GrabCAD Print Overview Part 1

A little over a year ago, I was contaced by the Application team from Stratasys to see if I would be interested in Alpha testing a new piece of software that was in development. I’m pretty sure I shouted YES! before they finished the statement. GrabCAD Print is the answer to something that always seemed strange to me in the 3D Printing arena, the lack of a unified 3D printing Software.  If you have a printer (or two) laying around from Stratasys, you’ll realize that each family of printers has their own software.  Mojo Print Wizard, Catalyst, Insight, Objet Studio, and PolyJet Studio are the current softwares. Each one controls 1 or more printer, but there was no overlap.  You needed to be in that sofware to see what was going on in that series or family of printers.  Insight is needed for the Fortus Line (and the Stratasys F370), Catalyst will work on the uPrint and Dimension lines, Objet Studio for most of the Objet  Printers, and PolyJet studio for the new Stratasys J750.

Although GrabCAD Print is still being actively developed, we can already replace almost three of the previous softwares.  We’re still missing most of the customizations we have in Insight.  We currently have access to the Fortus Line, the dimension line, and the Stratasys J750.

Some of my favorite features at the moment is, of course, the ability to setup jobs for multiple machines, but we also have access to the GrabCAD Print Server.  The GrabCAD Print Server gives us remote access to the printers without the need for VPN.  The server also gives access to printers across multiple locations!  See picture below, Fortus, uPrints, and the new F370s across our locations in Cincinnati, OH and Novi, MI.  We should see our Cleveland office soon as well.

Stay tooned for future posts as we dive deeper into GrabCAD Print!