Rival CAD Vendors Join Microsoft 3MF Consortium

Autodesk Print Studio, showing automatically generated support structures for 3D printing designs.

Fierce CAD competitors Autodesk and Dassault Systemes announce on the same day that they're joining Microsoft's 3MF Consortium as founding members, suggesting a shift away from the use of STL for additive manufacturing. The announcements came from Microsoft's Build Developer Conference (San Francisco, California, April 29-May 1).

Currently STL is the most common file format used for 3D printing, but Microsoft seems to think a better alternative is needed. So the company introduced its own format, 3MF (for 3d manufacturing), along with model-repair services (offered in partnership with Netfab) to make 3D printing easier for Windows users. CAD software runs predominantly on Windows; therefore, Microsoft's move can significantly change the CAD-to-print process.

Late last year, Dassault Systemes introduced the function to print 3D CAD models from its SolidWorks CAD 2015 software. Kishore Boyalakuntla, director of product management for SolidWorks, sees the 3MF Consortium as a way to rally behind "a neutral format [for 3D printing] that holds materials data, color data, and topological data, something others can contribute to, and able to grow over time as 3D printers evolve."

As a file format, Boyalakuntla pointed out STL will continue to serve other purposes, such as simulation and manufacturing. But he believes "3MF will become more popular" for 3D printing. He remarked, "It's a good sign when competing vendors come together to create a standard for something."

This month, while introducing its new manufacturing products for 2016, Autodesk highlighted 3D printing support via its Print Studio module. Though primarily a software developer, Autodesk has also invested in the development of its own 3D printing hardware, dubbed Ember. The company is spearheading an open and free 3D printing software and API called Spark.

In today's announcement from Build Conference, Autodesk states it will "embed its Spark 3D printing software platform in Windows 10 ... Autodesk will make the Spark APIs available for free to the Microsoft developer community to build upon."

Unlike paper printing, 3D printing requires cleaning up and repairing the CAD models to make them suitable for specific printers. In some cases, support structures may have to be added to hold the design in place during the printing process. The printing service bureaus usually perform these fixes, either as part of the job or for additional fee if the effort required is significant. This intermediary step is currently only partially automated. Fully automating it will go along way to promote 3D printing among hobbyists and home users.