Watch this video to learn how modifier meshes can be used to add stiffness and strength only in regions where it is beneficial to the part performance. Rather than increasing the infill density and wall count for the entire part to meet the performance requirements, SmartSlice™ uses modifier meshes to add material only where it is needed. SmartSlice™ helps make smart decisions by determining print parameters, optimizing them for performance demands and manufacturing efficiency to reduce print time and material. To learn more about how utilizing modifier meshes with SmartSlice™ can improve ..read more

Today’s blog post is an example of how SmartSlice™ is being used for virtual prototyping of 3D printed parts. Before continuing, it is important to define what virtual prototyping is. Straight from Wikipedia, virtual prototyping “involves using computer-aided design (CAD)” and “computer-aided engineering (CAE) software to validate a design before committing to making a physical prototype ..read more

A question that comes up often during conversations with our customers and partners relates to CAD simulation. In particular, the question is, “How does CAD simulation compare to SmartSlice™ for FFF parts?”. In this post, we will define what CAD simulation is, detail what needs to be accounted for when simulating FFF parts, and see how CAD simulation stacks up to SmartSlice ..read more

Any time you print an FFF part, you have to decide what print settings to use. You may find yourself asking questions like: "How thick should the shell be?", "What infill density and infill pattern are appropriate?", and "What material should I use?" The settings you end up selecting have a significant effect on the performance of your part and can make it weaker or stronger and softer or stiffer ..read more

Picking up where we left off In this second installment we are going to investigate the cost to manufacture a clamping fixture with traditional machining, and then compare that cost to additive manufacturing with the use of SmartSlice™. In the first blog post, the importance of jigs and fixtures in the industry was investigated, and a demonstration of how SmartSlice™ improves these parts was explored. There is a shift in the way fixtures are being manufactured, and additive manufacturing is becoming a cost-saving tool to produce these parts. The use of ..read more

What are Jigs and Fixtures? With the increasing acceptance and use of 3D printing in many industries the use of 3D printing to make one-off small production number parts has grown. Many of these one-off parts are jigs and fixtures that aid in the production of other parts. They often improve the efficiency of assembly lines by performing unique and specialized tasks. These manufacturing aids vary dramatically in their complexity and use. A fixture can be as simple as a small tool to assist an assembly line worker place badges on cars, or as complicated as a robotic fixture with inte ..read more

Most of us involved in FFF are very familiar with the process of using a slicing program such as Cura to prepare an STL file to be printed. This process involves selecting a print profile and, optionally, adjusting a variety of parameters like the wall thickness, infill density, and layer height, to name a few. By default, these print settings in Cura are applied to all regions of the STL. In other words, the print settings at the bottom of a part are the same as the print settings at, say, the upper corner of the part ..read more

Talking Additive is the 3D printing podcast exploring the impact of additive manufacturing. In Episode 22, entitled “Optimizing Ultimaker Cura Slicing for Function", host Matt Griffin speaks with Teton Simulation's VP of Product, Doug Kenik. Listen as they discuss Teton Simulation's development of software technology that enables automatic validation and optimization of 3D print parameters in Ultimaker Cura to ensure performance and manufacturing requirements are met. This proprietary technology, known as SmartSlice™, is fast, simple, and physics-based. Teton Simulation aims to replace the ..read more

Welcome to 2021! I am pleased to announce the release of the next version of SmartSlice™! Version 20.2 delivers a lot of capability to our users, and we’re proud of our accomplishments. Yes – we know the release is named in the year 20, not 21. We started developing the functionality in 2020, and we planned to release the technology in 2020, but we just didn’t feel the experience met your expectations, so we iterated until it felt right. I hope you are as happy with it as we are!  ..read more

Our partners BASF Forward AM recently released a case study featuring their high-performance FFF filament Ultrafuse® PAHT CF15 and our own SmartSlice™ for Ultimaker Cura. The study demonstrates how SmartSlice™ was used to evaluate and optimize the structural performance of a brake lever. BASF found that, compared to a solid part (a part 3D printed at 100% infill density), the print time and part mass could be reduced by over 30% using SmartSlice™ while still meeting the stiffness and strength requirements ..read more