Ultimaker Helps Master New Desktop Roles for 3D Printing at SOLIDWORKS World
Over the past thirty years, Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology has become a familiar route for validating CAD before committing to costly manufacturing tooling and processes. It may come as a surprise to some just how broadly the range of roles AM technology now plays in mechanical design and manufacturing, thanks to the swiftly changing professional desktop 3D printer ecosystem.
In addition to traditional rapid prototyping, this technology now offers teams better tools for shaping initial concepts, testing technical solutions, accelerating design communication internally, and facilitating productive conversations about projects with non-technical clients.
Join professional desktop 3D printer manufacturer Ultimaker at SOLIDWORKS World 2018 this year, where its team will offer attendees a number of opportunities to explore the evolution of this technology, to help them consider the most production opportunities for professional desktop 3D printing to make a difference within their businesses.
One of the best chances to catch a glimpse of the state of the art of professional desktop 3D printing is within the final session of the additive manufacturing symposium, Rise of Digital Manufacturing in 3D Printing and New Roles for Professional Desktop 3D Printing within Manufacturing, on Monday, February 5, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM.
Ultimaker North America President, John Kawola, will takes a look back on 2017 and on the year ahead for professional 3D printing — and how SOLIDWORKS users of all backgrounds can use these new strategies within their own processes.
His session will discuss how, thanks to a combination of higher quality and reliability with low-cost and direct access, new opportunities exist for professional desktop 3D printers that have the potential to change how mechanical design and manufacturing are accomplished in the future. He will share customer case studies that highlight how these tools excel for a number of roles within manufacturing and assembly, from daily use jigs and fixtures, to ad-hoc parts replacement, to bridge manufacturing, to workforce training resources.
Visit Ultimaker at SOLIDWORKS World Partner Pavilion
Ultimaker booth #729 within the Partner Pavilion itself offers a number of additional resources for the benefit of attendees, including real-world printed parts from a variety of projects within the professional community. Featured will be demonstrations how PVA (water-soluble) and BAS (breakaway) support materials used by the Ultimaker 3 and Ultimaker 3 Extended dual material printers can save your team time and money, eliminating challenging design for desktop 3D printing requirements when aiming to fabricate a physical part.
The Ultimaker team will also be on hand to introduce two new tools within Ultimaker Cura that integrate desktop 3D printing directly into the SOLIDWORKS ecosystem, making it even easier for you to deliver your designs to your 3D printer, without creating an export file.
SOLIDWORKS users are important to the Ultimaker team, not the least of which because Ultimaker uses SOLIDWORKS to design its 3D printers. So its team appreciates how helpful time-saving tweaks can be! When they rolled out a major 3.0 update to the Ultimaker Cura platform, it bundled in plugins for SOLIDWORKS users to allow them to cut out the export file stage entirely, and open designs right in the 3D printing setup tool needed to prep print jobs.
Ultimaker Cura 3.1 now offers two-levels of SOLIDWORKS integration right into Cura. After SOLIDWORKS users download and install Cura 3.1, the plugin browser offers an optional one-click install for a tool to allow them to open SOLIDWORKS 2016 and later parts and assembly files right within Ultimaker Cura itself. But that isn’t all. Detailed on-screen instructions in Cura also walk intermediate users through the process to setup a “Send to Cura” custom macro within SOLIDWORKS itself, for even faster part-to-print workflows.
Pick up your SW 2018 + Ultimaker Cura Cheat Sheet in the Partner Pavilion!
Looking to add professional desktop 3D printing to your workflow? Ultimaker has created a handy SOLIDWORKS 2018 and Ultimaker Cura 3.1 commands and pro-tips cheat sheet, collected from CAD experts in their professional community. Stop by booth 729 in the Partner Pavilion to pick up your free copy!
