This AI software dreams up new designs for 3-D-printed parts before your eyes

Erin Winickarchive page

February 6, 2018

Desktop Metal’s new software lets regular people design objects optimized for 3-D printing, no experience required.

The news: Desktop Metal’s new LiveParts is a piece of software that automatically generates designs of objects ready for 3-D printing. Users just tell it the structural constraints of the object they’re building, and it uses biology-inspired AI models to quickly generate a design suited to additive manufacturing.

Better components: The software ensures that parts take advantage of 3-D printing’s capabilities. “This would enable weight reductions between 25 and 60 percent of many kinds of general-purpose parts,” says Desktop Metal CEO Ric Fulop, “while spreading loads more evenly and improving fatigue resistance.”

3-D printing for the masses? Desktop Metal says the software is easy to use even if you have no experience designing parts for additive manufacturing. That could help move 3-D printing closer to being able to create whatever you need, whenever you need it—no engineering degree required.

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