Skip to main content
H
HF_128514663-Newcomer
3-Newcomer
May 6, 2026
Question

Measuring wall thickness of TPMS/formula driven lattice structures

  • May 6, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 48 views

Hi Guys, I’m using Creo Parametric 10.0.0.0 ,

I created a few samples with lattice structures and wanted to compare the 3D printed result to the CAD design. Now for the formula driven/TPMS structures one can enter cell size and wall thickness. I wanted to measure the pore size and realized that the in the process of creation defined wall thickness isn’t the same as the resulting CAD strucuture. As an example I created a Schwarz primitive lattice structure with cell size of 2mm x 2mm x 2mm and a wall thickness of 0.25mm, but when I measure the wall thickness after creating the lattice feature, its not the same as the inputted parameter (I measured ~0.47mm). I have attached a few Screenshots to make my issue more understandable. You’ll see a part of a paper where it shows how the wall thickness is measured and pictures of the resulting parameters of the previousely mentioned model.

 

Creo Parametric post lattice definition measurements




 

methodology to measure wall thickness according to literature (urlr.me/gTVWYk)



Does Creo Parametric use some other method to measure/calculate the wall thickness? Is there a way to measure pore size and wall thickness without having to project a sketch on top of the structure?

2 replies

tbraxton
22-Sapphire II
tbraxton22-Sapphire II
22-Sapphire II
May 7, 2026

Are you cutting the section and measuring on the planar boundary of a unit cell? The pores in your model appear round which is different to the example images of your stated Schwarz primitive reference. I am not an expert on TPMS generation so maybe this is not relevant in this context.

 

If one assumes that the topology of the lattice is the same in all of the images; I would suggest that you may not be replicating the method outlined in the reference material in your Creo model. It appears that you are making a planar section through the TPMS surface geometry which is not consistent with the appearance of the blue rings shown in the reference used to determine wall thickness. It appears that the blue wall thickness in the reference is not the result of a planar cut through the TPMS topology.

 

You may be able to reference model parameters associated with the lattice definition to get the values of the cell size and wall thickness, but I don’t think pore size is an input parameter for equation driven lattice definition. You would probably have to ask PTC support about the algorithms/math behind the geometry definition.

 

 

H
HF_128514663-NewcomerAuthor
3-Newcomer
May 7, 2026

Thanks for the reply!
I tried to add some Screenshots that show what I actually did. I basically used the plane that is starting from the bottom of the cell to start a sketch on it (purple arrow on picture 1 shows the direction we are look towards on picture 2). So I’m basically trying to replicate whats done in the reference of my first post by just measuring the edge of the pure/cell. Also this time you’ll notice that the shape of pores look more like on the reference and the picture you sent since I just lowered the wall thickness. I added a 3rd picture from yet another paper showing the measuring of the wall thickness.
After cutting through different depths of the cell structure and measuring the wall thickness, I’m guessing/assumung that the input wall thickness is meant to be the smallest appearing thickness. But I won’t know for sure if its that until somebody from PTC tells me.
 

 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12736839/

 

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement