1. Introduction
The 3D printing software industry revolves around developing advanced solutions for additive manufacturing. These companies are pushing boundaries with their innovative software, empowering businesses to model, simulate, and print 3D objects with unprecedented speed, accuracy and detail. Their offerings range from design and prototyping to custom part manufacturing and beyond, enriching industries such as healthcare, automotive, aerospace, and consumer goods. These software solutions often go hand-in-hand with 3D printers and a variety of materials, proving integral to the production process. Looking towards the future, the industry is charged with potential, with advancements in AI and machine learning promising to unlock further capabilities within 3D printing.
2. Additive Manufacturing Workflows
3D printing software stands at the intersection of creativity and technology, acting as the bridge that converts digital designs into the language of 3D printers. These programs vary widely, catering to different phases of the 3D printing process—ranging from Design & Modeling (CAD) Software, Slicing (Print Preparation) Software, to STL editor and Repair Software, Print Management (Host) Software and Business Integrations. Each type serves a unique function, from crafting intricate designs to translating them into print-ready files, embodying the diverse capabilities required to bring 3D creations to life but for most AM production applications, the 3d printing process will look something like this:
- Design the part: Design may mean modifying an existing design for 3D printing or starting from scratch with a true design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) mindset. Computer simulation, generative design and topology optimization can all be applied to optimize the function of the part. Printing process and material selection usually occurs in the initial design step.
| Software | Definition | Major Players |
|---|---|---|
| Scan | It’s the process of scanning a physical object and inputting the data into CAD software. Teams can then either manipulate the data itself to turn it into a new product or create a new product that fits within the data’s environment. | Autodesk Fusion 360 |
| Data Modeling | Data modeling software creates a visual representation of an object to communicate connections between data points and structures. The software also includes features like smart labelling. | AutoCAD, UltiMaker |
| Data Exchange/Translation | 3D CAD translation is the process of exporting or converting a native CAD file format (CATIA, Creo, SolidWorks, Inventor, etc.) to a neutral CAD file format (IGES, STEP, QIF, etc.). The objective is to have a compatible CAD file format for downstream use in other CAD, CAE, CAM, and CMM programs. While maintaining two identical models in geometry, 3D annotations, volume, surface area, etc. | Dassault Systems, AutoCAD |
| Slicing | A slicer is a toolpath generation software used in 3D printing. It facilitates the conversion of a 3D object model to specific instructions for the printer. The slicer converts a model in STL (stereolithography) format into printer commands in G-code format. | UltiMaker, Aibuild |
- Plan the build: Depending on the intended 3D printing technology, this step may entail selecting part orientation, adding support structures, optimizing job files before printing, packing or nesting multiple parts together, and setting printer parameters such as layer height, laser spot size, feed rate, etc.
| Software | Definition | Major Players |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation | Orientation plays a vital role in the final product of 3d printing as it affects the part accuracy, manufacturing time, strength and surface finish. There is various orientations by which we can print the object vertically upward, vertically downward and in horizontal plane. | Autodesk Fusion 360 |
| Adding support structures | Support structures are required where the objects are unable to be printed directly. Support structures help to guarantee the printability of a section during the 3D printing measure, and it can assist with forestalling part twisting, secure a section to the printing bed and guarantee that parts are joined to the fundamental body of the printed part. | Autodesk Fusion 360 |
| Setting printer parameters | Editable print parameters that include liquefier temperature, oven temperature, bead mode options, UV exposure, head temperature, movement parameters, scaling, laser power and speed and more. | Stratasys |
| Material Selection | A handy tool that helps to narrow down and choose the best fit materials by sorting and filtering the available materials by characteristic or mechanical properties. | Stratasys |
| Per Part Estimation | On a tray of 30 individual models, instead of one grouped time estimation, 30 separated estimations are generated, with a single click. Resulting in greater programming efficiency by reducing prep time on 3D printing. | Stratasys |
- 3D print the part: A 3D printing build might take anywhere from minutes to days.
| Software | Definition | Major Players |
|---|---|---|
| Fleet Management | Simplify how you manage a fleet of 3D printers and a group of users with advanced fleet management. Multiple users can add, duplicate and prioritize prints at any time across a fleet of 3D printers, wherever they may be. | FormLabs |
| Process Monitoring & control | Scale up R&D parameter development and reduce costs with early scrap detection by leveraging layer images and sensor data from 3D machines. Quality Process Control Machine Monitoring IIoT Gateway | Materialise, Stratasys |
| Factory Integration | Streamline end-to-end AM workflows while automating tasks and integrating with business systems (i.e.: ERP, PLM, MES) and other third-party software and hardware. | Materialise, Stratasys |
- Postprocess the part: Depending on the process, postprocessing could entail unpacking powder, prying or cutting parts from a build platform, cleaning, curing, heat treating, hot isostatic pressing (HIPping), etc.
