Making STRONG shelves with Topology Optimization
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- A project, that's fun, educational, cool-looking, and actually useful! What more could you want?
We're making topology-optimized floating shelf brackets today 👍
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Why the topology optimized brackets weren't screwed to studs (and other questions answered)!
• Why the topology optim...
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How about a topology-optimized BIKE ? I wanna see that alien bike.
It would break
@@1248erik no
Yes!
That was my first thought as well, I had been dreaming of it since the '90s when doing solid modeling and mountain biking.
@@Markfps yes. topology optimisation doesn't just remove unnecessary material, it also removes strength from it. its called optimisation because you're saving more on not spending that extra material because you don't need all the strength. in bikes, you need the strength. even then, bikes can break (if you dont go into dumb detail about what its made of). so no - you're wrong.
Would be nice if the algorithm were aware of fdm printing and that you could configure layer orientation, then it could account for layer to layer weakness...
Stefan and Thomas talked in one of their meltzone podcast episodes i think :)
People have been asking for anisotropic materials for a good while. I don't know if the'll ever do it. The usual response is use autodesk inventor if you need that.
@@dibblethwaite I've looked into anisotropic materials for fiberglass composites but haven't found much for FEA software. It's (much) more complex and I think you need to know more about structural engineering.
Generative us doing that.byou can define a bunch of materials and different manufacturing processes (including fdm printing) and the generated design takes this into account.
Same for the infill!
But that sounds like a really hard problem.
I would assume it would be easier with generative design, because it should be easier to predict properties of synthesized parts than parts where a wall moves when you remove something.
Hmmm well if it is a linear property maybe you could just scale one dimension before the optimization and scale it back afterwards.
Those are some beautiful shelf baskets! Awesome work, Tom.
They are beautiful but they gonna collect a LOT of dust
@Zygy __ compressed air will just throw dust elsewere
They're pretty hideous but the science is beautiful
@@revertfpv2928 All you need is a tissue and some water. Done. Something like Denture tablets in water are not corrosive at all and clean stuff very well. Always use them for my keyboards over Iso or anything else.
For future etymologists:
This may be the first use of the term "analog documents".
2019, folks.
I was recently discussing how the term, "paperwork" now often refers to online forms (specifically forms required for tax, insurance, rental applications, and other formal purposes) but often requires no actual paper.
Wing mirror. Dash board. Trunk. English (and no doubt, all other languages) is full of words divorced from their original meaning. This is how it happens.
@@questionablecommands9423 funny, because we have been talking soft copies and actual paper-work as long as i can remember. Even though things are digital here in India there's just too much paper . Well we will someday look back at it too.
Analog is still electronic, though.
For example, old TVs, radios and video tape players & recorders are electronic devices but they are analog, not digital.
A better term would be "physical documents".
@@hrgwea i still have lots of electronic analog stuff in my house
they all break at the unsimulated part , where it attaches to the wall
yea the connection seems to be the weak point on this. Seems like it might fail from tear out due to shearing if overloaded, or possibly bearing if plastic is somewhat malleable.
Thing is, did he use a stud finder to more securely place the shelves?
Scout2 it does not look like it lol, he just put it into the drywall.. he's clearly not informed on house work much, hes put his brain towards 3-D printing
I wonder if the software take into account fixed points, or only cares about load and shape.
@@greenthizzle4 I think most houses in Germany are built different from America. they don't use wood... it seems to be mostly masonry. If you notice Germans always mock American house construction methods
Saw this video in 2019 and just came here to thank you. It showed me a whole new (and very interesting) world that I didn't knew about at the time.
Now I'm really happy, as I get to make a living solving problems with finite element analysis every day.
Thank you so much, this video changed my life for the better.
me: "youtube, why you recommending this? this is not my contents"
youtube: "umm, it's 3 am?"
me: "alright i take it"
totally.
its 3am again, youtubes doing its thing- clicked on this ~3:10am
It's literally just about to hit 3 am here in the land of Kiwi. Your comment hits too close to home.
Your brackets are gorgeous. Excellent work and presentation.
