Additive manufacturing has reached an inflection level. {Hardware} capabilities proceed to advance, supplies portfolios are increasing quickly, and automation is reshaping submit‑processing and manufacturing workflows.
But many additive packages nonetheless battle to scale. The constraint is usually not the printer, however the software program infrastructure used to design, handle, and iterate on elements.
Built-in simulation visualizes stress and deformation immediately on the CAD mannequin to validate designs earlier than manufacturing. Picture courtesy of Onshape.
Most CAD and PDM methods in use immediately have been designed for subtractive manufacturing and sequential growth processes. Additive manufacturing calls for one thing totally different. To completely understand its potential at scale, the business wants a brand new era of design and information platforms constructed round additive‑first rules.
- Modeling that matches additive actuality
Previous-generation CAD methods battle to characterize the geometries which are frequent in additive manufacturing: mesh fashions, lattice constructions, graded supplies, and topology‑optimized generative and implicit geometry fashions. Mesh‑solely workflows resolve some issues, however typically break associativity, making late‑stage design adjustments dangerous and time‑consuming.
New-generation cloud-native CAD affords hybrid modeling approaches that powerfully let customers mix analytic geometry with mesh, implicit, and volumetric representations in a single, coherent atmosphere. For instance, a mesh half could be introduced right into a CAD system, after which the person can add exact geometric options utilizing regular CAD instructions, with the ensuing single half having some mesh faces and a few exact faces. This makes the iterative design of additive elements a lot sooner and smoother.
Particular person elements are edited in context inside the full satellite tv for pc monitoring meeting, preserving design intent throughout subsystems. Picture courtesy of Onshape.
- Associative, API‑related workflows
Additive manufacturing workflows are inherently multi‑instrument and multi‑disciplinary, spanning design, simulation, construct preparation, and submit‑processing. Too typically, these steps are related by brittle file handoffs fairly than reside, associative hyperlinks.
Trendy CAD and PDM platforms should act as integration hubs, exposing sturdy APIs that permit exterior instruments, whether or not for simulation, optimization, or manufacturing automation, to stay related to the authoritative design information. When geometry adjustments, every part downstream ought to replace mechanically, preserving traceability and lowering guide rework.
- AI‑assisted physics perception and meshless simulation, earlier
As additive geometries grow to be extra complicated, understanding manufacturability and efficiency earlier within the design course of is essential. Meshless simulation instruments and AI‑pushed physics instruments can assist bridge this hole by offering actual‑time suggestions on printability, distortion danger, or structural conduct, with out forcing engineers to grow to be simulation specialists or attempt to create meshes on tough mesh, lattice, or implicit geometries.
The aim isn’t to switch excessive‑constancy conventional evaluation instruments. It’s to embed light-weight, context‑conscious steerage immediately into the additive design workflow, so higher selections occur sooner, and fewer points are found downstream.
Granular entry controls in Onshape permit distributed groups to collaborate securely on delicate designs with out counting on file-based workflows. Picture courtesy of Onshape.
- Branching, merging, and actual‑time collaboration
Additive packages typically contain fast iteration, parallel experimentation, and geographically distributed groups. And with new advances in printing pace, iteration cycles can occur as quick as a number of occasions per day. But many engineering instruments nonetheless depend on linear versioning fashions that make the sort of fast exploration troublesome.
Trendy cloud-native CAD and PDM platforms assist branching and merging workflows, a protracted customary in software program growth, so groups can discover options, examine outcomes, and converge with confidence. Mixed with actual‑time collaboration, this allows sooner studying cycles and higher outcomes with out sacrificing management or traceability.
- Knowledge administration inbuilt, not bolted on
Lastly, additive manufacturing amplifies the necessity for sturdy information administration. Construct parameters, materials states, revisions, and certifications should stay related to the design all through its lifecycle.
PDM can’t be a separate system launched after the design is full. In additive workflows, information administration have to be native to the design atmosphere, offering steady model management, traceability, and safe collaboration from idea via manufacturing.
A lattice-filled reflector is designed in a separate department to optimize energy, weight, and manufacturability for additive strategies earlier than being merged again into the principle design. Picture courtesy of Onshape.
Wanting forward
Additive manufacturing has already remodeled what engineers can create. The following part of development is determined by remodeling the software program toolchain to enhance how these creations are designed, managed, and advanced. Because the business continues to enhance automation and supplies, modernizing the software program basis might be important to scaling additive manufacturing with confidence.
This matter might be explored additional at Additive Manufacturing Methods (AMS) 2026 through the panel “Advances and Tendencies in Software program & Automation for Additive Manufacturing.” The occasion will happen in New York Metropolis from February 24-26 and can convey collectively leaders from throughout the additive manufacturing business. Be taught extra and register at AMS 2026.
Concerning the Writer:
Jon Hirschtick is a pioneering know-how entrepreneur, a mechanical engineer from MIT, and a software program innovator greatest recognized for remodeling how engineers and designers create merchandise. He based SolidWorks in 1993 with the imaginative and prescient of bringing highly effective, user-friendly 3D CAD (computer-aided design) software program to private computer systems, democratizing instruments that have been beforehand restricted to costly workstations. Beneath his management, SolidWorks grew right into a market-leading platform utilized by hundreds of thousands of pros worldwide and was acquired by Dassault Systèmes in 1997.
Then Hirschtick went on to co-found Onshape in 2012, a next-generation cloud-native CAD and product growth system that PTC acquired in 2019. As we speak, Hirschtick serves as Govt Vice President and Chief Evangelist at PTC, the place he leads technique and development for Onshape and different SaaS-based engineering applied sciences.
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