- Finish the part: Many 3D printed tools and production parts will require further finishing to arrive at their completed state. Finishing steps might include machining surfaces, drilling or tapping holes, dyeing, coating or painting, and possibly welding or assembly with other parts.
- Inspect the part: Some parts can be evaluated with CMM measurement or 3D scanning; those with complex internal features may require X-ray or CT scanning. Different parts and applications may call for fewer or more steps. A hand tool made with fused filament fabrication (FFF) may not require any additional postprocessing once removed from the build plate. Parts with particularly stringent requirements, however, may require many more steps.
3. Major Players
| Company Name | Company Information | Company Description |
|---|---|---|
| Stratasys | Website: stratasys.com Headquarters: Rehovot, Minnesota, United States Founded: 1988 Headcount: 1001-5000 LinkedIn | Stratasys is a company that specializes in 3D printing technologies and solutions. They offer a wide range of products and services for various industries, enabling customers to create prototypes, manufacturing tools, and end-use parts using additive manufacturing. |
| Eos | Website: eos.info Headquarters: Krailling, Munich, Germany Founded: 1989 Headcount: 1001-5000 LinkedIn | EOS is a global company specializing in additive manufacturing technologies. They offer a wide range of 3D printers and materials for both metal and polymer applications. Their solutions are used in various industries, and they provide expert guidance to help businesses achieve success with additive manufacturing. |
| 3D Systems Corporation | Website: 3dsystems.com Headquarters: Rock Hill, South Carolina, United States Founded: 1986 Headcount: 1001-5000 LinkedIn | 3D Systems is a company that specializes in additive manufacturing and software solutions for various industries, including healthcare, automotive, and consumer goods. They offer a wide range of 3D printers, materials, and services that enable customers to design and produce functional prototypes, custom parts, and jewelry. With a focus on innovation and sustainability, 3D Systems helps businesses optimize their production processes and improve product performance. |
| Formlabs | Website: formlabs.com Headquarters: Somerville, Massachusetts, United States Founded: 2011 Headcount: 501-1000 LinkedIn | Formlabs is a high-resolution 3D printing company that offers SLA and SLS 3D printers for professionals. They provide 3D printing solutions for various industries, including manufacturing, dental, aerospace, and education. |
| Carbon | Website: carbon3d.com Headquarters: Redwood City, California, United States Founded: 2013 Headcount: 501-1000 LinkedIn | Carbon is a company that specializes in 3D printing technology and additive manufacturing. They offer a range of printers, materials, and software for various industries including automotive, consumer, industrial, and life sciences. Carbon’s advanced technology enables faster production and better quality products. |
| Markforged | Website: markforged.com Headquarters: Watertown, Massachusetts, United States Founded: 2013 Headcount: 201-500 LinkedIn | Markforged is a company that specializes in industrial additive manufacturing. They offer a range of industrial composite 3D printers and software solutions for various industries. Their smart additive manufacturing platform integrates seamlessly into manufacturing ecosystems, providing precision machines, performance materials, and turnkey simplicity. Markforged helps businesses transform their supply chain, unleash workforce creativity, and create a culture of innovation. |
| SLM Solutions | Website: slm-solutions.com Headquarters: Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Headcount: 201-500 LinkedIn | SLM Solutions is a company that specializes in additive manufacturing technology. It offers a range of 3D metal printing solutions, including machines, software, and materials, enabling customers to produce complex metal parts with high precision and reliability. |
| Ultimaker | Website: ultimaker.com Headquarters: Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands Founded: 2011 Headcount: 201-500 LinkedIn | Ultimaker is a company that offers 3D printing solutions and services. They provide software, hardware, and materials for 3D printing, enabling businesses to achieve operational efficiencies and innovate with new applications. With a focus on providing reliable and powerful 3D printers, Ultimaker helps organizations bring concept designs to life, increase speed efficiencies, and optimize manufacturing processes. |
