Materialise Magics

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

As of 31 August 2026, Materialise Magics's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. The data preparation software most metal and industrial polymer AM shops use to fix meshes, place parts and generate supports before printing. Softwr lists it under Manufacturing. Materialise Magics is made by Materialise NV, available on Windows.

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Overview

What Materialise Magics does

Magics takes CAD or scan geometry, repairs the mesh, orients and nests parts on a build platform, generates and edits support structures, and outputs a build file through a machine-specific Build Processor. It sits between design and the printer in production additive manufacturing, and in metal powder bed fusion in particular it is close to a default. The supporting cast matters as much as the core: Magics is sold with modules such as Simulation, Structures and e-Stage for automated support generation, and with separately licensed Build Processors for each machine platform. What distinguishes it is coverage of machines rather than any single function. A service bureau running EOS, SLM, Renishaw, 3D Systems and Stratasys equipment can prepare all of them in one environment rather than in five vendor slicers, and can compare nesting and orientation decisions on a common basis. That is a real operational saving and it is the reason bureaus tolerate the cost. Buyers are production AM service bureaus, aerospace and medical manufacturers, and internal AM departments in large industrials. The trade-off is licensing complexity and cost. The base seat is only the start: each Build Processor for each machine family is a separate purchase, and the automation modules that do the work you actually wanted, such as e-Stage, are additional. Since 15 May 2024 Materialise sells new seats and modules on subscription only, so an organisation that budgeted for a one-off capital purchase needs to re-plan as recurring operating expenditure.

What people use it 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

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Materialise Magics

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Materialise Magicsvs
Ultimaker Cura
Ultimaker Cura: Free and adequate if your work is desktop polymer printing rather than industrial metal
Materialise Magicsvs
PrusaSlicer
PrusaSlicer: Free open-source preparation for FDM and resin, with no industrial machine coverage
Materialise Magicsvs
Blender
Blender: For heavy mesh repair and sculpting work upstream of build preparation

Pricing

What Materialise Magics costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Magics Essentials

On request

Mesh repair and editing
Part orientation and platform placement
Basic support generation
Annual subscription, new seats subscription only since May 2024

Magics with modules

On request

Everything in Essentials
e-Stage automated supports, Simulation, Structures priced individually
Build Processors licensed per machine family
Quoted per seat and per module

Capabilities

Features

Mesh repair
Automatic and manual fixing of STL and mesh errors including inverted normals, holes and shells
Part orientation and nesting
Manual and automated 3D nesting to maximise parts per build
Support generation
Manual support editing plus e-Stage automated support generation as a paid module
Build Processors
Machine-specific output modules for EOS, SLM, Renishaw, 3D Systems, Stratasys and others, licensed separately
Simulation module
Distortion and thermal simulation to predict and compensate for build deformation
Structures module
Lattice and lightweight internal structure generation
Reporting and traceability
Build reports and part metadata for quality records in regulated production

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Keep looking

Where to go from Materialise Magics

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Materialise Magics, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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