BOGY Internship at Shapr3D

Julius wearing the Apple Vision Pro at Shapr3Ds office.

Personal suitability and inclination

Even as a child I was interested in new technologies and always have been excited to see what new products Apple will introduce. Over time this has turned into a strong interest in the technical background of technologies. As my father bought a 3D printer, I had the idea of using it to turn a pedometer into a shoe and came into contact with code for the first time. Since then I have been programming in my free time and in a mini-job which meant the professional field for the BOGY internship was clear to me: software development.

My exploration site

CAD tools provide the foundation of our world. The chair I'm sitting on, the bed in it I sleep, the car I drive and my desk were most likely 3D modeled in a CAD tool. This is because when a product is produced the machine that produces the part must know what it is supposed to produce.So a 3D model is modeled in a CAD tool, exported in the appropriate format and handed over to a so-called “slicer”. The “slicer” has the task of cutting the 3D model and to “translate” its geometry into instructions for a specific machine (e.g. to at what point the 3D printer has to go up a layer). Anything the machine executes is stated in these translated instructions. These are mostly in the Language Gcode understandable for the machine. The company of the same name has Shapr3D CAD program and is therefore a software company. The company offers a subscription model with which it generates regular income and invests it in the Development of new functions, as recently the development for the Apple Vision Pro. The Shapr3D CAD program is available on all Apple platforms and also available on Windows. The main advantage of Shapr3D over other CAD Programs is its user-friendly interface. On the Apple iPad or a Microsoft Surface you can model with a digital pencil, on the Mac or a Windows PC with Mouse and keyboard. Modeling with a digital pencil (e.g. Apple Pencil) makes the process much more intuitive and offers a big advantage over other CAD programs that I have already tested. Shapr3D's headquarters are located on the 5th and 6th floors of an office building in the Downtown Budapest. Due to the growing number of employees, they are still moving to a larger office on the Danube this summer.As in many “startup-like” companies, Shapr3D also tries to keep the hierarchies short and make it effective. In every team there are team leaders who are you can go with your concerns. The employees meet at eye level, they are humorous and make jokes with each other. The work culture at Shapr3D is characterized of Productivity and collaboration, there are no fixed working hours. Rather, It's about every employee being able to identify with the product and therefore wanting to get the best out of the software and themselves. A rough guideline at Shapr3D is approximately 8 productive working hours. If someone has to leave early or If the person comes later, it's ok as long as the person completes his tasks.

Process and forms of inquiry

On Monday morning, Vivienn from human resources management showed me around the office AppEx team, where I have met Kristof (team leader) and Tim (software engineer in the AppEx team). Kristof and Tim explained to me the codebase and how it is structured on a high level.After the explination and setting up my mac, I was able to start my task: creating a dialog for importing STL files on Mac. I was able to use my previous knowledge of Swift to solve problems as for example how to resolve platform differences between iPad and Mac. I was finished by Thursday and then created tests for the dialog. This is done to ensure that the code works the way you want it to in every scenario. I've never had that before made, which is why it was particularly exciting. What was motivating was that I knew that my Code should be merged into the codebase by the end of the week (in version 5.570 available). I also had a meeting with Alexander Pavlov, a product manager from Shapr3D who gave me insights into data-based decisions. In a conversation with Peter Koks, a 3D Printing and manufacturing experts at Shapr3D, he explained to me a concept of how to 3D model complex shapes. I had lunch with CTO Akos Kapui on Friday who explained to me the importance of usability and how this is achieved with Shapr3D. His stories about collaborations and his startups before Shapr3D were also very exciting There was another surprise for me on Friday: I was allowed to use the Apple Vision Pro, which is normally not available in the EU yet! That was an absolute highlight for me!

Target job and professional field

At the moment I can well imagine becoming a software engineer. Often times you need a master or bachelors degree which is what i am aiming for. The pay is very good and there are good opportunities for advancement, to become a team leader or a product manager.

Personal conclusion

For me, the week at Shapr3D was a very nice one. I could communicate with others, exchange with developers, something I rarely have the opportunity to do otherwise. It was fun to develop a function and solve the problems that arise. Because I already had experience in this area, it is a confirmation for me that I would like to continue my career in this direction and that the courses I took at home (CS50, CS50AI, 100 Days Of SwiftUI) were exactly right and helpful. I hope for deeper understanding from further courses and a degree program that includes new technologies.