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(disclaimer - Plethora cofounder/CTO here) Our goal at Plethora is to make hardware as easy as software. One question we ask ourselves is why can a small team

(disclaimer - Plethora cofounder/CTO here) Our goal at Plethora is to make hardware as easy as software. One question we ask ourselves is why can a small team of software devs push out an app in a few days / weeks when a hardware product takes a sizable kickstarter/VC round and months / years? It comes down to: - great tools - fast iteration - easy deployment - straightforward scalability To achieve this kind of agility with hardware, this means removing the friction at every step of the product lifecycle. One half is in the design & ordering of custom parts. CAD packages today are powerful and it’s very easy to design beautiful parts that are completely unmanufacturable. The Plethora add-in analyzes parts in a few seconds, provides helpful hints on manufacturability, instant pricing and ordering. We went with a plugin for existing CAD programs because getting people to switch CAD programs is like asking a programmer to switch code editors - extremely difficult unless the value of the new tool is orders of magnitude greater than that of the incumbent. The other half of the friction in manufacturing is when the part enters production. Plethora isn’t just a pretty face on a traditional machine shop - we’ve been working for years to automate the extremely manual process of converting a 3D model into instructions for a machine to produce. This automation enables quick turnaround and no minimum order quantities - which allows teams to have more iterations and faster deployment of their products.

moflome 10y ago
Can you comment on why the initial capabilities focus on CNC and aluminum? What would concern you with offering, say, CNC for wood, CNC for aluminum with compound faces, or injection molded parts? Perhaps related, any plans for Blender plugin? Thanks!
- JeremyHerrman 10y ago
  Thanks for the questions! It's mostly driven by what our customers have asked for. Subtractive processes like CNC have a high barrier to entry (compared to additive), so we started there to make it easier for everyone to get quality parts easily and quickly. Aluminum is a great material that you see a lot in both prototype and final products across industries. The CAD integrations, materials, and part complexity we support are constantly improving - much more to come in 2017!
- taneq 10y ago
  The additive manufacturing space is already owned by Shapeways etc. Aluminium is already the material of choice for a lot of prototyping and general purpose widget making, and for good reason. It's relatively cheap, easy to machine, lightweight, strong enough, and corrosion resistant. Automating the design-to-CNC-instructions process is a pretty logical next step.
rebootthesystem 10y ago
Sorry, Jeremy. Truly, truly sorry. But... Are you fucking kidding me? Comparing "manufacturing" software products to manufacturing hardware products is as nonsensical as it can get. One has nothing whatsoever to do with the other. Source: Me. Background: I've been developing software and hardware for over thirty years. I go back to the days of the 8080 processor. Embedded, system, real time, Windows, Linux, OSX and iOS software development over the years. Commercial, industrial, consumer and aerospace environments. At the same time I have been designing and manufacturing the physical side of said products for an equally long period of time. CNC, sheet metal, through hole and SMT electronics, TIG and MIG weldments, plastic and metal 3D printing, composites, injection molded plastics. All in markets from consumer to aerospace. Heck I have a Haas VF2-SS VMC, Bridgeport manual mill, Hardinge lathe, various 3D printers, routers, table saw, half a dozen other saws and metal working equipment and this is only in my house for my hobby and R&D stuff. I've been running AutoCAD since inception, Solidworks since inception, CAMWorks, SolidCAM and MasterCAM for some time as well as Siemens NX (exclusively for aerospace stuff). So, yeah, I'll pat my own back and say I know manufacturing. Please stop this Silicon Valley "we are going to disrupt manufacturing by making CNC machining easier" nonsense. Again, I apologize for being a bit harsh but I have to say you don't have a clue. OK, here it goes. I can beat anything you can possible put together. How? I can send a model to China and have part back in three days flat. 5 axis. Complex. Detailed. Perfectly finished. And reasonably priced. I don't even have to know how they make it. If you work with reputable contract manufacturers out there you get great product at fair prices. It's isn't that hard. I truly don't give a shit what software they use or what machines they might own. There are great CM's which which you can do $200 to million dollar orders and they treat you just the same. Between that and Proto Labs, Protocase, Emachineshop and others the problem of CNC machining parts and making plastic or sheet metal rapid prototypes is pretty much solved. Now, if you want to compete with Proto Labs or Emachineshop and come up with a slicker path to CNC machined parts. By all means, go for it. But please don't say you are going to disrupt manufacturing. CNC machining is a small, very small part of most manufactured products. Oh, yeah, did some aluminum die casting, custom extrusions and casting as well. Sorry, I'm pretty tired of the active rejection of experience, existing industry knowledge and existing optimized processes by these Silicon Valley types who are clueless and think everything can be hammered into a software development model. Not everyone is out there trying to get people to click on yet another call to action button. Here, I'll give you a project: Go design and manufacture a motorcycle from scratch. I mean a real product, not a one-off garage-built prototype. A real product that can be manufactured at a reasonable scale with decent DFM, documentation, certifications, component and system level test engineering, qualification, sourcing, etc. Do this and I'll bet your view of someone asking "why can a small team of software devs push out an app in a few days / weeks when a hardware product takes a sizable kickstarter/VC round and months / years" will land you right-smack where I started this comment: Are you fucking kidding me?

