Materialise Releases 3-matic STL Version 9.0

When it comes to professional use additive manufacturing software, the Belgium based company, Materialise certainly has been taking things up a notch. As the uses of 3D printing within a manufacturing or design environment continue to expand, the software too, has to progress. Without an up-to-date software to manage all the design changes a business may require, the progression within the actual printing technology would be close to worthless.

This week, Materialise announced the launch of the 3-matic STL Version 9.0 software. For those who are not familiar with the 3-matic STL software, it provides users with the option to make major design modifications directly on STL, CAD, and scanned data. From texturing, to forward engineering, to complex modifications of designs, 3-matic STL is the software which many large companies have relied on for years.

This latest update has been implemented via version 9.0, after the company took feedback from their users on what they thought may have been missing from the software thus far. According to Materialise, the main priorities for their users were to focus on rendering, robustness, usability and new design functionalities. Some of the more important changes to this software include:

Point-based patterning :
This feature will allow you to copy an object multiple times by simply selecting points within another object where those copies shall be placed.

Automatic rib pattern:
This new feature creates a clean rib structure that conforms to the 3D model. The ribbed structure can be manipulated by the user, and will follow the curvature of whatever model it is added to, for additional support.

Ability to render with a ruler:
This allows for faster manipulation and visualization of models, and also improves upon transparency rendering, as well as enhanced details.

Conformal structures:
Users are able to create conformal structures which follow the basic pattern of the surface of a particular 3D model.

2D UV page for easy positioning of the 2D texture:
Allows users to easily and intuitively manipulate and place a 2D texture on a 3D object.

Randomized porous structures:
This will allow the user to create porous structures within an object in a random pattern, allowing the user to select the amount of porosity, as well as the randomness, and reproducibility of structure.

Slice-based texturing:
Allows for the exporting of a 2D texture to the Magics Build Processor, allowing for a 2D texture to become a 3D texture. It will also eliminate data size problems, as it skips the STL conversion of the 2D texture.

There are also a number of additional smaller updates to this software. More details can be found at the official 3-matic STL page at Materialise.com. Let’s hear your thoughts on this update in the 3-matic STL 9.0 forum thread on 3DPB.com.