Software adds color to rapid prototypes.
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Press Release Summary:
ZEdit(TM) Software enhances CAD files with color, texture maps, engineering labels and notes, and allows user to print annotations on surface of physical 3D model. Users can highlight key components, create real-life concept models, display FEA analysis results, and provide critical information via text labels, which can be cropped across edge lines and wrapped around contours. Software helps customers communicate clearly, convey design intent, and produce realistic prototypes.
Original Press Release:
Z Corporation Ships ZEdit Software, Harnessing the Power of Color to Inform, Illuminate and Persuade
Product Offers Advanced Capabilities for Adding Color, Text Labels and Texture Maps to Rapid Prototypes
BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 17, 2005 - Z Corporation, maker of the world's fastest 3D printers, today began shipments of ZEdit(TM) Software, a powerful new tool to maximize the impact of color in rapid prototyping.
Z Corp. customers can use ZEdit to enhance computer-aided design files with color, texture maps, engineering labels and notes, and to print those annotations right on the surface of a physical 3D model. These capabilities enable customers to communicate clearly, better convey design intent, streamline the development cycle, and produce realistic prototypes for sales and marketing teams. ZEdit extends the leadership position that Z Corp. established with the release of the first full-color 3D printer in 2000, and the first high-definition Spectrum Z(TM)510 full color system in March 2005.
"Printing 3D models in full color dramatically increases realism, but that is just the beginning," said Z Corp. CEO Tom Clay. "The real magic is how you can use color to communicate, inform, illuminate and persuade, and ZEdit is the key. Color and graphics are as essential in 3D printing as they are in 2D printing, and promise to be as ubiquitous."
With ZEdit, customers can highlight key components, create real-life concept models, vividly display FEA analysis results, and provide critical information via text labels. They can also:
o Color parts by shell, surface or triangle.
o Apply texture maps, project labels, logos, images or other graphics directly to the surface of the part. Labels can be cropped across edge lines and wrapped around contours. Users can easily size, shrink, expand and move labels.
o Add colored text, circles and arrows to surfaces, for instance to highlight a subtle but important feature change. Markup capabilities support multiple languages.
o Print preformatted engineering labels on the surface of parts to communicate part information. ZEdit includes standard, customizable templates plus an easy-to-use label editor.
o Take advantage of an intuitive Microsoft Windows-based user interface that includes built-in prompts for ease of use.
o Leverage a new .zpr file format that retains all color and texture mapping information in a single file for later use.
ZEdit is a standalone application independent of Z Corp. 3D printers and the company's ZPrint(TM) software. Customers can provide it to any number of internal users, bringing the power of this unique software to all design engineers and 3D printer operators.
ZEdit is available now and ships automatically with Z Corp. 3D printers. Z Corp. customers with a service contract, many of whom experienced ZEdit through beta versions, can download the current version of the software from the Z Corp. user Web site.
About Z Corporation
Z Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets the world's fastest high-definition 3D printers - machines that produce 3D physical prototypes of real-world objects with the speed, ease, and affordability of 2D desktop printing. Leading manufacturers, Fortune 500 companies, and centers for research, including Sony, Fisher-Price, Adidas, Canon, NASA, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BMW, Porsche, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Harvard, MIT and Yale, rely on Z Corp.'s printers to produce prototypes as part of the development of a broad range of world-class products and technologies. Z Corp. systems are not only the fastest 3D printers on the market but also offer the only color 3D printing capabilities. Z Corp. holds patents on its proprietary 3D printing materials and equipment and licenses others from MIT, where the company's technology was originally developed. For the latest news and information from Z Corp., visit the company's Web site at www.zcorp.com.
