With a new innovative function called "Marching Cube" the latest version of CoreTechnologie's 3D printing software; 4D_Additive, now quickly repairs and simplifies 3D scanned data and STL files into closed volumes.
The latest version of 4D_Additive from software manufacturer CoreTechnologie introduces a revolutionary tool to simplify tessellated files and turns them into closed solids in the shortest possible time. The new feature allows any type of triangulated 3D model to be automatically corrected and prepared for 3D printing.
Simplified 3D print preparation
Modern 3D printing is based on accurate CAD data but today more and more often, based on data generated with a 3D scanner. The quality of STL data is often poor and not suitable for 3D printing or other subsequent processes. To ensure error-free slicing and printing, it is necessary to repair errors on STL models and send closed solid models to the printer. In addition, scanned parts often have huge file sizes of several gigabytes due to the high number of very small triangles. If several scanned files are to be printed in the same print job, the size of the data that is sent to the machine can become a real problem.
The 4D_Additive 1.4 software version has revolutionary functions to close the tessellated models into "watertight" solids and intelligently mesh reduction functions in order to reduce the number of triangles without losing accuracy. These new features called “Marching Cube” and “Mesh Simplification” allow any type of triangulated, mostly STL data, to be automatically corrected and simplified at the touch of a button.
Fast repair of scan data
With the inventive Marching Cube function, faulty STL models as well as scanned data can be repaired and transformed into closed solids practically at the push of a button. This new function saves the user extremely time-consuming manual repairs. The Marching Cube function combines a "voxelization" of the parts with their repair, whereby the size of the voxel, i.e. cube, and thus the fineness can be defined by the user. After the adaptive filling of the part volume with voxels, the so-called "voxelization", a closed 3D mesh is generated. 4D_Additive fully and automatically repairs models with hundreds and thousands of triangulation defects within a few seconds. In addition, the user has access to various options for the intelligent reduction of triangles. By defining a maximum angle between triangles, maximum chord deviation, by percentage reduction or by defining the desired number of triangles, file size and complexity of triangulated models can be easily reduced.
The use of these two new advanced functions make it possible to quickly repair any type of scanned part without manual effort, creating printable solids with a reasonable file size and resolution from scans and faulty STL models. In the future, this technology will enable a significant simplification of the scanning and printing process in many areas.
The new 3D printing software version is available now. Further information is available at https://www.coretechnologie.com/products/4d-additive.html .