Hello forum users! We’re always planning what’s next for PreForm and would love your ideas and to start discussions around them here!
What features do you wish PreForm had? (Ideas from other slicers, 3D apps, or any industrial software are welcome!)
What workflows are inefficient or you wish were different? (manually adding supports, tracking prints from PreForm, etc.)
For any of these ideas, please also add why you want it– how would it make your life better or unblock you? Please feel free to like others’ replies as a “+1” to their suggestion, and add onto the conversation yourself!
EDIT: To clarify, we’ve already reviewed and consolidated feedback from past forum threads and posts before starting this one. If you’re referencing an older idea, we’ve already captured it and it’s either being considered, actively worked on, or on the roadmap. That said, feel free to expand on those ideas with updated needs, new thoughts, or specific workflows! This thread is meant to hopefully surface fresh input and prompt new conversations, so try to avoid repeating past requests without adding new context. Thanks again for all the thoughtful feedback so far!
First of all, I have to say that preform has grown and developed extremely well overall.
We are always excited about new updates. Great work and general kudos to the software team. It’s okay to say that at this point
We have a few ideas for new features. I will write these as individual posts after this one so that they can be better evaluated individually using the like system.
Function idea:
A more detailed cost calculation with work steps, working hours, power consumption, etc.
As a service provider, we naturally calculate our own costs, among other things.
To do this, we use either sophisticated spreadsheets or other automatic calculation tools. Here we enter our own cost items, such as powder costs. Unfortunately, the calculation tool in Preform provides us with so little information that it is not particularly useful to us, as the pure powder costs can be quickly calculated elsewhere. A cost calculation that is as detailed as possible, perhaps even a cost report, would be a great addition here.
When I do production runs I add a date code to certain parts using preforms label tool. It would be nice if I could batch edit these parts for subsequent runs rather than having to delete each one and re load the file, reapply the label. This would save me a ton of time.
Function idea:
Sintered cages can be created more compactly to match the respective component geometry.
A component with a lot of sticking-out geometry creates a lot of empty space inside a sintered cage when it is a purely square body. A function that can adapt the cage more to the respective geometry, perhaps a kind of organic shape, would be great here.
Function idea:
Setting option to achieve a darker component color on the Fuse1+ with PA12.
We are not entirely sure if this is possible, but we have the following idea: The post about different Shore hardnesses for TPU powder gave us the idea of using different print settings for the same material. When we switched from the normal print settings we had when we got the Fuse to the current speed-optimized settings, we noticed a slight change in the gray tone of the components. Perhaps with the right laser settings, it is also possible to achieve other properties with the PA12 powder. What we could definitely use most here would be actual black (or darker) parts in PA12 that do not need to be dyed to become truly black.
Could you unlock the workspace?
Being able to add as many items as desired without necessarily placing them in the printable area makes it easier to prepare projects as a whole.
Even more so if it’s possible to configure multiple work areas within the same file/environment.
Most slicers for FDM printers allow this.
Just a quick note, all of the feedback shared before this thread was launched has already been reviewed and consolidated internally, so if you’re referencing something from an older post or thread, it’s already been captured and either being considered, on our roadmap, or actively being worked on.
That said, definitely feel free to expand on existing ideas if you have new use cases, evolving needs, or different perspectives with new thoughts to add. We’re hoping this thread can also spark new ideas and prompt discussions rather than just repeating past requests. Appreciate everyone contributing to make PreForm better!
That’s very fair. Technically, anything’s possible to implement, it just depends on how strong the reasoning is. New use cases, evolving workflows, similar features in other software releases, and fresh customer feedback all help build that case. So even if something’s been mentioned before, if you’ve got a new perspective or more specific context to add, that helps a ton. We just want to avoid echo loops where the same idea gets repeated without anything new added.
The measure feature is definitely a step in the right direction, but I don’t find it very useful. I suspect the tool is most commonly used for basic/rough measurements (ex. hole size, part length) or checking model spacing.
Problems:
Selecting model points can be a little clunky and does not give confidence that the desired measurement is being collected. The pointed cursor is a good start, but it would be great if a surface was projected onto the relevant part face similar to the interface for manually placing supports.
There’s no indication of X/Y axes. I think the Autodesk Fusion interface for orthogonal measurement is a good example of how this could be done.
It should be simpler to measure spacing between models. I would love to see the following features implemented: PreForm automatically shows the minimum model spacing with a visual measurement. Clicking any 2 models would show the minimum spacing between them, again with the visual measurement.
This one is straightforward. Show visually or at least explain to the user what is causing their STL to be considered broken. “Integrity issues” is not specific enough. I find that many online 3D-printing services (Protolabs for example) offer instant, intuitive, and easy-to-understand explanations of their DFM analyses.
What I would love for 2026 is to be able to prepare a model in Preform for Clear Cast Resin without having to buy another software like Formware or Materialise Magic.
Not being able to use a Formlab Resin efficiently on the Formlabs Software is kinda sad to be honest…
I would like to have the ability to place parts outside the build area. This way, I can upload all the parts I need at once and then position them as desired. At the same time, it would be great if I could pack multiple build chambers in one go.
From the Dental side, I’d love easier to see colors when using the Scan/Trim/Trim Plane Tool. The selected model is blue and the trim plane is blue. Extremely hard to see what is being trimmed.
