3DPOD Episode 46: Engineering CAD with nTopology CEO Brad Rothenberg

Formnext

Share this Article

Max and I had a really great time talking to nTopology CEO Brad Rothenberg. Brad started nTopology as a series of tools for creating lattices, but it became much more than that with a new way of modeling and simulating using signed distance functions to form an equation describing a shape. Also called volumetric modeling or implicit modeling, this technique makes shapes easy to describe and modify.

This compares to the  the cumbersome way through which STLs describe all the winding triangles in large files that take ages to render or modify. This is a new path to making and describing geometry. By not having to update or keep track of all faces and normals and indeed the mesh, as you would with NURBS and other ways to generate and manipulate geometries in CAD, nTopology is meant to be faster. Especially for large files, complex files and complex parts, the company’s nTop software should be able to generate manifold geometries and modify them through a series of parameters quickly.

But, will the team be able to find a place next to Autodesk, Dassault and ANSYS? Will it be able to compete, or play nice with the triangle giants? We talk about this and a lot more with Brad in an enlightening conversation.



Share this Article


Recent News

3D Printed Aorta Model Helps Surgeons Remove “Ticking Time Bomb” Artery

Novenda Secures $6.1 Million in Series A Funding for Dental 3D Printing



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

The Market and Industry Potential of Multi-Material 3D and 4D Printing in Additive Electronics

Additive manufacturing leverages computer-based software to create components for products by depositing either dielectric or conductive materials, layer by layer, into different geometric shapes. Since its birth in the 1980s,...

3DPOD 262: Bio-inspired Design for AM with Dhruv Bhate, Arizona State University

Dhruv Bhate is an associate professor at Arizona State University. There, he looks at structures, materials, and design. Previously, he worked at PADT as well as in the semiconductor and...

3DPOD 261: Tooling and Cooling for AM with Jason Murphy, NXC MFG

Jason Murphy´s NXC MFG (Next Chapter Manufacturing) is not a generalist service; instead, the company specializes in making tooling. Using LPBF and binder jet, the company produces some of the...

3DPOD 260: John Hart on VulcanForms, MIT, Desktop Metal and More

John Hart is a Professor at MIT; he´s also the director of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity as well as the director of the Center for Advanced Production Technologies....