Max and I had a really great time talking to nTopology CEO Brad Rothenberg. Brad started nTopology as a series of tools for creating lattices, but it became much more than that with a new way of modeling and simulating using signed distance functions to form an equation describing a shape. Also called volumetric modeling or implicit modeling, this technique makes shapes easy to describe and modify.

This compares to the  the cumbersome way through which STLs describe all the winding triangles in large files that take ages to render or modify. This is a new path to making and describing geometry. By not having to update or keep track of all faces and normals and indeed the mesh, as you would with NURBS and other ways to generate and manipulate geometries in CAD, nTopology is meant to be faster. Especially for large files, complex files and complex parts, the company’s nTop software should be able to generate manifold geometries and modify them through a series of parameters quickly.

But, will the team be able to find a place next to Autodesk, Dassault and ANSYS? Will it be able to compete, or play nice with the triangle giants? We talk about this and a lot more with Brad in an enlightening conversation.