Andrew Sink Latest Blog Articles Page 1

When you first put an STL file next to an SLDPRT file in GrabCAD Print, you might have noticed it can be difficult to tell them apart. However, looks can be deceiving, and the native SOLIDWORKS SLDPRT file format packs a surprising amount of functionality into a 3D model. In this blog post, we are going to dive into the three primary reasons you should be using SLDPRT files instead of STL for 3D printing.

One of the most exciting aspects of 3D printing in full color is the ability to take a 3D scan and a copy of the model in full color! Using the Artec Space Spider 3D scanner and the Stratasys J55 full color PolyJet 3D printer, this task can be accomplished easily in under a day. This efficiency empowers you and your team to make prototypes and replicas of just about anything quicker than ever before, and faster than many people realize. In this blog post, I will be summarizing the work we did to clone a regular household banana, from a 3D scan to a full color 3D print. 

GrabCAD Print is a very powerful program for converting a CAD model into a toolpath for 3D printing, and it has some features that can help you get the most out of your Stratasys FDM 3D printer. One of these is the SMART Support feature, which allows you to create a custom support structure that uses less material and takes less time than a traditional support structure.

During the product development lifecycle, an industrial designer will create multiple versions of a product in various finishes, textures and colors. Using the new .3MF file format, we can apply a texture in a CAD program, such as SOLIDWORKS, and save the file in a format that retains that texture and can be used for 3D printing.

When creating multiple iterations of a part, it can be helpful to apply a label for identification purposes. Using SOLIDWORKS, we can apply a label to our part with color and finish, then transfer those settings directly to our printer software for 3D printing on our Stratasys PolyJet machine.

When printing a transparent material using a Stratasys PolyJet 3D printer, any surface where support material touches the model will result in a matte surface that doesn’t transmit light which can stand in contrast with any glossy surfaces. The part can be post-processed to achieve a higher level of light transmission with an even and glossy surface. In this article, we look at a quick and relatively low-effort method for giving a part an even, smooth and transparent finish.

Have you ever needed to make a modification to an STL file but didn’t have the ability to directly edit the mesh? Using SOLIDWORKS 2020, you can now directly add or remove features just as you would on a solid body model. In this article, we go over how to remove the slot feature from a bracket model and re-export the file as a mesh STL.

When it comes to selecting a high-strength material, Stratasys offers many different materials to choose from depending on your specific requirements. One of the strongest available materials is ULTEM 1010, a high-performance industrial-grade thermoplastic noted for its high strength, stiffness, and broad chemical resistance. With the recent addition of the Antero 800NA material, you may be wondering which material is right for your specific application. In this post we’re going to discuss some of the key differences between ULTEM 1010 and Antero 800NA and take a closer look at this new material.