I have to say that this has to be one of the prettiest functional print I've seen (prolly one of the prettiest prints I've seen in total). Thank you for the STL file. Cant wait to get into Fusion 360 and topology studies.
That's true what you said in the last part, the process does not care how much load you have if you are only specifying (1) Strain Energy and (2) Volume Constraint.
You need to put additional constraints such as deflection so that the software optimizes your structure given a certain load. I use ABAQUS for Optimization by the way.
By the way, your video is awesome! so much appreciated!!!
Great video and I like that you've shown your iterative process. That you have not used the MMU but simply painted the parts is great, too. And the result is awesome.
Watching this video in great anticipation on how to optimise the simple shelf bracket, just to discover 3 minutes in that you just wanted to make the look cool and throw all the engineering and material science out the door!!
I neither have ideas about mechanical engineering nor about Autodesk, but I have found this video very understandable, interesting and reasonable. Keep up the good work!
I get chills thinking about a future society where a majority of our design and technology is so advanced that it just looks organic.
But youre using topology optimalisation and then a hollow print.....
But did you see him stand on the shelve...
@@TonyRios But you could have done that with a straight beam bracket, that weighed 1/6 as much.
This is poorly designed.
@@operator8014 But it looks 1/6 as cool
@@EngineeringTechnikcom Not wrong. Actually completely correct. You may now leave this conversation that you are not qualified to speak on. Thank you.
@@operator8014
Says the person thinking their opinion is a factual statement.
This is incredible. I'm a musician and know nothing about this design world, but I love what you've done. Never seen anything like this before. Thank you for making this!
This would be a really interesting design to do an investment casting of and get aluminum brackets.
Its been a long time Thomas! I just started my delta printer design up again after over a year of it sitting. Zero cleaning, ran perfect, polymer bushing rails FTW!!! Literally 1mm of dust on some parts (edit: ok thats a total lie, its like .3mm at most sorry), delrin sliders shove it aside cleanly and slide smoothly, ignoring any cooking oils etc from the kitchen 10 feet away that must be on them. 5 dollar diy printable linear motion WORKS.
Good to know that 3D prints are stronger than modern houses
I rarely give a like out, but because you shared the file and did all that testing, it was the least I could do. Great Job!
2:30 Wait, they charge you for running simulations on a software you've already paid for, using store credits??
Have micro transactions found their way into even 3d engineering software?
What is wrong with this world
you're paying to rent compute resources to run the simulation. you could do the same thing at home if you had a supercomputer
@@TouchedAlot You don't need a supercomputer to run such simulation. Engineers at my work run simulations on 16 core PCs at work with no problem on other software. They are just milking people for money.
jus because your computer is a potatoe PC doesnt mean modern computers are sUpEr cOmPuTeRs
most people don't have lots of computers ready and available to throw at simulations. there is no reason to buy, configure and maintain lots of computers yourself if all you want to do is run simulations because you can just rent the amount of computing power you need on demand
As others have said, it's not a microtransaction. You're paying for their server time to run it on their computers. One reason given for them not allowing us to run these simulations on our own computers is that it would require them giving out the code for how to do it.
Pretty amazing that using a huge amount of math and simulation we get a structure that is like tree branches and bone structure. Nature and evolution themselves are an algorithm for optimization. Awesome video!
wasted $100 on simulation
has sharp edge on highest stress area
10/10 engineering
Wasted 15 minutes watching a video.
Makes a comment about spending $100 when he says multiple times he's using the free option.
10/10 youtube viewer.
0/10 listening comprehension
@@fayenotfaye wasted 15 seconds reading reply to comment
Wastes 15 seconds writing reply about wasting 15 seconds replying to a comment
me: wastes 5 minutes figuring out reply to reply about wasting 15 minutes watching a video
me: next level youtube replier
@@KyleDB150 at this point my math skills aren´t sufficient enough to leave a good reply
You're all 10/10 people in my book. You beautiful strangers.
Neat experiment, lots of lessons learned. Knowing how to mount in different wall mediums is KEY. Also looks like you used the failed mount in the end, I'd recommend swapping it out!
This is what it would look like if the Covenant had shelves.
