Materialise Magics is a smart, versatile data preparation software for additive manufacturing, equipped with a customizable, intuitive user interface. The industry-leading software guides you through every step of your 3D printing workflow. In this interview, we’ll dive into how Purple Platypus engineers use Magics for their work with our service bureau and why the software is a great fit for our Platypus machine customers.
Meet Peter Montgomery
Meet our Senior Research & Development Engineer, Peter Montgomery. Peter plays a huge role in the support of our Stratasys sales team, providing application development and customer education. He also works closely with Purple Porcupine, engaging customers with engineering services and product development. With his detailed knowledge of additive workflow processes, Peter is an incredible resource for our team and customers.
Can you briefly describe Magics and how it functions?
Magics is an STL editing software that allows us to import a variety of different software and file types and make modifications, as well as repair and then export those files for printing.
What added value does Magics offer within the data preparation process?
For us it’s really useful because it allows us to understand if there’s a problem with the file why the problem is occurring. We can then communicate the details of the file back to the customer. Before we go to print a part, we can understand if any difficulties will occur and head those off before we print.
Where does Magics fit within the realm of software options?
Magics is sort of unique in the fact that it has some aspects of CAD in it, but it’s not strictly a CAD program. Magics is more of an STL editing and repair function, but you can also do things like file preparation for color and VRML in it. There are definitely a lot of different uses, it all depends on the workflow that you’re working with.
How do you use Magics as a Purple Porcupine engineer?
Here, on the service bureau side, one of the main uses of Magics that I find is when we take a customer’s file in to do an analysis to make sure it’s ready to print. If we have issues with the file, I can use Magics to take a screenshot of the specific errors that are occurring and bring those back to the customer, to prompt a conversation on how to fix the errors. It’s a really quick communication tool.
The other way I use Magics in my day-to-day is by sectioning large parts. Say that I have a large part that I’m trying to put on the F900, which has a 3’ x 2’ x 3’ build envelope, but I can’t fit it. I can make precise sections in Magics, print each part separately, and then bond it together after print.
If we didn’t have a Magics license here at Purple, how would that affect your day-to-day?
It would certainly make my day-to-day a little more difficult and interesting. With Magics, because it is sort of CAD neutral, we can work with so many different file types, I think it would make it very difficult to work with the variety of customers that we see. We’re working with everyone from the entertainment, more artistic side, to mechanically engineering files – there’s a whole range of software’s that export those, but Magics can import all of them. Without it, we’d probably be doing a lot less.
How can customers learn more about Magics, before making a purchasing decision?
It’s definitely awesome to explore Magics, as it has a lot of capabilities. We’re actually going to be doing a series on 30 on 3D, showing the different capabilities of Magics. If you want to learn more, you can reach out to us to receive information about the product and services we support.
To keep up to date with our upcoming Magics-focused 30 on 3D series, subscribe to our YouTube channel. To learn more about Materialise Magics, contact our team at 949.474.9222 or [email protected].