By Tom Charron,
3D Systems Geomagic Solutions
We recently released the 2014 versions of 3D Systems’ professional engineering software products, and they continue to lead the market in 3D scanning, reverse engineering, design and inspection. These products enable engineers, designers, artists, manufacturers, archeologists and more, to simply create accurate and precise 3D data, then manufacture it and measure their products for quality.
3D Systems has brought together the pieces that enable our customers to design in ways never seen before. Think about it: virtually all design software makes you start the design process from scratch. That’s great, but sometimes there are other, better starting points for the design process. For example, what about starting from the physical world? Still in its infancy, the practice commonly known as “reverse engineering” is in fact a viable design workflow for lots of products. That’s why 3D Systems offers the best 3D scan-based design software in the business: Geomagic Design X (the former Rapidform XOR) and Geomagic Design Direct (the former Geomagic Spark).
Another innovative starting point for design is virtual clay. For centuries, sculptors have used real clay to create some of the most beautiful objects ever made by the hand of man. Doesn’t it make sense to adapt this paradigm to the digital design world? Powerful sculpting software creates new opportunities for creativity, especially in this new era of 3D printing, where objects of any complexity can be printed in almost no time. Geomagic Freeform makes virtual sculpting possible.
The release of these new Geomagic Software solutions is an important milestone for several reasons. The most outwardly apparent of these is that this is the first time the products formerly known as Rapidform, Alibre and Sensable are all consistently named Geomagic. This isn’t just a simple rebranding exercise -- the new product names lay the groundwork for the future. It’s a future that has 3D product design at its core, and one that we know will amaze and delight our customers. The word “design” is front-and-center in many of our Geomagic product offerings. It’s the unifying theme for much of what we do, and you can expect to see many more innovative products from us that mash up these workflows and create new opportunities for innovative design. This release is our first as the new Geomagic Solutions group at 3D Systems, and it’s just the beginning. We’ll be posting more specifics about what’s new in the 2014 releases and why they matter to you, so stay tuned!