We’d like to share some news with you in our new youtube video we’ve nicknamed the ‘3D Printing Show’. Anthony Bayerl, Director of Marketing, and Lauren Adey, Additive Manufacturing Specialist bring you the latest news in the 3D printing industry.

There are a lot of exciting things happening including new product announcements, tips and tricks, product updates, discounts, and promotions.

Watch our video to learn about the latest additive manufacturing news.

New 3D printer called the ‘Replicator’ makes 3D print in minutes, with almost no wasted material

Stereolithography (SLA) desktop 3D printers, such as the Form 2 from Formlabs, creates 3D prints with photopolymer resin cured with a UV laser and built layer by layer. Structural lattices are created with extra material to ‘fill in’ necessary skeletal-like structures for support to continue to build the part or prototype.

UC Berkeley researchers discovered a new 3D printing technique that transforms liquid on a rotating cylinder to a solid with carefully projected rays of light – without having to waste any extra material in the 3D printing process.

Hossein Heidari, a graduate student at UC Berkeley and co-first author of the work says, “Our technique generates almost no material waste and the uncured material is 100 percent reusable. This is another advantage that comes with support-free 3D printing.”

The researchers named the 3D printer the “replicator” after the Star Trek device that instantly materializes any object. This new technique creates 3D prints in a matter of minutes compared to other techniques that could take hours.

We can’t wait to see where these UC Berkeley researchers take this new zero-waste 3D printing technique!

Creo 6.0 makes software updates to support new lattice structures, build direction, and topology optimization

With the release of Creo 6.0, PTC has updated the additive manufacturing capabilities to design with lattice structures, build direction definition, and slicing. Designing your CAD models with Creo allows you to design, optimize, validate, and run a print-check all in one environment – which means you can send your file straight to the printer when you’re done with your final design. Metal printing capabilities cover around 70% of the metal printers that are sold in the market.

Creo Parametric includes the 3D printing capabilities to directly connect to your printer. These capabilities are included in Creo 5.0 and Creo 6.0.

The Creo Additive Manufacturing Extension includes design abilities such as lattice modeling, advanced beams lattices, custom-defined cells, and defining print build direction. These capabilities are included in the Creo Design Advanced Plus package or you can purchase the extension separately.

The Creo Additive Manufacturing Plus Extension for Materialise includes capabilities to directly connect to metal printers, customize metal support structures, and optimize build direction. These capabilities are included in the Creo Design Premium Plus package or you can purchase the extension separately.

The Creo Topology Optimization Extension includes capabilities to use topology optimization in parts and assemblies and enables geometry reconstruction function. These capabilities are included in the Creo Design Premium Plus package or you can purchase the extension separately.

How to wash your parts & prototypes with the Form Wash

We’ve discussed ways that you can better use the products you already own – this time, we’ve got a tip coming from one of our customers – Jeff Martin, an Application Engineer from Colder Products (CPC) on how to clean your parts and prototypes with the Form Wash. Check it out in our blog here.

New Formlabs 3D Printers: Form 3 and Form 3L

Formlabs has released the Form 3 and the Form 3L! The Form 2 uses the stereolithography (SLA) process whereas the Form 3 and Form 3L uses a process called low force stereolithography (LFS) – meaning that the printers literally use lower forces to create easier support removal and more precise detail and surface finish. Read our blog Formlabs Releases New 3D Printers using LFS Technology to learn more about SLA and LFS technology.

Form 2 Discounts!

The Form 2 desktop SLA 3D printer has dramatically decreased in price (from its previous price of $3499) to $2850. We ARE still selling the Form 2 and will support those that want to purchase an already affordable 3D printer at a more affordable price.

Contact Lauren Adey, our Additive Manufacturing Specialist, to take advantage of these special deals!

PTC is changing the way Creo Design software is being sold. As of January 1st, 2018 new 3D modeling software licenses for PTC’s core solutions are only available by subscription in North America.

This makes it easier for users to utilize new functionality and keep up with the latest release of PTC Creo Parametric CAD software. It also gives organizations the flexibility to choose a 3D CAD package according to specific needs at a given time, and ensures access to the latest capabilities and premium support.

Changes in PTC Creo CAD Packaging

PTC has retired and consolidated the following CAD packages into one of 4 new tiered PTC Creo Parametric Design packages: Essentials, Essentials Plus, Essentials Premium, Engineer 1, Essentials Team, Engineer 2, Engineer 3, and Engineer 4.

You can see from the table below that Creo Design Essentials (T1) replaces Essentials, Essentials Plus, Essentials Premium, and Engineer 1; Creo Design Advanced (T2) replaces Essentials Team and Engineer 2; Creo Design Advanced Plus (T3) replaces Engineer 3; Creo Design Premium (T4) replaces Engineer 4; and Creo Design Premium Plus (T5) is an entirely new package that becomes the fifth tier for the new Creo packaging.

New PTC Creo Design Packages

With Creo Parametric and its extensions you can create, analyze, view, and share designs using 2D CAD, 3D CAD, parametric design and direct modeling capabilities along with additive manufacturing, model-based definition (MBD), and smart connected design. Every package includes the industry’s most comprehensive set of 3D CAD tools to allows you to design with maximum potential.