You just nailed what my subconscious mind was thinking the whole time, it's definitely the purple haha
halooooooooooooooooooo
except the covenant would never ruin their shelves with white paint.
Not sure if you will read this comment at this point but I will leave it here anyways.
1. This video gave me inspiration in my Mech Engineering final degree project in Q2 2020. I am now an Engineer. Came by your video again after buying a 3D Printer xD.
2. For the wall plugs, for plaster walls as they are called, I really recommend you Fischer Duoblade. Each one of those holds 8Kg, and you don't even need a drill!
Great to hear! It's still not a plaster wall or drywall, though 😉
Very good video Thomas! One note (as Stefan from CNC Kitchen also points out) -- a big issue with this approach is that FDM 3D printed parts are anisotropic, so results should be taken with a grain of salt (or large factor of safety). I would be very interested in seeing comparison results in this regard between FDM and resin prints and their predicted vs. measured failure loads.
Also the way he set up his simulation; he only constrained where the countersunk screws were and didn't add a planar constraint where the bracket touches the wall. That's probably why the program almost immediately lightweighted that section and didn't connect any ribs to it.
And then he printed it with infill, which is definitely different than what the program was calculating for.
It's a cool way to get very organic looking parts or to visualize your load paths, but I wouldn't trust it without a big safety factor.
@@timbarrett4580 it's a gimmick. I can't imagine this optimization being useful for any manufacturing process
@@Jaze2022wrong
Great job giving a rundown of the process. A way to make it better is to add in the hardwood plank by incorporating it into the model by adding 2 additional hard points where you fasten the board to the support arms. That would drastically reduce materials required.
Pretty neat!
I don't think I'd have painted the models. At least not any of the curved sections. The colour gradient seems to work well with the organic shape.
I wanted to construct a Wall shelf for my PC (~40-50lbs) it's quite heavy... and by you just standing on these shelves, I think I found my solution
Interesting how the supports resemble tree branches
interesting but not surprising: biology has been doing topology optimisation for millions of years. Trees are very, very efficient structures.
For me those resemble bones. Bones grow where they are under stress. I don't know if that applies for trees but I suspect yes. It's all literally runtime topological optimization :P
@@mastermati773 bingo -> smaht
I have no idea why the algorithm decided I wanted to see your videos but I'm glad it did.
In Rhinos Grasshopper there is an extension called tOpos which runs topology optimizations localy.
Buchsbaumschere what is rhinos grasshopper
@@justasingledronevideo2583 Rhino is a CAD package, and Grasshopper is an algorithmic modeling plugin for Rhino. A commercial license for Rhino 6 costs $995.
Ryan Willis that doesn’t sound like an optimal alternative to F360 if it’s free
I also use Rhino, it's a much better option and comes with much more functionality then the limited subscriptions of fusion 360
@@sparkyferret550 I try to avoid Autodesk whenever possible lol
Gut auf den Punkt gebracht was mit Topologieoptimierung möglich ist. Und ein schön- kreatives Projekt damit gemacht.
I would like a strength comparison between the smaller topology optimised brackets and a similar (roughly equivalent) squarish design printed in a more optimal orientation (on its side)
I assume that Thomas was going for a more organic design. One for which generative design is better suited, but requires cloud credit expense.
I'm guessing squarish design won. the purpose of topology *optimised* is to use the least materials to achieve the necessary strength, as oppose to make it stronger than conventional shape
It's amazing that the same principle that allows the shelves to be constructed this way (on the exterior) is the same thing that the printer uses to lay the internal wiring to optimize resources
I am so excited for this tech to see wider adoption. The algorithms used studied things like bone structure during their creation.
There's not many options as of yet, but I expect that to change. This kind of optimization almost spells the end for what we think are straight lines. Our world is going to get far more curvy!
All the aesthetic design choices are perfect, IMO!
I died a little bit when I saw those hardwood boards go from being beautiful to painted white 😨
Yeah. That was barbaric.
Same! Saw the beautiful wood and thought 'he spent extra for this project' then came the paint. :(
Sadness level maxed
I liked the look of it.
