The 3MF Consortium announced they’ve added a new Steering Member: Altair.
The consortium is a non-profit industry organization that promotes the use of 3MF file format standards among companies. 3MF is a vastly superior format than the aging STL standard, but it has not quite yet taken over general use by the industry.
The 3MF Consortium offers two levels of membership: Steering and Associate.
The Steering Members secure a position of importance and engage thoroughly in 3MF, whereas the associate members receive the advantage of early specification alterations and other privileges. The current number of associate members exceeds twenty and includes names like Mimaki, Oqton, Authentic, XYZ Printing, Hypersonic, Additive Industries among several others.
The following is a significant list consisting of the high-profile members of the 3D printing industry:
- Microsoft
- HP
- Materialise
- Autodesk
- Hexagon
- EOS
- 3D Systems
- Dassault Systèmes
- nTopology
- PTC
- Siemens
- Nikon SLM Solutions
- Stratasys
- UltiMaker
- Viacaccess.orca
And the latest addition to the list, Altair.
The consortium shared a statement regarding the involvement of this company:
“Considering the continuously changing face of additive manufacturing and data-driven design, the 3MF Consortium is excited to receive Altair as its latest Steering Member. Known for being at the forefront of innovative engineering solutions, especially in simulation-driven design and topology optimization, Altair’s extensive history adds to the consortium’s strength. The alliance represents a significant phase in the ongoing quest of enhancing 3MF to share important additive manufacturing data.
Altair was established in 1985, a period when the engineering industry was only starting to see the possibilities of simulation-driven design. The company acknowledged early on the potential of using data to underpin engineering decisions. This led to them being frontrunners in the shift towards using simulation as a core part of the design process.
Altair’s tenacity in pushing the boundaries of engineering is further apparent in their pioneering role in topology optimization. They were early adopters of state-of-the-art algorithms for optimizing designs based on weight, strength, and material usage, long before the concept became a buzzword. These advancements underpin the new era of efficient, data-driven design.
Considering Altair’s wealth of experience in data-driven design and simulation, their collaboration with the 3MF Consortium is highly significant.”
I have two hopes for the future.
Primarily, I would like to see more companies join the consortium to show their backing for 3MF. Additionally, companies that do not join the consortium should still adopt 3MF as part of their strategy.
My spies inform me that more notable firms are cooperating with the consortium on membership, with potential announcements in the coming weeks.
Via 3MF Consortium
“Why did the 3D printer go to therapy? Because it had too many layers of unresolved issues!”
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