As designing for additive manufacturing continues to gather pace, 3D Systems has moved its 3DXpert software closer to the designer with a streamlined plug-in for Solidworks.
3DXpert for Solidworks has been designed with metals 3D printing at its core, and the new plug-in allows for better back-and-forth between the design and preparation stages of a part in the lead-up to printing it using the native CAD – making changes and editing the part much more simple.
Speaking with 3D Systems product manager Maoz Barkai, he pointed out the importance of having the tools to give the designer more control over the end printing process – and aspects such as the build orientation when looking to use lattices or maintain surface quality – then when combined with a rich library of predefined lattice structures, the designs could be improved even further.
“3DXpert for Solidworks is more dedicated to the design side… companies that may need the ability to add lightweighting for lattice or textures,” he said.
A new power-supports capability fully automates support generation for multiple geometries with the click of a button. In addition, enhanced build simulation capabilities provide designers with clear and immediate feedback on their design decisions, helping maintain surface quality.
A lot of emphasis seems to have gone into the ‘bi-directional data transfer’ – making sure that checks can be made, and compromises reached between designer and 3D print specialist, with 3DXpert for Solidworks – reducing time and effort while preserving data integrity.
“Software is the foundation of transformative digital manufacturing solutions,” said Radhika Krishnan, executive VP software, healthcare, & digitization, 3D Systems.
“Looking at our expertise and combining that with our end-to-end software portfolio solutions and the specific needs of SOLIDWORKS designers, we realized that we could help Solidworks users streamline their digital manufacturing workflows and gain competitive advantage in several ways such as adding design for additive manufacturing capabilities to their toolset with 3DXpert for Solidworks.”
General availability is planned for March 2020.