I would have used a filament that was wood pulp-based painted the edges on the boards and supports, and tied it all together that way.
They looked like women's high heel shoes before you put them up. Now they look like you should have a bunch of "Yes" albums on the shelves - lol!
Very cool brackets! Thanks for the video.
youtube: making something spectacularly complicated
me: using a triangle and doing just fine
Nobody's talking about how nice looking those high heels look? I mean, they're literally galactic *and* organic!
That Multicolor Galaxy PLA is really nice.
Looks similar to the "waste" filament i got, that has a slow merging discoloration, which happens during colour changes in filament production. Great to see an other version with more significant, "forced" colour changes
Now I wish I wasn't colourblind
That's really cool. The white accents on the holders and the natural top of the boards.
Too bad that TO is not available in free version of F360 nowadays.
I interpret this as a metaphor for the broader reality of existence and all living things. Just like in society, some individuals make more significant contributions than others, which is also true in our personal lives
Fusion no longer supports this in the free version, boo
Yes it's annoying this video now is dark for me
Those shelf brackets and the process you used to make them is super cool. Really nice and they look great with that filament. 👍😎🇦🇺
I think topology optimization is mostly good for solid components (as in, not FDM printed). When it comes to strength and lower material use, at least.
I've noticed, that you can sometimes actually save material cost / weight by removing holes, as they will basically replace some (low) infill with perimeters. On the other hand, they can increase part strength. And look cool. The most important thing.
I absolutely love the minimalistic look of your shelves
Great video and just as professionally made as always.
A experienced builder or engineer can certainly make that part even better, what a great tool! I think you definitely did the right thing to NOT paint the whole shelf white. Take a beautiful natural wood and paint it to look like the rest of the IKEA show room...might as well buy from them in the first place haha. Organic supports and plain white would have been a huge mistake!
Thanks for sharing! Very useful and all the right content.
Wow, Autodesk is such a phenomenal racket. Remember when people were just upset over how expensive perpetual licenses of CAD software were?
This video looks crisp. Congratulations on lighting
in the next episode Thomas will print walls for his home
Don't tempt me
Entire walls - too big. But small, topology-optimized interlocking bricks would be viable.
People are building houses out of plastic bottles and cans - why not out of 3-D printed bricks?
Thomas Sanladerer you need to print some studs for inside the drywall so your not screwing into plain drywall
Jake Mitch drywall anchors are perfectly suitable for light to medium duty shelving. Most of the crappy ones are rated for 50lbs per anchor.
@@greenthizzle4 It isn't drywall. It is actual material worth building a house from, a type of aerated concrete block which is the internal insulation, with a brick or solid concrete outer skin. Waterproof and light, and cheap, and no timber to rot or get eaten. The only downside is you need the correct fixings if putting up shelves!
Gruselig, da ist gestern hier so eine Filamentrolle angekommen und sofort gibt’s ein passendes Video was ich damit machen sollte. 🤔
I'd like to see a stress test comparing a topology-optimized shelf bracket with more conventional 3D-printed brackets, to see exactly how much more weight it would allow it to hold before failing/sagging.
I don't think this allows *more* weight then the full brick if that's what you're asking. It's obviously weaker, but it takes out a huge percentage of the material for an insignifant strength loss.
almarc the whole point of topology optimization is to reduce used material while maintaing the same properties as the original structure.
@@ggeorgo555 I'm not a certified professional of course, but it can't remain "the same". It can only be 99% or something as strong. Unless you remove some bump on the side that literally carried no weight on it whatsoever.
@@almarc
I didn't mean testing whether it was stronger than the full brick.
By "conventional" brackets, I meant like, 3D-print the kinds of brackets one might find in a store. One that's literally just an L-shape, one that's a triangle shape (L with a single crossbeam), etc. The topology optimized bracket, judging by its appearance, would actually have slightly more material than these.
Sure, topology optimization is built for retaining mostly the same strength while massively reducing material used, but another way to look at it is that it can massively increase strength with only a small increase in material used, depending on what is used as the input shape. A bracket with 90% of the strength of a solid square block is likely going to be stronger than a bracket with 100% of the strength of a hollow triangle.
