Voxel-Based Meshing of Additive Manufacturing Toolpaths with Applications to Finite Element Analysis

Process simulation of additive manufacturing (AM) parts via finite element analysis (FEA) requires analysis geometry derived from the manufacturing toolpath rather than the design geometry. This work presents voxelization algorithms for generating finite element meshes directly from G-code, bypassing CAD reconstruction methods. Four centerline voxelization algorithms were compared on representative geometries; Real Line Voxelization (RLV) was identified as the preferred method due to its guaranteed face-connected topology and favorable geometric accuracy. A novel swept voxelization algorithm based on discrete Minkowski sums was developed for applications requiring volumetric fidelity, achieving bead-level resolution without CSG or mesh Boolean operations. Case studies on a blended wing-body UAV and an additively manufactured 8.5 m marine vessel demonstrated scalability to production-level toolpaths on standard workstation hardware, with swept voxelization capturing analytical toolpath volume and centerline voxelization approximating as-manufactured part mass with orders-of-magnitude fewer elements.