The Monte-Carlo Method, described in the Guide for Uncertainty Measurement Supplement 1, is advocated by metrologists to evaluate the uncertainty of measurement. This method requires computational resources to generate random numbers, which is a limit for a common use compared with the GUM uncertainty framework. In order to popularize the Monte-Carlo method, LNE-MCM software was developed as a user-friendly software by the Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais. LNE-MCM is dedicated to the evaluation of measurement uncertainty using Monte Carlo simulations according to the principles of the supplement 1 to the GUM. Moreover, additional features are implemented: the case of multivariate models, sensitivity analysis to provide an uncertainty budget and a goodness-of-fit test for the samples of the output quantities. LNE-MCM is freely available on LNE's website since January 2016.

This article is a review about “additive manufacturing”, popularized under “3D printing”, and takes an inventory of the tests and metrological needs that the technology generates. It defines additive manufacturing and presents the materials used, the significance and the brakes of the technology, and application areas. It also lists and describes in detail the principle of the seven categories of processes that the technology counts.