The chess board of the 3D printing industry just rearranged a bit with this announcement that Autodesk, Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire netfabb, a Lupburg, Germany-based developer of software for industrial additive design and manufacturing. Autodesk will also make a strategic investment in FIT Technology Group, the parent company of netfabb and provider of additive manufacturing software and services. The two companies will collaborate to increase adoption of technology for industrial additive manufacturing.

Autodesk plans to use foreign capital for the transaction, which is expected to close in Autodeskís Q4 FY2016. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Said Samir Hanna, Autodesk vice president and general manager, Consumer & 3D Printing, “Autodesk has always been impressed by FITís track record in creating powerful solutions to meet the challenges of industrial additive manufacturing and together we will accelerate a new future of making things. We look forward to welcoming the netfabb team to Autodesk and helping designers and manufacturers worldwide take 3D printing beyond prototyping and plastics, to reliably creating production-grade parts at scale.”

More than 80,000 designers, manufacturers, artists, researchers and developers worldwide currently use netfabb solutions as part of their 3D printing process. Autodesk plans to support and expand this community by continuing to develop, sell and support netfabb software as well as integrate netfabb technology into Autodesk’s solutions for product design and additive manufacturing, including Autodesk Fusion 360 the Spark 3D printing platform.