TriMech Blog

Today marks the release of the fifth movie from LAIKA studios “Missing Link.” This movie studio is known for their use of stop-motion animation in major feature films, but most don't know that they use PolyJet 3D printing technology in their production process.

“It’s really kind of an insane process that we’re doing, where we’re taking 3D printing and we’re fusing it with this really old technique of stop-motion and replacement animation and forcing these two technologies and techniques together to come up with some amazing performances and amazing results,” said Brian McLean, Director of Rapid Prototype at LAIKA.

Stratasys' GrabCAD Print is a sophisticated 3D printing app that allows designers and engineers to prepare, schedule and monitor 3D printing jobs. Since its release, GrabCAD has continued to make exciting updates to this software; and we will be updating you every other month on its new features. In this set of release notes, we will be looking at versions 1.26, 1.27, and the just released 1.28.

The ultimate goal of 3D printing prototype models is to create a part as close to the final product or part as possible. Ideally, you would be able to test the part for functionality and/or appearance to determine if your design is the correct one. That said, most of the time designers create their prototypes with overall part dimensions in mind and ignore the final physical surface textures and aesthetics because they are either too difficult to design or dismissed as just a “nice-to-have” but non-essential feature for this early phase of the project cycle. But what if you could include that level of detail?

Now, with the new software tools in SOLIDWORKS 2019 update and Adobe Photoshop CC, along with the new Agilus30 White material on the Stratasys J750, it’s easy to create these textures in full color that mimic what your final production material will be.

Enterprise Data Management solutions are used for keeping your design data files organized and under control. Organizing your data in a vault, or central archive, is ideal for automating workflows, finding files and ensuring manufacturing teams have the latest file versions. If you’re a SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard or SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional user, there are ways to optimize the performance by using the benefits of the SOLIDWORKS Toolbox.

3D printing is currently leading the pack on the prototyping side of things. It’s fast, affordable and extremely easy to design parts. 3D printers use two main technologies, PolyJet and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), each with its own set of considerations. There are several methods for creating plastic parts – at both the prototyping and production level as well as some best design practices for better parts result.

Stratasys announces the newest member to their growing F123 family: the Stratasys F120 bench-top FDM 3D printer. This latest addition makes the industrial 3D printing technologies of the most reliable printer series in the industry even more accessible to designing and engineering teams. The printer will be available at a significantly lower entry cost, all while keeping the build size the same and increasing material volume.

Online customization tools are becoming increasingly popular and they’re used by many companies as a way to cost-effectively offer customized products. This type of buying and quoting process is often referred to as CPQ or Configure, Price and Quote. Traditional CPQ software is designed to help companies produce accurate quotes in real-time which include all the complex pricing and product information. When a sales team uses a CPQ solution, like DriveWorks, they will have everything they need to produce accurate quotes quickly and efficiently. 

SOLIDWORKS 2019 is full of countless enhancements for parts, assemblies and drawings. One of the biggest enhancements to drawings in this release was an improvement to Bills of Materials (BOMs). BOMs have grown to ubiquity over the years as they are used by almost every designer for nearly every single assembly. 

Anticipated since 2017, the Artec Leo is a revolutionary new 3D scanner. There are many improvements over Artec’s previous offerings, but the most obvious is the Leo’s ability to collect data cordlessly. Other 3D scanners need wires to connect to a power supply and a computer. The Leo can operate independently.

3D printing a functional prototype is one of the most critical steps in the development of any product or solution. It allows for testing, hands-on fit and finish testing and the ability to make design iterations on the fly before the final product is made. It allows for problems and defects to be found quickly, saving you both time and money. Plus, prototyping can be done in 5 easy steps.

At its core, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a collection of cloud-based software applications for 3D design, analysis, simulation and communication. It allows team members to be in the same environment looking at the same data and the same files in order to make changes and comments in real time. Just like with a smart phone, there are different applications available for the platform to customize the experience for your specific project needs. And since the platform is cloud-based, all of what we are about to talk about is accessible through a web browser, not a dedicated computer.

SOLIDWORKS 2019 comes with dozens of features that expand on the robust toolset we have been using for decades. We're eager to share with you the newly expanded capabilities of the Offset on Surface tool which now includes Geodesic Entities. Through the offset on the surface command, you can now add an offset that is defined as either a geodesic offset or a Euclidean offset.