I'd recommend putting a small lip around the bottom of the top support portion (the "U"-shaped bit at the top) just to give the white edge you made a cleaner look. You can be extra-fancy and maybe add a very low amplitude wave effect to reflect the organic look.
I used this same process to make a stronger version of my RC car chassis, worked amazing! Love Fusion 360
That sounds cooool
What a beautiful design! Thank you for providing this for free.
How is maintenance on them? I'm imagining they trap dust in their phalanges.
You could add a solid layer (maybe glass) to the sides.
try to imagine trying to clean a xenomorph hive or polish the furniture in Giger Bar
I hate it when I get dust in my phalanges.
I like the video and the bracket! very cool stuff. I do want to make a note/distinction for your viewers about toplogy optimization vs generative design. At the end you pointed out that Topology Optimization doesn't factor in the actual load value, just the load path. It is important to note that Generative Design does. It factors in materials, manufacturing methods as well as multiple load cases. I made a generative design shelf bracket for example that factored in loading just the front, just the back, equal distribution and someone bumping into it from the side. So while yes the cost of 5CC vs 125CC is pretty drastic, they are very different technologies and with Generative Design you can have solutions for 7 materials for each manufacturing method you chose, so literally hundreds of choices to run through for that 25CC buy in.
Great Videos Thomas!! Your my go-to guy for everything 3D.
Love this function.
I am finally getting into actually working with 3D, making my own functional parts, so this is absolutely fascinating :D
P.S.: Anybody wondering about the music in this video:
Farrel Wooten - Lead
Power Druid - Forever Falling
Absolutely lovely
Those look sick. Great job
Thanks!
These are beautiful, the white accents look sharp
The more complex our algorithms and processes get the more and more they mimic nature.
I would rather say that nature and simulation converge on the same optimum.
@@tombratfred3102 I would argue that evolution is a good optimisation algorithm which ran for a long time and found almost optimal solution for some problems, and machines are finding good solution to these problems now
@@forloop7713 This is exactly what I implied ;)
Seems like a great way to compare various filaments and filament supplier quality.
If you could place the top screw lower, you could make a flat surface and print them upside down. Maybe a bit harder to install them.
The color combo looks awesome
You should use a studfinder to locate the screws in material (wood) that will support some weight. Drywall won't hold much.
When I was doing finite element stress analysis with NASTRAN (a while ago), I had to accurately model the loads and constraints and the strength of materials. There was some voodoo involved. It was easier in that they were steel structures; I wasn't working with the complicated material of a 3D print.
European buildings are almost never timberframed. They are nearly always built around brick or concrete walls. That's why he got out such a heavy drill, you pretty much need a percussion drill to hang anything in Europe in most cases. A studfinder won't do you any good here.
This is neither a stud wall not covered with drywall.
What an excellent video. It's so refreshing to see your passion showcased so professionally, precisely, and efficiently. Your work is greatly enjoyed and appreciated. :) I love sharing your videos with my students.
I'd like to see it redone with the top wider than the bottom where it connects to the wall.
Since that was the failure point, and it doesn't have to be straight and square to save material or make it easier to produce.
Sounds like gypsum walls you have and you need butterfly dowels for that. They open up a cross behind the wall as you screw them.
Great work, I learnt a lot :)
Needs a stud finder so he can actually attach the brackets to something soid.
That bottom part of that piece hes holding at 11:22 aint looking so hot . But then it gets glossed over like nothing happened so im like :V
and I thought it was funny that he was like "what is this...foam concrete" and if he means drywall then it's amazing that someone with such specialized knowledge doesn't know about drywall. It's great to see examples of how experts are just normal people in areas other than their field. Like how Ben Carson is a brain surgeon but that doesn't mean his politics are good.
@@david102994 hey you numbnuts, do you understand this person is german? he probably speaks english better than you.
Most likely he printed another after the anchor failed to hold.
Not blaming the design of the 3D printed part for the failure of the anchor.
david102994 in europe houses are made of bricks and concrete, but sometimes if youre unlucky you can hit a hollow or foamy part that just doesnt hold. We dont have drywalls. He just hit a bad spot. Happens to the best of us
@@r3dluff idk where you're from, but drywall is pretty common in sweden.
