The new features also take some of the frustration factor out of 3D printing as well as the intimidation factor for novices, in ensuring them less chance of confusion and failed prints. Users are able to analyze and fix files as needed. They are then processed by Cloud Services as high-quality STL files which can be downloaded from 3D Warehouse.
“Through our combined efforts, Trimble and Materialise aim to make 3D printing technology more accessible to the design community,” said Mike Tadros, SketchUp Web & Mobile product manager at Trimble. “With its deep experience in providing solutions and services to the additive manufacturing sector, Materialise has substantially augmented our efforts to make 3D printing workflows more efficient, and to enable the sharing and exchange of Printable models on 3D Warehouse.”
The entire ecosystem of the 3D Warehouse and SketchUp platform should be greatly improved for the wide variety of designers already enthusiastically downloading and printing files. While 3D Warehouse is one avenue where SketchUp is used, worldwide more than 30 million designers use the software for 3D design.
“For the past 25 years, we have been focused on developing software that empowers useful applications of 3D printing,” said Stefaan Motte, director of the Software for Additive Manufacturing Unit at Materialise. “Through our new Cloud Services, we want to bring part of our industry-leading software to a broader audience, and SketchUp, and 3D Warehouse in particular, are a natural fit for achieving this. By partnering with Trimble, we hope to alleviate the question of ‘will it print’ and help designers, artists, makers and beyond focus on the design and creation of meaningful 3D models.”
The partnership and use of Materialise Cloud Services should bring comprehensive streamlining and improvement to the whole of 3D Warehouse and SketchUp, which is a product from the Trimble Buildings Engineering and Construction division, where they work to create and optimize solutions for the Design-Build-Operate (DBO) life cycle of buildings. 3D Warehouse is an enormous repository for 3D files, beating out even the popular Thingiverse for inventory when it comes to sheer numbers and usage.
Do you see this partnership as something that will help you, if you are a user of 3D Warehouse and SketchUp? Discuss in the 3D Warehouse & Sketchup Now More Streamlined forum thread over at 3DPB.com.