Fraunhofer IGD's Cuttlefish::Proof: Revolution in graphic 3D printing

Additive Manufacturing Create A Physical Preview of the Print Result

2025-11-14 Source: Fraunhofer IGD | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

Fraunhofer IGD has further developed its Cuttlefish software with the new Cuttlefish ::Proof module. This enables a physically accurate preview of the print result for the first time. The institute will be presenting the software at Formnext 2025.

Left: Rendering with Cuttlefish::Proof, right: physical 3D printing—The new plug-in for the 3D printing software Cuttlefish simulates color, translucency and material effects true to the original—for maximum printing reliability and efficiency.(Image: Fraunhofer IGD) — Left: Rendering with Cuttlefish::Proof, right: physical 3D printing—The new plug-in for the 3D printing software Cuttlefish simulates color, translucency and material effects true to the original—for maximum printing reliability and efficiency.
(Image: Fraunhofer IGD)

With the new Cuttlefish::Proof plugin for Cuttlefish, Fraunhofer IGD presents a groundbreaking innovation in graphical 3D printing. The tool renders directly on the material distributions sliced from the Cuttlefish 3D printer driver and thus enables an accurate simulation of color and translucency. In addition, effects such as displacement mapping, Boolean operations and potential voxelization errors can also be visualized. The appearance of the 3D prints under different types of light and lighting conditions can also be simulated. "This helps to avoid misprints that would otherwise be caused by incorrect parameters or faulty data preparation. Users can see in advance what the printed component will actually look like and can make adjustments before time and material flow into production," explains Dr. Philipp Urban, Head of the "3D Printing Technology" department at Fraunhofer IGD. Cuttlefish::Proof will be made available to existing customers on request for the first time.

Biomimetic Dental Prosthetics Via Multi-Material 3D Printing

Fraunhofer IGD is using a biomimetic 3D printing workflow to demonstrate how monolithic dentures can be produced with natural-looking aesthetics. The approach uses the multi-material jetting process to reproduce monolithic dentures with the internal optical structure of natural teeth. Layers of enamel, dentin and tooth root are digitally embedded into each tooth model. An AI model calculates the appropriate material mixtures for each of these layers in order to reproduce specified shades and translucencies.

Dental technicians can adjust the translucency of individual layers to refine the esthetics without changing the shade. This process can be used to produce teeth that come very close to the natural appearance and achieve color accuracy within the limits accepted in the dental industry (CIEDE2000 < 1.5). In addition, production costs can be reduced by up to 75 percent compared to conventional manufacturing processes. The entire process is compatible with common dental CAD software and uses Cuttlefish for slicing.

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Date: 08.12.2025

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