SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Trimble
(NASDAQ: TRMB) and Materialise (NASDAQ: MTLS) announced today that
they have added support for the STL file format through a new
Printables feature on Trimble's 3D Warehouse, the world's largest
repository of free, high-quality, 3D content. The new feature is
the result of the companies' collaboration to streamline 3D
printing workflows, making it easier for "makers" and millions of
other users of Trimble's SketchUp 3D modeling software to create
and share Printable models in 3D Warehouse.
The announcement was made prior to Maker Faire Bay Area 2015,
the maker movement's signature event, attended by over 100,000
crafters, educators, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, artists,
students, commercial exhibitors and many others.
The collaboration alleviates pitfalls commonly associated with
3D printing workflows by providing the SketchUp community with
direct access to powerful technology that facilitates the process
of turning their 3D models into physical objects. The companies
have developed an integration between 3D Warehouse and
Materialise's Cloud Services, which are capable of analyzing and
fixing models to ensure printability. The integration gives 3D
Warehouse users the ability to flag uploaded SketchUp models as
Printable. These files are then processed by Materialise's Cloud
Services to generate high-quality, printable STL files, that are
then available to be downloaded from 3D Warehouse.
"Through our combined efforts, Trimble and Materialise aim to
make 3D printing technology more accessible to the design
community," said Mike Tadros,
SketchUp Web & Mobile product manager at Trimble. "With its
deep experience in providing solutions and services to the additive
manufacturing sector, Materialise has substantially augmented our
efforts to make 3D printing workflows more efficient, and to enable
the sharing and exchange of Printable models on 3D Warehouse."
"For the past 25 years, we have been focused on developing
software that empowers useful applications of 3D printing," said
Stefaan Motte, director of the
Software for Additive Manufacturing Unit at Materialise. "Through
our new Cloud Services, we want to bring part of our
industry-leading software to a broader audience, and SketchUp, and
3D Warehouse in particular, are a natural fit for achieving this.
By partnering with Trimble, we hope to alleviate the question of
'will it print' and help designers, artists, makers and beyond
focus on the design and creation of meaningful 3D models."
About SketchUp
SketchUp is the world's most popular 3D modeling and design
platform, used by more than 30 million people around the world to
design, communicate and validate in 3D. SketchUp is a core product
of Trimble Buildings, a part of Trimble's Engineering and
Construction segment focused on solutions to optimize the complete
Design-Build-Operate (DBO) lifecycle of buildings.
3D Warehouse is a core component to the ecosystem surrounding
the SketchUp platform. 3D Warehouse contains almost 2.8 million
models, and serves up nearly 4 million downloads to over 700,000
visitors each week.
For more information, visit: www.sketchup.com.
About Materialise
With its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and branches worldwide, Materialise
is a provider of Additive Manufacturing (AM) software solutions and
sophisticated 3D printing services in a wide variety of industries,
including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design and
consumer products. Materialise has been playing an active role in
the field of AM since 1990, through its involvement in AM for
industrial and medical applications, by providing biomedical and
clinical solutions such as medical image processing and surgical
simulations and by developing unique solutions for its customers'
prototyping, production, and medical needs.
For additional information, visit: www.materialise.com.
About Trimble
Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in
businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions
are focused on applications requiring positioning or location,
including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset
management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing
positioning technologies such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble
solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the
user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to
the user in the field and to ensure communication between the field
and the office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in
Sunnyvale, Calif.
For more information, visit: www.trimble.com.
GTRMB
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SOURCE Trimble