Every package comes with the Core Capabilities and the power to publish, share, and create augmented reality experiences right inside of your 3D CAD models. This allows you to add value to your customer experience because they can now visualize your design with AR.

Here’s a breakdown of what is included in each package:

Creo Design Essentials

Download the Creo Design Essentials brochure here.

Creo Design Advanced

**includes everything in Design Essentials and also includes:

Download the Creo Design Advanced brochure here.

Creo Design Advanced Plus

**includes everything in Design Advanced and also includes:

Download the Creo Design Advanced Plus brochure here.

**includes everything from Advanced Plus and also includes:

Download the Creo Design Premium brochure here.

Creo Design Premium Plus

**includes everything from Design Premium and also includes:

Download the Creo Design Premium Plus brochure here.

For more details on the extensions in each of the new packages, watch our webinar replay, “New PTC Creo Design Packages Overview.”

FAQ on New Packaging

Q: What is the price for existing customers upgrading to the new packages?
A: If you already have a subscription license, then you may upgrade to the new packaging through a contract amendment. If you are still on a perpetual license, then you may convert and upgrade at the same time and pay the subscription conversion price.

Q: Do the new packages contain PTC Windchill?
A: Creo Design Advanced (Tier 2) contains Windchill PDM essentials. Design Advanced Plus, Design Premium, and Design Premium Plus is bundled with Navigate Author, MCAD Data Management I, BOM Management, and Project Management at no increased cost. These three packages will also be available without PDM.

Q: Can I still buy Creo extensions that are now bundled in the new packages?
A: Yes, all extensions will still be available to be purchased separately. If you are subscribing to a new package that does not contain an extension that you need, that extension will be available separately.

Q: Are trials for the Creo software available online?
A: Yes, you can download a free 30-day trial here

Q: How would upgrades work if I already have subscription license?  Do I pay the difference on the remaining contract?
A: Subscription upgrades are handled through a contract amendment. You would pay the difference between your current package and the upgraded package.

If you have more questions or would like to talk to us about the new Packages and Pricing, then contact us and we’ll give you more information.

Looking to make some major advances in innovation and digital transformation at your company? Check out how PTC Creo is the leading 3D CAD software in the industry.

I’ll start off explaining to you what exactly PTC Creo Parametric is and what it does for your design process.

What is PTC Creo Parametric?

PTC developed a premium parametric and direct computer-aided design (CAD) modeling software called Pro/ENGINEER. Pro/E was rebranded into PTC Creo Parametric and is now the leading product design software in the product development industry. Over 12,000 manufacturing companies worldwide use PTC Creo (Pro/E) software.

PTC Creo software gives you the ability to work with and edit data from almost any CAD source without recreating designs due to incompatible data. Creo provides a robust and scalable 3D CAD product design toolset for all different skill-levels of engineers and designers. With Creo CAD software you can quickly create 3D models of any part or assembly and improve existing designs with comprehensive surfacing capabilities.

PTC Creo Parametric provides 3D capabilities such as:

How to Download PTC Creo

“I’m already using another CAD software. How do I know PTC Creo is right for me?” Chances are you like to ride the bike before you buy it, right? That’s why PTC allows you to try it out before you decide to purchase. Download a free 30-day trial of PTC Creo here.

PTC Creo Parametric Software is constantly improving

Every version of Creo is better than the last! For instance, when Creo 4.0 was released it included capabilities for additive manufacturing, model-based definition (MBD), and smart connected design that allows engineers to leverage 3D modeling to define individual components and product assemblies. With Creo 5.0 building on the previous release, it contains all of Creo 4.0’s functionality and more!

The Intelligent Mini Toolbar: the mini-toolbar gives you access to relevant options while staying focused on the graphics area.

Customizable Menus: you can now tailor the tool for optimal productivity to customize your own workflow.

Flexible Modeling for Sheet Metal: you can now edit sheet metal bends, bend reliefs, corner reliefs, corner seams, and forms – simplifying designs for faster analysis.

Enhancements to Geometry Manipulation: accessibility to side 2 directly from graphics window when you right-click on a feature without navigating to the dashboard each time; the extrude and revolve tools allow you to specify negative direction values to invert materials for offset geometry; extrude is added to offset to eliminate the step of creating intermediate construction features.

PTC Creo 5.0 includes Topology Optimization, Additive/Subtractive Manufacturing for metal 3D printing, Mold Machining, Flow Analysis, Multi-CAD Collaboration, and improved enhancements with geometry sketch regions, subdivisional modeling, surfacing, sheet metal tools, and volume helical sweeps.

Read more about the newest release in our blog called, “What’s New in Creo 5.0?” or download the data sheet here.

Creo Software – Technology of the Future

When you purchase PTC Creo Software, you have the power to publish, share, and create augmented reality experiences right inside of your 3D CAD models. This allows you to add value to your customer experience because they can now visualize your design with AR.

With Creo Parametric, you also have the power of simulating digital twins within your CAD models to collect real-time data from sensors on a physical product. You can reduce downtime while using this data to find performance issues and schedule predictive maintenance.

As the physical and digital worlds converge, digital transformation starting with the right CAD software is more relevant than ever. PTC Creo software eliminates barriers to innovation and is a solution for product development challenges.

Download a free 30-day trial of PTC Creo to see for yourself how the right CAD software gives you the tools you need to design above and beyond anything you’ve ever imagined.