In our latest release, learn how changing a part's orientation can profoundly impact manufacturability, cost, and material usage.
Although advanced manufacturing technologies, such as 3D printing, are becoming more common, they are still complex and require sophisticated knowledge and capable people to realize the highest-quality products. We strive to simplify these processes in collaboration with our customers, industry leaders, and research partners. Our outlook is that software can handle the complexity—not the user.
One example is our part orientation feature, which allows expert and non-expert users to see the best orientation for a part in a build chamber. This functionality helps users identify potential issues in part designs earlier and reduce part costs in production.
Read more to see how it works.
We’ve Added Orientation Capabilities to Part Identification
With our newest 3YOURMIND version, 24.10, our users can consider the best orientation during the part identification process. This feature helps improve the manufacturability of parts, significantly increase the quality, and lower the cost per part, especially for metal powder bed (PBF/DML) and stereolithography (SLA) applications. Combined, this capability helps organizations increase the business case for on-demand manufacturing.
See how manufacturability checks change as you adjust a part's orientation.
We provide users with three orientation algorithms fully connected to our manufacturability assessment functionality (first released in September) and cost and lead-time algorithms.
Minimal Z height orients parts to minimize the printing layers, which reduces production time and costs.
Minimal support volume orients parts using the least possible support, reducing production time, post-processing time, material waste, and costs.
Minimal support area orients parts considering the least possible surface area of the part, which increases the quality and reduces time and costs.
Key Benefits:
- Minimize costs and increase quality, especially for metal powder bed applications.
- Intuitive, interactive tool for expert and non-expert users with live feedback.
- Algorithms built on established DfAM guidelines approved for production.
All Improvements at a Glance
- Part orientation optimization: Find the best part orientation, ensuring manufacturability and minimizing part costs.
- Internal comments on Draft Quotes: Keeps internal comments on draft quotes before sharing them with customers.
- Faster CSV exports: Up to 10 times faster order download, quotes, and production jobs from 3YOURMIND software to make reporting easier.
For more details, see our Release Notes.
This release is being rolled out to our SaaS customers. If you are still waiting to see updates, they should be available within the next few days.
For further information or feedback, please contact our technical support helpdesk or contact us via e-mail.
Best regards,
Stephan Galozy
Chief Product Officer