The additive manufacturing design software market will have to consolidate, according to Markforged's Director of Software Product Management Doug Kenik.
Speaking on the latest Additive Insight Innovators on Innovators podcast with former Ultimaker SVP Product Manager Paul Heiden, Kenik suggests that the industry cannot expect additive manufacturing users to continue to switch between software platforms for every printer they use.
Having previously worked at Firehole Composites and Teton Simulation, who were acquired by Autodesk and Markforged respectively, Kenik is no stranger to market consolidation. During the podcast, he is asked by Heiden whether additive manufacturing-specific softwares were being integrated into bigger design software platforms.
Noting that other types of manufacturing processes are ‘gravitating towards’ CAD software, and Siemens, Autodesk and SOLIDWORKS all have design for additive manufacturing capabilities or integrations, Kenik says to expect a 'little bit' of consolidation moving forward.
“I think it’s inevitable,” Kenik suggests. “What we need to figure out though is every OEM has their own software and is there a winner? Because a CAD platform can’t put all those softwares in there. It just doesn’t make sense. So, is there going to be somebody that rises to the top from a software standpoint? I’m super interested in this space. It has to consolidate a little bit because I don’t think that we can expect a user to switch softwares for every single printer long term.”
It comes in the wider context of a discussion around Design for Additive Manufacturing, a term which Kenik isn’t fond of. He suggests Design for Manufacturing and Modified for Additive Manufacturing principles ‘would be more in tune with where the industry is right now,’ and would allow the designer or engineer to ‘choose which direction you want to go’ when it comes to manufacturing the component based on ‘what I need, where I need it and when I need it.’
In turn, Heiden suggests for this vision to be realised, that additive manufacturing design capabilities ‘will almost have to disappear into the CAD software.’
“I think so,” Kenik says. “Let’s just look at the way it is today: you’re designing in CAD, a lot of people export a CAD file or an STL – usually it’s an STL. An STL is just a piece of dumb geometry, you’re sending it to somebody else who’s going to import it to an additive manufacturing platform and say ‘I need to do X, Y and Z to this part to make it ready for additive.’ Sometimes they have to go back to the CAD person and say ‘make the change’, other times they can do it in the software, but there’s this disconnect between the two pieces of software and how do you rectify [it]? The only way is to have it living in a single source of truth.”
Get your FREE print subscription to TCT Magazine.
Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
Kenik and Heiden also discuss production data, reducing product iterations, and the impact the next generation of engineers will have on additive manufacturing throughout their Innovators on Innovators conversation.
More ways to listen:
