With the extensive application of 3D printing (3DP) in smartmanufacturing, 4D printing (4DP), which enhances 3D printed objects with shapemorphing ability by using smart materials, has shown significant industrial potentialand attracted tremendous attention. One key concern of 4DP is how to effectivelyand quickly meet different production and application requirements considering thecomplexity of materials and diversity of stimulus methods. In order to provide ageneral research platform for 4DP researchers, a flexible 4DP service platform isproposed. Components and modules for building 4DP and test systems are modeledand virtualized to form the different resources. These resources are then integratedvirtually or physically to provide some basic functions such as a 3D displacementstage or a visual monitoring system. According to different 4DP requirements, thesefunctions are then encapsulated into services to serve different research. Theplatform enables a variety of 4DP applications in smart manufacturing environmentssuch as 4D printed magnetic medical robots, test platform for studying the 4DPresponse, etc. A case study on designing a ferromagnetic 4DP platform based on theservice platform is performed to prove the feasibility of the method.