I was looking at the braces thinking, yeah they look cool, but they don't look that sturdy. Then you stepped on it and it didn't flinch. Damn that's cool.
i would assume the point of setting a weight in the topology optimizer is for if you have multiple loads and want to configure their relative forces
This is actually very easy. I design and program for a living. The software these days are phenomenal.
I'm pretty sure that PLA under load creeps over time, which would not be good. It looks //great// though.
Great video. Great product. Thank you for pointing out to most people, that software which is beneficial to development is out of most people's financial grasp!
"teach you about topology optimization, while you're at it". Not really, it only teaches you how to use Fusion 360 to use their topology optimization tool. (Which is also good, of course)
it teaches you the essentials, go do an engineering degree if you want to learn it properly
Very cool:) form and function. Love the organic look of it. This reductive process is what stone masons/sculptors use too
"Its 25 Bucks to run one Cloud Job"
- Wow thats crazy!
"Its 100 more Bucks to get the result to your PC"
- WHAT? How is that not included in the initial price?"
"Its both on top on a yearly subscription you have to pay anyway for"
- "WT........... Ok I am out guys"
If we lower the price then people will actually use it!
i'm sure that there will be some open source alternatives at some point... at least i hope so... i would never support garbage like this, no matter how "professional" it is
Toggles.
My absolutely favorite type of fastener. I use wall toggles on many commercial applications. Furniture to custom stuff. They are the best, but leave a 1/2" hole too. So, sometimes you can't do that.
Could you compare the strength of these to one that you optimize yourself by intuition with the same amount of material?
They have a very interesting shape. It looks organic and tree-like!
Tom: Says the guy who lives in an IKEA catalog
IKEA: 👍
Reminds me about fight club.
Amazing how organic it looks.
First off all: great video! Awesome shelves! Then to my question: why gyroid infill? While cool to watch and fast to print, it's not strong at all. No two lines really rest on top of each other, so no load bearing compared to triangular or grid. I know your shelves were more than strong enough, but how about some experiments with this? Or should I poke Steffan with it? 😜
Definitely a topic worth investigating! Gyroid is supposed to be the ultimate (isotopic) infill pattern, so I use it whenever print time isn't super crucial.
brilliant job Tom. You keep er up. You where responsible for me getting into the FDM greatness, and may long we continue to see you around. Slainte
Dang!... I JUST found a use for topology optimization and now they've removed it from the free version
Excellent way of teaching the 3d printing community how to use simulation and topology for home-driven projects :D
Keep up the good work!
Simulation is not available on the free version
Confusion 360 is really cool. I had never heard of this, but will surely try it out!
Video should be called "making overly complicated shelf brackets with industrial design software nerds"
Love the brackets they look so organic
Did you figure out what settings make more fingers show up? I was inspired to give this a shot, and made a 80% similar shape to test shape optimization. Sometimes I get a finger or 2, but...mostly it solves without much interesting geometries. Are there any secrets or tips to force more interesting solve geometry? Currently experimenting, but it takes a while for each solve : /
had you found out how?
I’m so sorry to read some of the comments under your video, Tom.
I totally like the looks of your shelf brackets!
It is so sad to see people freaking out over something that trivial like 4 3D printed plastic pieces.
A bit funny though is the fact that Americans CANNOT think of any other method to build houses than how they do it.
“He put it directly in the drywall...”
So, keep up your excellent work here and don’t stop edutaining us!
Welp... Fusion removed the simulation tab from the free version (because autodesk is greedy)... there goes that idea.
Same, was just working on a project that needed the weight saving and strength, but Autodesk has to be the most Greedy company ever.
@@NoLan_YT I'm pretty sure the most greedy title still goes to adobe, but Autodesk is getting closer.
Why use cloud computing for this? Why not try to run it locally? It's their only justification for making people pay for that service. Sure, it'd probably be slower locally, but I got time.
I completely agree, they look fantastic. I will be giving it a try as soon as time allows.