3D Printing Software Update: netfabb Professional 6 Released

3D design software maker netfabb GmbH says they’re ready to present the new latest release of the company’s expert-level 3D printing software netfabb Professional 6.

They say this revised and extended version is meant to simplify the tasks for service bureaus and designers of complex and individualized parts to help shorten production cycles for additively manufactured objects.

The company behind netfabb, FIT AG, has provided rapid prototyping services, additive design and manufacturing and 3D printing software since 1995. Through subsidiaries FIT Prototyping, FIT Production, and netfabb, the company generated some $18.6 million in revenue for 2014, and netfabb sales alone were responsible for $4.2 million of that total. The various FIT groups employ approximately 190 people and operate a US subsidiary, FIT West Corp., out of Santa Clara, CA.

In recent news, netfabb is currently involved in the creation of the new 3MF 3D printing file standard and the 3MF Consortium.

The major players in the 3MF Consortium–Microsoft, HP, Autodesk, and Dassault Systèmes–join netfabb in the development of this file format for industrial 3D print data, and netfabb says the latest version of their flagship software, netfabb Professional 6, has already implemented the format.

Alexander Oster, the CEO of netfabb, says a new Nesting Module is integrated in Professional which automatically arranges a maximum number of printable parts on a build platform.

“A powerful packing tool is able to lower production costs, to fully exploit production capacities, and to shorten time to market,” Oster says. “Serious volume manufacturing without a reliable packing feature is just unthinkable.”

In addition to Nesting, Professional now includes Automatic Mass Labeling, which adds unique identification codes to otherwise identical parts.

“Applying one single label manually to a part takes an average minute, whereas netfabb can do this independent of any lot size in two minutes’ time,” Oster says. “Only recently, netfabb software was used to place 32,900 components for manufacture into one single additive manufacturing machine–considering record results like this you’ll quickly get an idea of the cost saving potential of netfabb software especially for industrial production.”

Professional Version 6 also includes features such as the ability to hide selected triangles to view underlying elements, Texture Imposing which allows sophisticated reliefs to be added to part surfaces, and customizable .pdf format reports which can be adjusted quickly to provide tailored quoting and quality assurance documents.

Do you use netfabb for your 3D printing and manufacturing tasks? Have you had a chance to review this latest version of the software? Let us know in the netfabb Release Professional 6 forum thread on 3DPB.com. Below is a video outlining the new features.