Hexagon lowers barrier to advanced design tools with Geomagic Freeform 2026.1
Hexagon AB, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, has announced that its Manufacturing Intelligence division has released Geomagic Freeform 2026.1. The software, now available under a subscription pricing structure, is expected to allow more designers create complex, handcrafted-style sculptural and organic forms that are often too intricate for traditional CAD systems.
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Key applications include toy and packaging design, personalised surgical medical devices, orthotics and prosthetics, as well as mould and die design, making it suitable for industries ranging from consumer goods to healthcare. The software is reportedly now more accessible to project teams tasked with organic, irregular 3D design of manufactured products to use alongside their company’s standard tools.
“This marks our first Geomagic Freeform release as part of Hexagon, and we’re thrilled to continue delivering impactful releases for users worldwide,” said Kevin Atkins, Product Manager, Hexagon’s Portable Metrology Division. “With Haply Robotics integration and innovations like Python scripting, we’re making advanced 3D tools for organic and manufacturable design more powerful, intuitive, and accessible than ever.”
The new Deform Selection tool enables designers to move, rotate, or scale a selected region of a model while adjacent areas deform smoothly. For example, this enables users to change the pose of a toy dinosaur’s head or change the orientation of a patient’s scanned wrist in seconds. Hexagon states that this can save 10–20 minutes compared with completing the task through multiple manual steps.
Building on Geomagic Freeform’s Dynabot automation capabilities, the addition of Python scripting unlocks access to a comprehensive library of automation-ready tools. Designers can now automate custom workflows without requiring advanced programming expertise using the extensive Geomagic API library. For example, after a cranial implant plate has been designed in Freeform, the mold required for an acrylic manufacturing process can be generated through a fully Python-automated workflow, reportedly reducing the mold design time from an hour to just minutes.
Geomagic Freeform is typically used with a 3D haptic device that gives users an intuitive and interactive digital experience similar to clay modelling. A new award-winning solution with Haply Robotics reportedly delivers the realism of clay sculpting with the power of a digital platform. Geomagic Freeform software now supports the Inverse3 and the ultra-portable MinVerse, suited for designers on the go.
For existing users, the release includes productivity enhancements intended to streamline tasks such as measuring, sculpting, and deforming, enabling greater precision and efficiency. For healthcare customers, this release extends DICOM standard support to include RTSTRUCT, a critical format used in radiation oncology treatment planning. This enhancement is intended to improve the design workflow for bolus devices, enabling better device design and preparation for Additive Manufacturing.
