Clear aligner software: one plan, two manufacturing paths.
Clear aligner software with two manufacturing paths: plan once, then generate arch models for thermoforming, direct-print geometry, or both.
Clear-aligner manufacturing isn't one workflow anymore. Over the last few years it's split, and most labs are now making a real business decision between:
- Thermoforming — design the staged setup, print arch models for each stage, vacuum-form aligners over the models, trim, deliver. Mature, low-cost per unit, works with printers most labs already own.
- Direct-print aligners — print the aligners themselves on a photopolymer printer, skip the model and the thermoforming step. Faster per stage, more material-efficient, cleaner edges, more predictable thicknesses — but requires a printer rated for the photopolymer.
Each has a clinical case. Thermoforming wins on cost-per-unit for high-volume cases and on flexibility (the same model can be re-formed in different thicknesses). Direct-print wins on speed and on production consistency. The right answer for a given case depends on the patient, the timing, and the lab's printer fleet.
Plan in OrthoClic. Output in OrthoPlus.
GuideMia's clear aligner software separates the clinical step from the manufacturing step. The case is planned once in OrthoClic — staging, IPR, attachments, tooth-by-tooth movements, real-time chairside simulation, patient-friendly animation. The approved plan hands off to OrthoPlus, where the manufacturing-ready geometry is generated:
- Arch models per stage for thermoforming workflows.
- Direct-print aligners sized and shaped for direct photopolymer printing.
- Both, for a hybrid case where some stages thermoform and some print.
The clinical decisions live in OrthoClic — staging length, attachment placement, IPR strategy, the planned final position. The manufacturing decisions live downstream of the approved plan and don't pollute the planning step.
What this changes clinically
- A single plan to review. Doctors approve one staged setup, not "the thermoform version and the direct-print version." Less to verify, fewer chances for divergence between the two paths.
- Manufacturing-path switch without re-planning. If the lab moves a case from thermoform to direct-print mid-flight (a stage breaks, a material runs out, a new printer comes online), the plan doesn't have to be re-done. Re-output from OrthoPlus.
- Treatment files can be re-output as plans change. Mid-course corrections regenerate the output for the affected stages without rebuilding from scratch.
- Retainers fall out automatically. Once the final-stage tooth positions are approved, the retainer geometry is generated directly from them.
- Patient conversation stays clinical. The patient sees the planned final smile in the same OrthoClic view regardless of how the aligners will be made; "how it's manufactured" is a lab conversation, not a chairside one.
What this changes for labs
- One design pipeline, two products. Staff don't learn two parallel design tools to serve thermoform customers and direct-print customers. Same OrthoClic + OrthoPlus, same training, different output.
- Easier expansion into direct-print. A lab that's been thermoform-only for years can take on direct-print cases without retraining the design team — the operational change is downstream of the design step.
- Better quoting. Same design effort regardless of path; the cost differential between thermoform and direct-print is the manufacturing math, not the design hours.
- Hybrid cases on demand. A case where the first three stages run as direct-print (to deliver fast) and the rest run as thermoform (because the patient's insurance covers thermoform but not direct-print) is one plan, two output passes.
How it fits with the rest of GuideMia
OrthoClic is the chairside orthodontic software. OrthoPlus is the production design surface. AlignerBot runs on top of OrthoPlus for AI-driven case automation when you want the AI to handle the bulk pass. The clinical plan — whether the AI built it or a designer did — flows into the OrthoPlus output step, so the choice of design path doesn't constrain the choice of manufacturing path.
Try it
Book a walkthrough on one of your aligner cases and we'll show you OrthoClic planning once and OrthoPlus outputting both ways. Open the product page at cympha.com/alignerbot for the AlignerBot side. Or leave your email below for the walkthrough invitation.
Part of Dental Case Lifecycle Management. Cympha runs every dental case as one tracked record — intake to outcome, across every doctor, lab, and supplier — instead of a dozen disconnected tools. What is DCLM? →