Sub-Optimal: Designer-Built Tools for Additive Manufacturing

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Tokyo 2026
Sarat Babu · SARAT
Computational design approaches to optimization are often constrained by the tools available and the established methods for generating optimal forms. With AI coding tools, the barrier for designers to develop their own software and pipelines has dropped considerably.
Sub-Optimal reframes optimization around two priorities: preserving the original designer’s macro intent, and using geometry to address the anisotropic surface roughness of additive manufacturing. The result is neither lattice application nor topology…