The present disclosure generally relates to methods for additive manufacturing (AM) that utilize a computer aided design (CAD) model of a part to develop a layer representation of the part. The method includes: 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.