Lately, I feel like everywhere I turn, there's some sort of news or announcement having to do with 3D printing. And I'm not just talking about in engineering circles or in highly specialized magazines or Websites. We're talking about articles on CNN or MSNBC, even on local news stations.
All of these announcements (and we've written about quite a few lately) have to do with one thing: The price and accessibility of these once very obscure, highly expensive, and mostly out of reach technologies are plummeting down to a place where the small and mid-sized engineering organization -- and, more importantly, the average individual -- can, for a few thousand dollars (or less), outfit themselves with a ready-made inventing kit.
To be sure, lots of folks are talking up the whole "maker revolution" with the average Joe designing and producing everything from jewelry to his own gadgets and inventions. Small and mid-size shops can tap less expensive 3D modeling software and 3D printers to produce prototypes and even manufacture one-off or limited-run parts.
Just a few weeks back, Autodesk announced its Autodesk 123D, a free Windows-based 3D modeling program, which it is pairing with digital printing services from a variety of partners, including 3D Systems and Ponoko. Alibre recently inked its own deal with 3D Systems to offer a couple of software/3D printer bundles, and then there's the Autodesk Labs Photofly preview, which is a service that converts a series of regular digital photographs into a 3D model.
Now, Dassault Systèmes is jumping into the fray. It is announcing a partnership with the 3D printing online service Sculpteo to allow users of its 3DVIA.com community the ability to order online 3D-printed versions of its 3DVIA-hosted models. Users click on the "Send to Sculpteo 3D Print" button on their 3DVIA model's view page, specify their preferred model size, and choose from a variety of print options. Final printed models are sent directly to the user's snail mailbox. 3DVIA is promising a bunch of extras with this offering, including analysis of the 3D model to ensure the best results, along with an array of digital repair and optimization services.
The new 3D printers are pretty cool. We use them for prototyping at my company. The 3D components can be assembled and actually function. I hear that the next step is using powered metals to produce components. I can't wait to test these out.
Dassault Systèmes proposes a free design tool called 3DVIA Shape (http://www.3dvia.com/products/3dvia-shape/), directly connected to 3DVIA.com where 3D designs and prototypes can be stored, used in 3D experiences and/or sent to 3D print. It's pretty much a 3-clicks process. Your feedback would be most welcome.
Printing a house is pretty cool. We did a story on Design News about KOR EcoLogic, a company using 3D printing to produce a prototype of a car. I'm sure there are mounting examples of 3D printing used in ways unimaginable before.
I too have seen a lot of this 3D printing lately. I read an article about a larger unit that could "print" a house, well sort of. Just Google "print-a-house", it is a project at USC supported by Caterpillar. I am thinking that as the cost of the printers comes down various services will proliferate that will print the design for you if you don't have your own printer as you mentioned. The advent of readily available and easy to use software for designing the items will accelerate this tend even more.
I have used Google sketchup but it has been a long time since I worked with the more upscale tools. If someone links a free adn easy to use tool like sketchup to a 3D printing service it will definitely be a boost in this trend. I can see this being combined with other prototyping tools like the Arduino tools to be able to create much better working designs and prototypes.
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