New Asiga Composer 2.0

No one can argue that Australian company Asiga has taken 3D printing in dentistry to a new level on the world stage. The company has accomplished amazing patented technology for 3D printers that is the envy of many other companies. Their products are highly regarded in the profession for their precision, predictability and repeatability.

However, in the ever-evolving landscape of dental technology, where precision is paramount and innovation is constant, one unsung hero quietly plays a pivotal role in transforming the way dental professionals approach their working day. It's not the dazzling hardware or the groundbreaking materials; it's the setup software that truly holds the key to unlocking the full potential of 3D printing in dentistry. Asiga has now unveiled its latest Version 2.0 of their Composer software for the Asiga range of 3D printers.

This new release is a major update, sporting a completely new interface and packed with features, some previously available but less accessible or obvious and some brand-new features. To be fair, previous versions of the Composer software worked very well but from a user's point of view, it was very industrial, sometimes slightly confusing and not very intuitive. With Version 2.0, everything has now changed.

To start with, as mentioned, there is a brand new interface. It's elegant and stripped down to offer simplicity - surprisingly not an easy feat! When I upgraded my version, I was a bit confused as it did not look any different! A simple selection in the preferences, however, loaded the new interface - in either light or dark mode - and if you like the way previous versions looked, don't despair, you can have the previous interface if you desire which had loaded by default on my computer.

Once you select what you would like to do from 3 main options, you go to machine selection. Here it will auto detect any connected Asiga 3D printer and use a new wizard interface to start the pre-printing process. You can load files to print, automatically position the work items, generate supports, adjust the build properties and of course slice, ready for printing.

In addition, a new feature is the ability to generate multi-stacking. This is useful if you want to print a lot of items overnight for example as it will print supports to create row above row and it can work very well indeed. The downside of this is, of course, that a fair bit of resin is used and if you do have a failure, it can be catastrophe (Lucky you are using an Asiga printer as the percentage of failures are very low when used correctly).

You can also view the status of the selected printer via a web-browser and it will give you all the information from the front panel of the printer and more. You can see the status of a build, tray data, power off the machine and various other useful data.

If you really want to get your hands dirty, you can get into all the deep features of the software but this is really for more experienced users or those wanting to experiment with new materials, however Asiga already supports over 500 different materials from many manufacturers large and small.

All in all this is an excellent move in the right direction for Asiga; a great new interface, a new wizard and very easy to navigate software really is a massive time saver. And don't forget dark mode for those who love the dark side.