Hardware alone is not enough

RECODE.AM #31

Today, the year 2025 comes to an end. What will 2026 bring? Of course, no one knows - but let me propose a possible motto for the months ahead:

Companies offering 3D printers without a strong software, materials, and model ecosystem will struggle to continue growing.

This is the guiding principle that should shape the strategy of the entire 3D printing sector.

Software - from slicers, through geometric engines and simulations, to service platforms - now determines who transforms the technology from a curiosity into industrial, repeatable production.

Why has software become so critical?

A 3D printer is merely a physical machine. Real value emerges when a digital workflow ensures process predictability, optimizes parameters, automates print preparation, and simplifies post-processing.

In real industrial environments, where error margins are minimal, predictability translates directly into material savings, shorter cycle times, and lower risk of failed production.

Until recently, many of these ideas circulated within the 3D printing industry as vague intuitions. We instinctively “knew” something wasn’t working - that despite ever-better 3D printers, true industrial scale remained out of reach.

Eventually, a kind of realization occurred: the barrier is not hardware. The barrier is the lack of a coherent, programmable, automated architecture based on software and data.

For more than two decades, the development of additive manufacturing technologies was driven primarily by mechanical engineering. Successive generations of printers promised better repeatability, higher quality, and increased productivity.

At the same time, workflows remained largely manual: file preparation, parameter selection, process data analysis, and part qualification were handled in isolated tools, often without a shared data model.

This lack of integration meant that every new geometry, every material change, or every platform switch triggered a costly and time-consuming trial-and-error cycle.

Even the best machine cannot ensure repeatability if the entire process around it relies on clicking through interfaces, manually copying settings, and the subjective decisions of operators. In such a model, 3D printing remained a niche tool for selected applications.

Software-defined manufacturing

The breakthrough came with the shift in focus from machines to software-defined manufacturing - production defined by software. In this approach, the process is no longer a collection of settings formed in an engineer’s mind, but a formal, programmable description: code that can be versioned, analyzed, compared, and automated.

This represents a fundamental architectural change.

A good example of this shift is Dyndrite. The company has built an accelerated computational engine and print preparation tools that significantly reduce unpredictability in metal AM processes and make machines easier to operate - machines that previously required highly specialized expertise.

Thanks to integrations with simulation tools and open APIs, Dyndrite has raised the level of abstraction. Engineers no longer have to “fight” geometry and G-code manually; instead, they work at a higher level, where design intent translates directly into a production-ready result.

The same paradigm is becoming increasingly visible in the desktop segment as well. Companies that have succeeded did not do so because of revolutionary mechanics. They succeeded by combining hardware, firmware, software, and service platforms into a single, coherent ecosystem.

The printer ceases to be a “final product” and instead becomes an interface to a platform: remote control, automated print preparation, community-created models, and simple online design tools.

It is software that lowers the barrier to entry, shortens the path from idea to finished object, and builds long-term competitive advantage.

Producing 3D printers alone is losing its meaning (as a long-term strategy)

Hardware is relatively easy to copy, and all fundamental additive manufacturing technologies have already been invented.

Further innovation does not lie in a “new type of printing,” but in improving the entire process: preparation, control, validation, and post-processing. These are areas where software scales far better than mechanics.

The future of 3D printing therefore belongs to companies that understand that they are, at their core, software companies.

Hardware remains essential - but it is software that defines the user experience, capital efficiency, and the ability to achieve true industrialization.

Those who fail to understand this will drift toward irrelevance. Those who build a strong, open, and programmable software stack will define the next stage of development for the entire industry.