| Desktop Metal | Website: desktopmetal.com Headquarters: Burlington, Massachusetts, United States Founded: 2015 Headcount: 201-500 LinkedIn | Desktop Metal is a company that specializes in additive manufacturing technologies, materials, and applications. They offer a range of 3D printing solutions, including metal, composites, and polymer printers, as well as software packages to manage the printing process. Their printers are designed for various industries, such as healthcare, industrial manufacturing, and dentistry. The company focuses on delivering high-quality, mass-production capabilities and innovative materials. They cater to customers in the manufacturing and industrial sectors who are looking to optimize production processes and create custom metal parts. |
| ExOne | Website: exone.com Headquarters: Burlington, Massachusetts, United States Founded: 2005 Headcount: 201-500 LinkedIn | ExOne is a leader in additive manufacturing, offering sand 3D printers and binder jet 3D printing technology. Their printers eliminate the need for hard tooling in sandcasting, enabling digital foundries to produce complex shapes and reduce assembly time. They provide solutions for sheet metal, health care, and tooling, delivering fast turnarounds and complex final parts. ExOne’s industrial binder jet 3D printers enable a digital workflow and integrated automation for lights-out manufacturing. |
4. Case Study
Customer: E.ON Energy
Service Provider: Siemens Energy
Use Case: Manufacturing Burners for Gas turbines using Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology.
Hardware used: 3D printer by EOS
Software Used:
| Process | Software Used | |
|---|---|---|
| Design Development | NX | |
| Mechanical Design (3D modeling, drawing creation) and Component Lifecycle Management | PLM2020 | |
| MI analysis of the developed component | Abaqus, Ansys, Franc3D, Hypermesh and Siemens-Energy in-house software | |
| Heat Transfer and Cooling | C3D, 2ndFlow, Ansys Fluent, CFX, Siemens-Energy in-house software | |
| Simulate 3D printing process and morphing | Simufact, Netfabb | |
| Geometry Analysis after printing | GOM Inspect |
Material Selection Process: Material Selection criteria are generally the same as in conventional manufacturing:
- Available on the market
- Fulfil MI criteria and requirements to lifetime of the components
- Ability to pass through the postprocessing treatment (any types of heat treatment, machining, coating with bond coat and TBC) without unexpected defects of behavior (like some materials might reveal cracks after HIP or have insufficient oxidation resistance at the harsh hot gas flow).
Outcome:
- Improved design and greater precision as the pilot-gas feed isn’t mounted outside as a separate pipe but is now a part of the printed burner. This allows the operating temperature to be kept lower which in turn, lowers dynamic load at the same output, and the turbine is subjected to less stress – all of which extends the component’s lifespan and ultimately durability of the turbines.
- More sustainable because it uses up to two-thirds less material.
- Shorter supply chain as each burner is manufactured in one piece whereas they used to require 13 individual parts and 18 welds
- Reduced error tolerance during production so production problems are less likely which means that the parts are more similar, and one can exchange them without having to tune the whole combustion mechanism anew making it a ‘plug & play’ process.
- Even if there were anomalies they would be immediately noticed. For example, temperature sensors on the burners constantly provide feedback on their current status.
5. Highlighted Software Companies
Stratasys: GrabCAD Product Overview
In order to enable the Smart Factory, Stratasys provides GrabCAD Software Development Kits (SDKs) - a complete set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), sample code, documentation and support - to customers and independent software vendors. Used by software developers, the GrabCAD SDKs enable integration of additive manufacturing into the production workflow with machine monitoring and data collection, job programming and execution extensions.
- MTConnect: It is a manufacturing data communication protocol that lets you to extract data and information from your printers and other manufacturing equipment. It enables this by providing a standard that allows diverse manufacturing equipment to supply information in a common language that you can use to assess and optimize your manufacturing operation. Examples of how you can leverage the data include assessing production metrics, energy use and equipment effectiveness. Stratasys customers with a F900 and Fortus 450mc printers will be able to connect their machine to their existing third-party applications for MES, BI (business intelligence) or ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to increase 3D printing productivity and efficiency.
