Case Study: Cad2reality achieves fast, full-color, print-ready architectural maquettes with Materialise Magics

Cad2reality Brings Architectural Designs to Life with Materialise Magics

Cad2reality was engaged to produce full‑color 3D maquettes of AFAS’s new headquarters but faced the common architectural challenge of converting large, error‑ridden BIM files into watertight, printable models while preserving complex colors and textures. To tackle this, they turned to Materialise and its software Materialise Magics to prepare the files for 3D printing.

Using Materialise Magics, Cad2reality applied the ShrinkWrap repair tool to fix profound errors and connect components, and used advanced marking, triangle reduction, cutting and hollowing features to retain color and texture while optimizing file size; the team exported directly to .ZPR for full‑color printing. Materialise’s tools enabled repairs in a previously impossible timeframe, produced a perfectly printed, textured AFAS maquette, and led to a measurable impact—about 60% of the architectural discussions now revolve around the model.

Cad2reality

Richard Zethof

Owner and 3D CAD Specialist