materiam.com

MATERIAM (materiam.com) makes custom metal parts on demand in Mexico: laser-cut and bent sheet metal, tubes and structural steel, with finishes such as powder coating, shipped to Mexico and the United States. This server checks that a part can be made, simulates its bending and quotes it; no account is needed. How the tools fit together: (1) A part enters a project as a STEP file in millimetres: the user's own, or one produced with a CAD library such as CadQuery or build123d. get_upload_link returns a one-time link that code sends the file to (curl -T part.step <link>); upload_part takes a small file base64-encoded. A part described in words rather than drawn goes through design_part: a base plate with up to four flanges, holes and slots. The call that starts a project returns its project_token, the only key to the project. (2) get_upload_status shows when MATERIAM has read the file, usually within a minute. (3) get_project lists the parts with their material, finish and quantity and the manufacturability results: the press-brake bending simulation and the design findings. A corrected file or design replaces a part with replaces_part_id. get_part_image returns a picture of a part to show the user. (4) get_part_options and configure_part change material, finish, color or quantity. (5) Welds: a STEP file carries no welds, and a weld bead modeled as a solid is not a part MATERIAM makes. get_weld_joints lists the joints where parts touch; add_welds welds them, by joint_id or along a path in the file's own coordinates, and remove_welds takes welds off. (6) get_quote prices the project for the US or Mexico and returns project_url, which opens the project on materiam.com: the 3D model, the shipping cost after a free sign-up, and the order. Orders are placed there, not through this server. Bent sheet metal is recognized when it is modeled as real sheet: one thickness everywhere, round bends with an inside radius of at least the thickness (a bent side profile extruded, rather than boxes fused), a relief gap where two flanges meet at a corner, and holes at least 2.5 x thickness + bend radius from a bend. Assemblies: each solid in the STEP file is one part, listed under its name in the file, and named subassemblies stay grouped. A solid placed several times (the same shape object added again at another location: one Workplane in cq.Assembly, one build123d shape among a Compound's children) is one part quoted at its total quantity; copies built as separate solids are separate parts, each quoted alone. In build123d, .moved() on a whole subassembly copies its parts, .locate() keeps them shared. Prices are MATERIAM's own platform prices, before shipping. Projects stay private to the project_token and are deleted after 7 days unless the user opens the project in a MATERIAM account; MATERIAM keeps copies of uploaded files for a limited time to check its processing (https://materiam.com/legal/privacy.xhtml).