- Connectivity SDK: Our Connectivity SDK allows you to interact with Stratasys Fortus, F900 , F123 and PolyJet J3,J5,J7 and J8 Series printers. Third-party MES and ERP software applications can use this SDK for scheduling print jobs and monitoring print status. When used in conjunction with MTConnect, the two SDKs provide a wholistic two-way communication pathway that allows control of Stratasys equipment on the factory floor and collection of both low and high frequency system data.
- GrabCAD Print SDK: Our PLM SDK lets you connect part orders from your PLM application directly to GrabCAD Print pre-processing software. Retrieve job data including print job file (CMB/.PRINT) and job build parameters (printer type, material, build resolution, infill patterns, etc.) along with job estimates of build time and material usage.
- OpenAM License: OpenAM functionality lets you access your printer’s key operational settings so you can custom-tune materials and printed part capabilities. With OpenAM capability, you can achieve the following:
- Alter the characteristics of Stratasys and third-party materials
- Print your own formulations, and open new applications.
- Editable print parameters that include liquefier temperature, oven temperature, bead mode options, and much more
- Feature-based tuning for quick adjustment of desired part characteristics by feature
- Material class defaults and safe parameter ranges to reduce costly failures and lost time
- Helpful tuning tips paired with the Stratasys FDM tuning guide to ensure repeatable success
Materialise: Co-AM Product Overview
CO-AM is the secure, cloud-based software platform that scales all additive manufacturing (AM) workflows. It includes pre-print, workflow, quality control, and third-party app products.
- Magics: Build Preparation Software. Simplify and optimize data and build preparation with Magics — our comprehensive, industry-leading 3D printing software — with both CAD and mesh tools. Gain advanced control over your processes, automate repetitive tasks, and increase print success rates — supporting you no matter which 3D printing technology you use.
- Build Processor: Communication Software. Before 3D printing a part, you need a solution that communicates part data in a clear, unambiguous way to the printer. Our Build Processors provide a seamless connection between software and hardware to help machine owners get the most out of 3D printers, simplify the printing process, and greatly improve productivity.
- AM Workflow Scripting: Automation software. Minimize time and effort spent on time-consuming, manual tasks during data and build preparation. The AM Workflow Scripting module for Magics and the CO-AM Software Platform offers scripts to automate additive manufacturing (AM) workflows, freeing up time to instead focus on more valuable work.
- 3-matic: Design optimization software. 3-matic enables you to clean up rough data from a CAD design, topology-optimized model, simulation, or scanned data by making design modifications on the mesh level. Enhance models for 3D printing with 3D textures, lattice structures, conformal structures, and scripting automation to easily create ranges of validation samples — improving your overall productivity.
- Order Management System: Reach your customers with a solution that caters specifically to their additive manufacturing (AM) needs. Order Management is a cloud-based e-commerce solution that simplifies the entire quoting and ordering process and facilitates effective communication.
- Manufacturing Execution System: Optimize your downstream additive manufacturing (AM) processes to streamline production and scale your operations with confidence. MES provides user-based access to real-time information about what’s happening on the production floor, helping you make sound, data-based decisions.
- Identify3D: Identify3D is the leading solution for ensuring data integrity throughout the digital supply chain.
- Third-party partners and integrations: Integrate business systems (i.e.: ERP, PLM), third-party software and hardware with CO-AM Partners to streamline processes and create a more robust digital thread.
References
- Stratasys: https://www.stratasys.com/en/stratasysdirect/quality-assurance/
- Stratasys: https://www.stratasys.com/en/stratasysdirect/materials/material-wizard/
- ADDITIVE Manufacturing: https://www.additivemanufacturing.media/kc/what-is-additive-manufacturing/additive-manufacturing-workflow
- inven: https://www.inven.ai/company-lists/top-21-3d-printing-software-companies
- Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/081515/three-biggest-3d-printing-companies.asp
- Formlabs: https://formlabs.com/asia/software/fleet-control/
- NWA 3D: https://www.nwa3d.com/education/glossary-of-3d-printing-terms/#:~:text=OBJ%20stands%20for%20Object%20File,object%20exterior%20pattern%20and%20color.&text=Polylactic%20Acid%20(PLA)%20is%20a,is%20used%20for%203D%20printing.
- Siemens Energy: https://www.siemens-energy.com/global/en/home/stories/better-turbines-thanks-to-3d-printing.html
- Materialise: https://www.materialise.com/en/industrial/software/co-am-software-platform