Materialise Joins the Altair Partner Alliance

TROY, Mich., Aug. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Altair announced that rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing leader Materialise has joined the Altair Partner Alliance, making 3-matic STL available to HyperWorks® users. With 3-matic STL, users can make design modifications directly on STL, scanned, and computer-aided design (CAD) data in preparation for 3D printing. In particular, use of this software facilitates the use of topology optimization during the design process. The software works on an STL level to allow users to modify designs, remesh, create 3D textures, and more for an optimal and effective result.

"Materialise is pleased to be able to offer 3-matic STL to HyperWorks users through the Altair Partner Alliance," said Lieve Boeykens, Brand Manager for Materialise. "The opportunities for collaboration between our software and solidThinking Inspire® and solidThinking Evolve®, for example, are extensive. We can't wait to see how this partnership progresses."

The ability to work directly on an STL level makes files ready for 3D printing or finite element analysis immediately and provides a large degree of freedom for the user. Parts of the geometry can be easily swapped or exchanged, whether designed in 3-matic STL or imported from a CAD package. There are several operations that enhance the surface quality of the topology data since users have the ability to replace parts of the design with lattice structures and easily combine multiple topology results into one.

"3-matic STL was used by the team to prepare an OptiStruct® topology result for 3D printing," said Andrew Bartels, Program Manager, solidThinking Inspire at Altair. "It was easy to use for removing fine details, as well as to smooth and thicken the resulting model's parts that would otherwise have been impossible to print. The final model contained two joining parts that literally snapped together when we received them from the printer. We couldn't have printed the model with this level of precision without 3-matic STL."

To learn more about Materialise and 3-matic STL, please register for the upcoming introductory webinar taking place on Sept. 3, 2014 at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

About the Altair Partner Alliance

Altair's HyperWorks® platform applies a revolutionary subscription-based licensing model in which customers use floating licenses to access a broad suite of Altair-developed, as well as third-party, software applications on demand. The Altair Partner Alliance effectively extends the HyperWorks platform from more than 20 internally developed solutions to upwards of 60 applications with the addition of new partner applications. Customers can invoke these third-party applications at no incremental cost using their existing HyperWorks licenses. Customers benefit from unmatched flexibility and access, resulting in maximum software utilization, productivity and ROI. For more information about the Altair Partner Alliance, visit www.altairalliance.com.

About Materialise

With its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and branches worldwide, Materialise has been playing an active role in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM) since 1990. In addition to having the largest single-site capacity of AM equipment in Europe, Materialise also enjoys a stellar reputation as a provider of innovative software solutions. They have used their experience and expertise to create a better and healthier world through their involvement in AM for industrial and medical applications, and by providing bio-medical and clinical solutions such as medical image processing and surgical simulations. Materialise has developed unique solutions that make a world of difference for its many customers with their prototyping, production, and medical needs. These customers range from large companies in the automotive, consumer electronics, and consumables sectors; to famous hospitals, research institutes, and clinicians; to individual consumers interested in bringing their own unique creations to life through i.materialise or who want to purchase a celebrated .MGX design.

About Altair

Altair is focused on the development and broad application of simulation technology to synthesize and optimize designs, processes and decisions for improved business performance. Privately held with more than 2,000 employees, Altair is headquartered in Troy, Michigan, USA and operates more than 40 offices throughout 20 countries. Today, Altair serves more than 5,000 corporate clients across broad industry segments. To learn more, please visit www.altair.com.

SOURCE Altair