Abstract: A computer-aided design (CAD) model of an article for manufacture, together with user problem definition input including materials, constraints, load conditions, preferred manufacturing processes, etc. for an optimized design of the article or material microstructure are received via a prompt-and-response graphical user interface. Based on this information, one or more routines to iteratively optimize material distribution within said article or the material microstructure design are executed in order to achieve best performance for materials, loads, and constraints specified by the user. At the completion of the optimization process, the user is presented the optimized design in a CAD file describing the optimized design of the article for the preferred manufacturing process or a newly designed material microstructure, as appropriate.