Abstract: One goal in automated product designing of additive manufacturing is to obtain designs having overhangs without support structures if the criterion for overhangs is rigorously geometrical. In an embodiment of the present invention, designers can request automated optimization and design, using simulation and sensitivity-based optimization, of structures having overhangs in the print direction that do not need any support structures. In an embodiment, a method includes, at a processor, calculating model design responses and model sensitivities of a computer-aided engineering (CAE) model in a CAE system based on design variables of the CAE model for various design responses being either applied in objective or constraints. The method further includes optimizing values of the design variables. The method further includes calculating physical design variables by employing a penalty function. Additionally, the calculations can also be in conjunction with employing material interpolation schemes.