moflome 10y ago

Can you comment on why the initial capabilities focus on CNC and aluminum? What would concern you with offering, say, CNC for wood, CNC for aluminum with compound faces, or injection molded parts? Perhaps related, any plans for Blender plugin? Thanks!

JeremyHerrman 10y ago
Thanks for the questions! It's mostly driven by what our customers have asked for. Subtractive processes like CNC have a high barrier to entry (compared to additive), so we started there to make it easier for everyone to get quality parts easily and quickly. Aluminum is a great material that you see a lot in both prototype and final products across industries. The CAD integrations, materials, and part complexity we support are constantly improving - much more to come in 2017!
taneq 10y ago
The additive manufacturing space is already owned by Shapeways etc. Aluminium is already the material of choice for a lot of prototyping and general purpose widget making, and for good reason. It's relatively cheap, easy to machine, lightweight, strong enough, and corrosion resistant. Automating the design-to-CNC-instructions process is a pretty logical next step.

rebootthesystem 10y ago

Sorry, Jeremy. Truly, truly sorry. But... Are you fucking kidding me? Comparing "manufacturing" software products to manufacturing hardware products is as nonsensical as it can get. One has nothing whatsoever to do with the other. Source: Me. Background: I've been developing software and hardware for over thirty years. I go back to the days of the 8080 processor. Embedded, system, real time, Windows, Linux, OSX and iOS software development over the years. Commercial, industrial, consumer and aerospace environments. At the same time I have been designing and manufacturing the physical side of said products for an equally long period of time. CNC, sheet metal, through hole and SMT electronics, TIG and MIG weldments, plastic and metal 3D printing, composites, injection molded plastics. All in markets from consumer to aerospace. Heck I have a Haas VF2-SS VMC, Bridgeport manual mill, Hardinge lathe, various 3D printers, routers, table saw, half a dozen other saws and metal working equipment and this is only in my house for my hobby and R&D stuff. I've been running AutoCAD since inception, Solidworks since inception, CAMWorks, SolidCAM and MasterCAM for some time as well as Siemens NX (exclusively for aerospace stuff). So, yeah, I'll pat my own back and say I know manufacturing. Please stop this Silicon Valley "we are going to disrupt manufacturing by making CNC machining easier" nonsense. Again, I apologize for being a bit harsh but I have to say you don't have a clue. OK, here it goes. I can beat anything you can possible put together. How? I can send a model to China and have part back in three days flat. 5 axis. Complex. Detailed. Perfectly finished. And reasonably priced. I don't even have to know how they make it. If you work with reputable contract manufacturers out there you get great product at fair prices. It's isn't that hard. I truly don't give a shit what software they use or what machines they might own. There are great CM's which which you can do $200 to million dollar orders and they treat you just the same. Between that and Proto Labs, Protocase, Emachineshop and others the problem of CNC machining parts and making plastic or sheet metal rapid prototypes is pretty much solved. Now, if you want to compete with Proto Labs or Emachineshop and come up with a slicker path to CNC machined parts. By all means, go for it. But please don't say you are going to disrupt manufacturing. CNC machining is a small, very small part of most manufactured products. Oh, yeah, did some aluminum die casting, custom extrusions and casting as well. Sorry, I'm pretty tired of the active rejection of experience, existing industry knowledge and existing optimized processes by these Silicon Valley types who are clueless and think everything can be hammered into a software development model. Not everyone is out there trying to get people to click on yet another call to action button. Here, I'll give you a project: Go design and manufacture a motorcycle from scratch. I mean a real product, not a one-off garage-built prototype. A real product that can be manufactured at a reasonable scale with decent DFM, documentation, certifications, component and system level test engineering, qualification, sourcing, etc. Do this and I'll bet your view of someone asking "why can a small team of software devs push out an app in a few days / weeks when a hardware product takes a sizable kickstarter/VC round and months / years" will land you right-smack where I started this comment: Are you fucking kidding me?