The global software company CoreTechnologie has updated its 4D_Additive manufacturing software, with the latest version —1.4 SP0 — offering many new and optimised capabilities, including revised nesting functions. Compared to the previous version, the software now offers higher levels of speed, accuracy and packing density, as well as optimised packing distribution. In addition, the software has a new nesting strategy — Powercopy — that ensures the extremely fast packing of identical parts with a maximum packing density.

In the new 4D_Additive software version, the entire FDM process (fused deposition modelling) can now be mapped, thereby enabling the creation of FDM-specific supports as well as the hollowing of models and special FDM hatching and slicing strategies. In addition, the realistic display of the individual layers and the resulting model are possible with a high-resolution 3-D player. In addition to the STL format, the slicing data is exported in a special G-code file for output to Volumic and Ultimaker printers.

“Furthermore, by integrating the Eosprint 2.0 interface, print data from 4D_Additive can be sent directly to EOS machines without detours via other software tools. The 3-D printing software thus makes it possible to read native CAD data, prepare it for common 3-D printing processes, control and optimise process parameters and send the data to EOS systems with a single tool. The Eosprint API integrated in 4D_Additive calculates the exact path of the laser during the production process and optimises factors such as build speed and surface quality.

“Meanwhile, the ‘Marching Cube’ function enables the repair of low-quality scan data and STL models with numerous holes, knife edges and misaligned triangles and automatically creates closed solids. In addition, the new ‘mesh reduction function’ helps to reduce elements or triangles on STL models, effectively reducing the amount of data at the touch of a button. The user can set the percentage reduction, the maximum number of triangles or the permitted chord deviation.”