A method of manufacturing a part in a series of layers based on a three dimensional model of the part, the model of the part oriented according to an x-y build plane corresponding to an orientation of a layer of the part and a z-axis orthogonal to the x-y build plane that defines an order of each layer of the part, the method comprising: determining a build layer thickness of an additive manufacturing apparatus; identifying a feature of the part within the model; determining that the feature is not aligned along the z-axis based on the build layer thickness; and moving the feature within the model along the z-axis by a feature offset such that the feature is aligned along the z-axis; wherein the model is divided into a plurality of build layers by a plurality of slices based on the build layer thickness scaled by a scaling factor between the model of the part and the part; wherein determining that the feature is not aligned comprises: determining a first offset between the bottom-most point of the feature and the bottom of a build layer nearest to the bottom-most point; determining a second offset between the bottom-most point of a reference feature and the bottom of a build layer nearest to the reference feature; and determining that the first offset is different than the second offset; wherein the feature offset is a difference between the first offset and the second offset; or wherein determining that the feature is not aligned comprises: determining a difference between a value of a position of a bottom-most point of the feature along the z-axis and a value of a position of a bottom-most point of a reference feature along the z-axis; scaling the build layer thickness based on the scaling factor; and determining that the difference is not a multiple of the scaled build layer thickness; wherein feature offset is a result of a modulus operation on the difference and the scaled build layer thickness. determining a build layer thickness of an additive manufacturing apparatus; identifying a feature of the part within the model; determining that the feature is not aligned along the z-axis based on the build layer thickness; and moving the feature within the model along the z-axis by a feature offset such that the feature is aligned along the z-axis; wherein the model is divided into a plurality of build layers by a plurality of slices based on the build layer thickness scaled by a scaling factor between the model of the part and the part; wherein determining that the feature is not aligned comprises: determining a first offset between the bottom-most point of the feature and the bottom of a build layer nearest to the bottom-most point; determining a second offset between the bottom-most point of a reference feature and the bottom of a build layer nearest to the reference feature; and determining that the first offset is different than the second offset; wherein the feature offset is a difference between the first offset and the second offset; or wherein determining that the feature is not aligned comprises: determining a difference between a value of a position of a bottom-most point of the feature along the z-axis and a value of a position of a bottom-most point of a reference feature along the z-axis; scaling the build layer thickness based on the scaling factor; and determining that the difference is not a multiple of the scaled build layer thickness; wherein feature offset is a result of a modulus operation on the difference and the scaled build layer thickness. <EOS>