Ultimaker Announces Software Releases

[SandervG 1,522]

We’re proud to make a new announcement almost a year after the Ultimaker 3 launch. But this time it is a little bit different than usual. We are not going to launch a hardware product, but software. We will launch them in 2 segments. Continue reading to find out more!

Ultimaker Cura 3.0 | October 17th.

By entering the next version we are marking the start of a new era. In this era the plugin structure of Ultimaker Cura will be crucial to progress, outside innovation and empower your user experience. Our advanced software is more open now due to the license change to LGPL, and this shows in a range of new plugins like SolidWorks and Siemens NX. Ultimaker Cura will be more like a platform and will have various plugins that empower our users and their workflows.

Beside this, Ultimaker Cura 3.0 also has an updated interface and improved performance over the previous version.

- Another reason for celebration is that Cura is used by over one million users worldwide!

Cura Connect | November 7th.

In addition to Ultimaker Cura 3.0, we are also going to launch a new feature. Cura Connect is an integrated print management feature. With it you can plan and assign prints and manage maintenance schedules across one or more 3D printers. Cura Connect is accessible through Ultimaker 3.0 and runs on your Ultimaker 3 (Extended) firmware directly. In other words, Cura Connect will be available to all our Ultimaker 3 owners for free, whether you already own an Ultimaker 3 or will buy one in the future.

Its features have proven to be valuable when you are using one, or multiple Ultimaker 3’s.

It will allow you to:

 

• Manage your 3D printers: Create 3D printer groups, plan print jobs, monitor the progress and keep track of the maintenance schedule, all from your desktop.
  
• Print and forget: The planning algorithm allows you to send multiple print jobs at once so you can focus on other things. It will give you a notification when a print is finished. Manual removal of the print is still required.
  
• Easy to set up: Since it runs directly on the Ultimaker 3, there is no additional server needed and there is no complicated setup.
  

 

When you will be starting to use Cura Connect, we advise you to think about what groups you want to make. The planning is done based on configuration (filament, print cores), so it makes sense to group similar configurations together. In the case of larger offices, you may also want to consider the physical location as a parameter. If you have any questions about your situation, feel free to ask here on our forums!

Cura Connect will be available on November 7th. Keep an eye out for a firmware update for the Ultimaker 3 (Extended). Once you have it installed you can immediately start using Cura Connect. With regular updates to the Ultimaker ecosystem and entire new features (like Cura Connect), your Ultimaker experience will grow better and better over time.

We’ll share more details about each of these products when they are ready to download. So keep an eye out for forum updates, our blog or social media!

[stu_le_brew 42]

Hi Sander,

I assume the new Cura 3 will work with the older machines - UMO and UM2... ?

[SandervG 1,522]

Yes it will

[nallath 1,125]

Architecture wise; It's still the same Cura as 2.x, but with more bells & whistles. It's nothing as major as legacy vs Cura 2.x

As for the whole LGPL thing; We haven't switched yet. Cura is still AGPL. Atleast one of the the new plugins (Solidworks) is therefore released under AGPL.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

two more things should be mentioned: there was a celebration cake at tct for the 1000000 users and Siert Wijnia dedicated the first piece to @daid, the inventor of the original Cura.

Edited September 26, 2017 by Guest

[nallath 1,125]

two more things should be mentioned: there was a celebration cake at tct for the 1000000 users and Siert Wijnia dedicated the first piece to @daid, the inventor of the original Cura.

And we didn't get any cake

[ahoeben 2,026]

And we didn't get any cake

Why would you get cake? PM did all the work.

[DidierKlein 729]

Curious to see the new layout. I personnaly was never bothered by the current layout but i'm also a programmer so maybe that's why...

As for the cake:

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

And we didn't get any cake

you get the work

[Brulti 177]

All of this sounds quite nice.

Was the cake 3D printed?

[maedball 0]

Will this release be available via Windows 10 UWP App again? The current version there is 2.4 :-(

[nallath 1,125]

Will this release be available via Windows 10 UWP App again? The current version there is 2.4 :-(

Probably not. Microsoft doesn't like it that people try to "bypass" their appstore. As we allow users to download new plugins, we haven't been able to update the version.

[oswaldo-salzano 2]

Sander, any Beta available?

[msurunner 2]

Any fixes for the massive memory spike/non-responsiveness for certain Windows 10 machines?

[nallath 1,125]

Any fixes for the massive memory spike/non-responsiveness for certain Windows 10 machines?

Yep. I've fixed at least one major memory leak and improved the startup speed by ~30%

[SandervG 1,522]

Sander, any Beta available?

I'll need to double-check, but I believe that for Ultimaker Cura 3 there will be no open beta this time. I guess that the next iteration (3.1) will follow usual tradition of open beta testing