Materialise, the Belgian-based 3D printing pioneer, introduced its latest software innovations at EuroMold 2012 held in Frankfurt last week, which included some very interesting enhancements.
One of these innovations was the latest release of the leading STL file preparation software – Magics 17. The premium software for 3D printing professionals is now multi-core, which increases the speed of the software. Other updates included new functionalities, such as quality measurement reports, trapped volume detection (for stereolithography), nest density verification (for laser sintering) and more.
On display next to Magics17 were the new Build Processors, which were quite stunning as the new technology is removing some of the barriers that require high levels of skill with 3D printing processes. Many complex and unnecessary functions can be overcome by the new integration between software and hardware using a very user friendly UI making it easier to operate a 3D printer.
Jewellery fans – this one’s for you! Materialise also introduced a new jewellery solution from Marcam (Materialise’s Metal Applications Research Center for AM) – JewelFab DWS. It is a giant leap forward for the preparation of jewellery files. JewelFab DWS helps guide the user, step-by-step, through repair, support generation, slicing and platform set up.
Finally two additional Streamics™ models – AM Build and Post-Processing – were released. The demonstration included how Streamics™ can increase efficiency and ensure quality throughout the whole 3D printing process. Streamics™ brings in centralized and efficient data storage, enables tracability, repeatability and automation for some of the time and labor intensive tasks. With the new modules an integrated connection with 3D printers is possible, which allows interactive machine planning, and better control over production jobs. Streamics™ also provides an option for using predefined finishing workflows that are equipped with bar codes, increasing traceability to 100% and eliminating the human error.
