3MF Consortium Adds New Associate Membership Level

October 13, 2015 | By Business Wire News

WAKEFIELD, Mass.

The 3MF Consortium today announced the addition of a new membership category, Associate member. Its purpose is to enable additional and early sharing of information with companies that are implementing the 3MF format for 3D printing.

The 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF) specification allows design applications to send full-fidelity 3D models to a mix of other applications, platforms, services and printers. The first version is ready to use now and available for download at no charge.

Dues for an Associate membership are $1,000 per year, and benefits include early access to specification changes, an online forum for communication with all consortium participants, password-protected 3MF document access, and ability to use the 3MF logo on products after fulfilling certain requirements. Associate members will be listed on the 3MF website. Additional benefits may be added in future. Enrollment for Associate membership is open – after a completed application is sent in and dues are paid, benefits will begin.

“While anyone can use the 3MF specification without having to join the consortium, we want to provide greater support to those companies that would like to publicly declare their alignment with 3MF goals,” said Adrian Lannin, executive director, 3MF Consortium. “By providing them with early access and foreknowledge of spec updates, we enable them to better plan their product implementations. The 3MF Consortium invites all interested organizations to consider Associate membership.”

3MF was founded to address the fact that modern 3D printers, even low-cost devices, are capable of printing items that are difficult to describe using existing formats. The 3MF specification eliminates the problems associated with currently available file formats. It resolves interoperability and functionality issues, enabling companies to focus on innovation in this growing field.

The 3MF Consortium’s mission is to deliver a 3D printing file format that is:

Rich enough to fully describe a model, retaining internal information, color, and other characteristics;
Extensible so that it supports new innovations in 3D printing;
Interoperable and open;
Practical, simple to understand and easy to implement; and
Free of the issues inherent in other widely used file formats.

About the 3MF Consortium
Launched in 2015, the 3MF Consortium is a Joint Development Foundation project with the goal to define a 3D printing format that will allow design applications to send full-fidelity 3D models to a mix of other applications, platforms, services and printers. The 3MF (for 3D Manufacturing Format) specification eliminates the widespread issues with currently available file formats.

Members of the 3MF Consortium are: 3D Systems; Autodesk, Inc; Dassault Systèmes, SA.; FIT AG/netfabb GmbH; HP, Inc.; Materialise; Microsoft Corporation; Shapeways, Inc.; Siemens PLM Software; SLM Solutions Group AG; and Stratasys. The starting point for the Consortium’s development of the 3MF specification was Microsoft’s donation of its 3D file format work-in-progress. More information about the 3MF Consortium and the 3MF specification is available at http://www.3mf.io.

Follow 3MF on Twitter: @3MFconsortium