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Manufacturing · head to head

Materialise Magics vs TrendMiner

Materialise Magics logo

Materialise Magics

Manufacturing

Industrial build preparation and data repair for metal and polymer additive manufacturing

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
TrendMiner logo

TrendMiner

Manufacturing

Search-driven time series analytics for process engineers, now owned by Proemion rather than Software AG

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Materialise Magics new seats and modules have been subscription only since 15 May 2024, so the perpetual purchase route is closed and existing perpetual holders are on a shrinking island.; TrendMiner ownership moved from Software AG to Proemion in a 47 million euro sale during the Silver Lake break-up, so the integration roadmap tied to webMethods and Cumulocity is gone and the new owner is far smaller.
  • They diverge on capability: Materialise Magics covers Mesh repair, TrendMiner covers Pattern search.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Materialise Magics and TrendMiner actually diverge.

Attributes where Materialise Magics and TrendMiner differ
AttributeMaterialise MagicsTrendMiner
PlatformsWindowsWeb, Windows, Linux

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Manufacturing).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Materialise Magics

  • Mesh repair
  • Part orientation and nesting
  • Support generation
  • Build Processors
  • Simulation module
  • Structures module
  • Reporting and traceability

Only in TrendMiner

  • Pattern search
  • Value-based search
  • Monitors
  • Soft sensors
  • Context items
  • Dashboards
  • Machine learning models
  • ContextHub

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Materialise Magics

  • A service bureau running several brands of metal printer that wants one preparation environment instead of five vendor slicersnot TrendMiner
  • Repairing badly formed STL or scan-derived meshes that a machine slicer will not acceptnot TrendMiner
  • Automating support generation on metal parts where manual support editing is the bottleneck in the processnot TrendMiner
  • Simulating and compensating for build distortion before committing an expensive metal buildnot TrendMiner

TrendMiner

  • Finding every prior occurrence of a heat exchanger fouling signature to estimate cleaning frequency from history rather than from a rule of thumbnot Materialise Magics
  • Comparing golden batches against off-spec ones in a pharmaceutical process without exporting to a data science teamnot Materialise Magics
  • Building a monitor that flags the early temperature signature that preceded the last three compressor tripsnot Materialise Magics
  • Giving a process engineer a way to answer a question in an afternoon that previously required a historian export and a spreadsheet weeknot Materialise Magics

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Materialise Magics

  • New seats and modules have been subscription only since 15 May 2024, so the perpetual purchase route is closed and existing perpetual holders are on a shrinking island.
  • Build Processors are licensed separately per machine family, so adding a new printer brand adds a licence line as well as capital cost, and a mixed fleet multiplies the software bill.
  • The modules that deliver the biggest labour saving, notably e-Stage automated support generation, are paid extras, so the base seat alone leaves you doing manual support work.
  • Materialise publishes no prices anywhere, and quotes vary by region and reseller, so two similar bureaus can pay materially different amounts for the same configuration.
  • It is Windows only and remains a desktop application, which sits awkwardly with the cloud direction of Materialise CO-AM and means preparation capacity is tied to specific workstations and licence seats.

TrendMiner

  • Ownership moved from Software AG to Proemion in a 47 million euro sale during the Silver Lake break-up, so the integration roadmap tied to webMethods and Cumulocity is gone and the new owner is far smaller.
  • It is built for continuous time series and handles discrete manufacturing, relational quality data and event-driven production poorly, so plants that are not continuous process get limited value.
  • Value depends entirely on historian data quality and tag naming; sites with inconsistent tag descriptions and missing asset context spend months on data preparation before the search features are usable.
  • Licensing is by named analyst user, and the population who genuinely use pattern search is small, so organisations that buy broadly pay for seats that log in occasionally.
  • It reads history but does not fix it: there is no data collection layer, so an existing historian is mandatory and TrendMiner is always an additional cost on top of it.

Pricing, plan by plan

Materialise Magics

On request
  • Magics Essentials$undefined/year
    • Mesh repair and editing
    • Part orientation and platform placement
    • Basic support generation
  • Magics with modules$undefined/year
    • Everything in Essentials
    • e-Stage automated supports, Simulation, Structures priced individually
    • Build Processors licensed per machine family

TrendMiner

On request
  • TrendMiner$undefined/year
    • Annual subscription sized by named users and connected historian tag volume
    • Separate licence tiers for full analyst users and view-only dashboard consumers
    • Historian connectors quoted per source system

Which should you pick?

Choose Materialise Magics if

  • You need mesh repair.
  • You work on Windows.
  • You also want part orientation and nesting.
Materialise Magics review

Choose TrendMiner if

  • You need pattern search.
  • You work on Web, Windows, Linux.
  • You also want value-based search.
TrendMiner review

Questions people ask

Is Materialise Magics or TrendMiner better?
Neither clearly leads. Materialise Magics starts at On request and TrendMiner at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Materialise Magics or TrendMiner?
Materialise Magics starts at On request and TrendMiner at On request.
Does Materialise Magics or TrendMiner run on more platforms?
Materialise Magics runs on Windows. TrendMiner runs on Web, Windows, Linux.
What is Materialise Magics best used for?
Materialise Magics is most often used for a service bureau running several brands of metal printer that wants one preparation environment instead of five vendor slicers, repairing badly formed stl or scan-derived meshes that a machine slicer will not accept, automating support generation on metal parts where manual support editing is the bottleneck in the process, simulating and compensating for build distortion before committing an expensive metal build. Of those, a service bureau running several brands of metal printer that wants one preparation environment instead of five vendor slicers and repairing badly formed stl or scan-derived meshes that a machine slicer will not accept are not what TrendMiner is typically brought in for.
What can Materialise Magics do that TrendMiner cannot?
Materialise Magics covers Mesh repair, Part orientation and nesting, Support generation, Build Processors. TrendMiner covers Pattern search, Value-based search, Monitors, Soft sensors.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Materialise Magics: Can I still buy a perpetual Magics licence?

No. Since 15 May 2024 Materialise sells new seats and new modules on subscription only. Existing perpetual licences continue to work but new capacity is subscription.

TrendMiner: Who owns TrendMiner now?

Proemion, a German industrial analytics company backed by Battery Ventures, which bought it from Software AG for 47 million euros in 2024.

Materialise Magics: Do I need a separate Build Processor for each printer?

You need one per machine family, licensed separately from the Magics seat. Budget for it before you buy the printer.

TrendMiner: Does it replace my historian?

No. It connects to PI, IP.21, PHD, Exaquantum and others and reads from them. The historian remains the system of record.

Materialise Magics: Is Magics the same as CO-AM?

No. Magics is desktop build preparation. CO-AM is the Materialise cloud platform for AM workflow and production management, which absorbed the former Link3D product.

TrendMiner: Do I need a data scientist to use it?

No, and that is the point. The pattern search and soft sensor tooling are aimed at process engineers with no coding background.

Materialise Magics: Does Magics slice?

It prepares and supports the build and hands off through a Build Processor, which produces the machine-ready file. The machine-specific processing lives in the Build Processor.

TrendMiner: Is pricing per user?

Yes, largely, with tiers for analyst and view-only access plus charges for historian connectors and data volume.

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