Orlando, FL -- Rapid prototyping system vendors are out infull force at this year's SolidWorks User Conference, each stressing theadvantages of their tools over their competition's â€“ from the fastest processing times to thebiggest footprint to multi-material models.

Most striking, though, was the almost universal emphasis onlower price points, making these tools surprisingly more affordable for designteams looking to produce models from their CAD data for visualization,communication and in some cases functional testing. And, really, who doesn'tneed a system of their own to do all that?

Everybody, apparently, if the marketing folks have anythingto say about it.

At $14,900, the uPrint by Dimension (www.uAPrintDimension.com) is aneconomical choice that's marketed as a personal 3D printer that really will fiton a desktop (the footprint is 24 X 26 inch). Despite its relatively tiny size,the printer creates form-fit-and-function parts in plastic.

Bruce Bradshaw, director of marketing at Objet (www.objet.com) pointed Design News to the Alaris30, anentry-level system the company introduced in October. Priced at $40K, the unitis nearly 50 percent less than the previous starter model. Bradshaw says there's someeconomies of scale associated with selling higher volumes of systems, but alsoa few trade-offs in features. For example, the unit produces single materialparts, while the much higher priced Conix can print dual materials at biggersizes.

Finally, $48K Perfactory SXGA Standard Zoom printer byenvisiontec GmbH (www.envisiontec.com)exploits direct lightprojection technology to create high resolution models. The heftier price tagbuys users a greater choice in materials and faster processing speeds.