An additive manufacturing method performed by a data processing system to design and manufacture a part to be manufactured in manufacturing layers, while accounting for deformations caused by heat and structural load effects during manufacture, the part to be manufactured having an arbitrary geometry, comprising: a) receiving a finite element, FE, model of the part to be manufactured, wherein the receiving of the finite element model includes receiving of build parameters and simulations parameters; for each of a plurality of manufacturing layers: b) selecting a part of the entire FE model by iteratively intersecting a depositing layer line with the FE model and defining a respective FE layer mesh at that line that represents a manufacturing layer for the corresponding layer and is used to simulate the manufacturing process for the layer defined by the depositing layer line, wherein the entire FE model is split into multiple non-equidistant slices based on a thickness of a powder layer that is to be used in the manufacturing of the part having arbitrary geometry; c) simulating manufacture of the manufacturing layers represented by the respective FE layer mesh for the corresponding layer while applying the simulation parameters representing the thermal response and structural load effects for each layer; d) during the simulated manufacture, evaluating deformations to each FE layer mesh caused by heat and structural load effects; and e) modifying the FE model by including the deformations produced by the simulated manufacture while applying the simulation parameters representing the heat and the structural load effects; and f) manufacturing the part according to the modified FE model including the deformations caused by heat and structural load effects. a) receiving a finite element, FE, model of the part to be manufactured, wherein the receiving of the finite element model includes receiving of build parameters and simulations parameters; for each of a plurality of manufacturing layers: b) selecting a part of the entire FE model by iteratively intersecting a depositing layer line with the FE model and defining a respective FE layer mesh at that line that represents a manufacturing layer for the corresponding layer and is used to simulate the manufacturing process for the layer defined by the depositing layer line, wherein the entire FE model is split into multiple non-equidistant slices based on a thickness of a powder layer that is to be used in the manufacturing of the part having arbitrary geometry; c) simulating manufacture of the manufacturing layers represented by the respective FE layer mesh for the corresponding layer while applying the simulation parameters representing the thermal response and structural load effects for each layer; d) during the simulated manufacture, evaluating deformations to each FE layer mesh caused by heat and structural load effects; and e) modifying the FE model by including the deformations produced by the simulated manufacture while applying the simulation parameters representing the heat and the structural load effects; and f) manufacturing the part according to the modified FE model including the deformations caused by heat and structural load effects.