strut's attributes.
The Uniform﻿ population type uses the same lattice parameters across the entire design space, unless zones are utilized in tandem.
The Point Cloud﻿ population type creates a lattice by mapping parameters to XYZ coordinates that are imported via a CSV file. One common use case is to use pressure sensor data to define your lattice, utilizing personalized or aggregated data to build your applications.
There are a few ways you can influence the surface pattern of your lattice:
﻿Cell Size﻿﻿
Ensure that the cell size fits within the design space, following recommended guidelines.
If you are not seeing the primary pattern on a tet mesh lattice, try adjusting the cell size in small increments (0.1 +/-).
The Strut Lattice operation provides features under the Advanced tab, Surface Controls﻿:
Symmetry
Apply a symmetry option if you are looking for the surface pattern to manifest around a selected XYZ axis or plane.
Surface Isotropy
Enable surface isotropy for uniformity.
Surface Tolerance
For the most control to fine tune the surface pattern, use the surface tolerance feature. Try values based on the recommended guidelines. 
Reference Lattice Type Guidelines﻿ for more information about surface patterns. Hex mesh and tet mesh strut lattices manifest surface patterns differently, with tet mesh lattices having both a primary and secondary pattern.
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Small features may not populate correctly if the cell size is too large for the feature. Ensure that the cell size fits within the design space, following recommended Cell Size Guidelines﻿.
If you want the cell size to be larger in most of the design space, but want to ensure that smaller features are still properly filled in, use Cell Size Adaptivity﻿ to adjust the cell size in only those areas that need adjustment.
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Yes. You can delete, modify, or add individual struts.
Reference Edit Strut Lattice﻿﻿
Yes! You can use the Combine - AI Error﻿ tool to merge separate parts (individual STL mesh files) into one mesh file for printing. Use CAD software to create the parts to combine with a lattice.
Carbon Manufacturing
Reference the Design Dimensions in the lower left of your project screen to see the bounding box dimensions of your design.
Compare the dimensions to the specifications for your printer. All of Carbon’s printer’s build volumes can be found on the printer product page.
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Design Engine does not offer overhang detection, which is set up to retain model orientation from native CAD software, rather than print orientation.
Carbon’s printer software offers overhang detection to assist with part orientation and supports. When working with lattices, it can be helpful to assess the non-latticed design space first to eliminate the distraction of strut overhangs, and then consider any strut overhangs after an optimal orientation is selected.
Reference Printer UI - UI Layout & Features﻿ for more information on overhang detection.
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All TDS’s can be found on the materials product page.
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Updated 06 Mar 2025
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