I had a chat with Greg Mark about the incredible new release from his new startup, Backflip.
Mark is the namesake behind a company you’ve likely heard of: Markforged. Mark and partners built that company up and cashed out a few years ago to start an entirely new company, Backflip.
Backflip has been operating in stealth mode for some time, but only recently began to emerge from shadowy labs. It turns out the company isn’t developing a new 3D printer, but instead is leveraging AI technology to create printable 3D models.
Previously, they announced a “text to 3D” tool that is able to produce reasonable geometry from a text prompt. I tested the tool and found it competent, but not significantly different from several other similar tools. I got the impression Backflip was working on something a bit more comprehensive.
That was true, as today Backflip announced an entirely new AI tool that we haven’t seen anywhere else: 3D Scan to CAD.
Mark walked me through the new tool, and it is easily the most incredible development I’ve seen in the 3D print universe for many years. There are many implications that are triggered by 3D Scan to CAD, but let’s first look at the tool itself.
Text to 3D tools attempt to generate the geometry of the object, the mesh, in other words. That is NOT what 3D Scan to CAD does.
3D Scan to CAD accepts a decent 3D scan file and then automatically generates the sequence of CAD features that can replicate the object. It does not make a mesh; it drives a CAD tool to draw the object automatically — just like reverse engineering would be done by a human, except this is entirely automated.
3D Scan to CAD is implemented as a plugin to SOLIDWORKS. I witnessed the process firsthand, and it is astonishing.
The scan is selected and uploaded to Backflip’s cloud AI system. The AI system then produces several options for the user to choose from. The selected option is then sent into SOLIDWORKS, where the feature commands are executed.
This video shows how it works for a simple part. You can see the part being automatically drawn in SOLIDWORKS in real time, it’s very fast:
This is completely mind-blowing: I saw SOLIDWORKS draw simple or even moderately complex parts literally in seconds. The result is a proper CAD model, the same as if a human had produced it. As such, it can be tweaked in the usual manner.
The result is a system that can accept a scan and make perfectly usable CAD models without much CAD training involved.
I asked Mark how they got the idea to produce this tool. It turns out that in the process of selling gear for Markforged, they toured countless factories and saw a problem over and over: workers on production lines often needed repairs and had to shut down lines while awaiting delivery of replacement parts.
While the Markforged 3D printers could in theory produce those spare parts immediately, no one had the 3D model for the part. The workers, though technical, didn’t have CAD training and could not make the design themselves, nor had they the time to do so.
That’s the real goal of Backflip: to enable these workers to pick up a part, scan it, and print a replacement in only hours. The production lines can then restart far more quickly. Mark said:
“There are lots of talented folks in factories that can’t CAD. It’s a huge user group, millions of people.”
I asked Mark about how 3D Scan to CAD was created. He explained:
“We trained our AI on 50M CAD part designs to convert scans to parametric models.
We used our ten years in manufacturing to ensure the system uses manufacturing best practices. For example, chamfers are added at the end of the sequence. The AI makes models like that, just like a good CAD designer. It’s a huge force multiplier for manufacturing.”
Does this really work? It seems like it is on an upward trajectory. Mark said:
“It gets it sometimes, it’s not yet perfect. At the beginning, it will convert 10-20% of the parts. We’re trucking to train on 250M designs, generating more every week. By the end of the year, it will be rock solid.
It will be quite useful at mid-year, but indispensable at the end of the year.”
I asked about the release of 3D Scan to CAD to the public, and Mark explained that they have a gradual release strategy:
“There will be a limited beta release in four weeks, and then we’ll open the door a bit more. In addition to the SOLIDWORKS interface, there will be a web version where you drop in a file and get a STEP file in return.
There will be a free version for hobbyists, for playing with the system. However, we will train on that data, similar to OnShape’s free plan.”
There are quite a few implications from this announcement, and that’s going to be another post from us later this week.
Via Backflip
