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I've been testing out a da Vinci 1.0 AiO. The results haven't been very impressive. Over half the time the PLA filament doesn't stick to the bed, resulting in a blob of plastic just sticking to the extruder. The 3D scanner is just about useless. I haven't had a scan work even close to accurate yet. Anything with black scans as negative space. Pretty much the only things you can scan with any degree of success are small, white geometric objects with a matte finish.

Today I'm testing out a Cube Pro 3D printer, and expecting much better results. We'll be using our printers for student projects in arts & sciences.

It really is a silly question. IBM has an artificial brain with as many synapses as a human brain right now. Fusion energy is on the verge of a breakthrough, 3-D printers are almost cost effective on a per-household basis, solar power is dropping to the cost of coal power, Moore's law has held steady for decades... We are at the start of a second industrial revolution that will put everything in history to shame and without the exploding population from the first one. The world will be totally unrecognizable in a hundred years.

A 3D printer with DRM already exists. There's an "app store" from which you buy designs, and pay per copy. It seems to be aimed at people who want to turn out models of popular-culture objects.

The new thing in this patent is recognizing copies of 3D objects by form, rather than merely having DRM on existing files. This looks like one of Intellectual Ventures' front companies. Note the name and location.

While 3D printing a car is silly, 3D printing replacements for small interior plastic parts is possible now. There are 3D printers big enough to make a car fender, and they're used to make mockups of new car designs.

Trying to enforce Fabrication Rights Management seems like it'll be even more of a comical failure - not to mention far more likely to raise the ire of the general public.

Cubify already has a DRM-crippled 3D printer. They have an "app store", from which you can download designs you can only print once.

Interestingly enough I found this:

http://cubify.com/info/learn/terms_of_service.aspx#general

Something like #7 will do the trick : 3D Systems® reserves the right to amend these Terms of Service at any time and without notice, and it is your responsibility to review these Terms of Service for any changes. [snip]

I give you... http://cubify.com/

Oh, great. A 3D printer with DRM copy protection. "We have a very robust and advanced security and anti-fraud system that protects your creations at all times."

I give you... http://cubify.com/

Oh, great. A 3D printer with DRM copy protection. "We have a very robust and advanced security and anti-fraud system that protects your creations at all times."

It's great that they're keeping the project open-source, but they won't stay competitive if they keep going with the laser-cut wood parts. They already have these guys breathing down their necks. They need to start cutting prices, and that means mass-producing SMT electronics (which, while they can keep open-source, are much more difficult to self-assemble) and replace the "shell" with one made of plastic-injection parts. They can only keep so many people loyal for keeping the entire thing open-source -- most people will look at the price. This doesn't mean that they have to close everything down -- the electronic schematics can remain open-source and so can all of the software, but the hardware -- as it is now -- is not (/will not remain) competitive.

Seems like a lot of wasted space. The bulk of the Slashdot community will never change their opinion and the other side won't change their opinion. The arguments are always the same so why is the subject matter worthy of three posts in a row? Yes they are slightly different but the responses aren't. We might as well run three posts in a row on Evolution verses Creationism. I'm not trying to troll but it seems like the whole thread ends up being redundant and we're into the second decade of the debate. There just has to be other tech stories to cover. There's lots of cool stuff going on in the maker community. Things like the Cube bringing slick professional 3D printing at an afordable price $1,299. http://cubify.com/cube/index.aspx Or a $249 vacuum former kit. http://www.phlatboyz.com/Phlatformer-Kit_p_10.html It just seems there's more happening in the tech world than limiting copyrights and the downloading fight. If some one comes up with a fresh slant on the subject I'm thrilled to hear it but the two sides are so far apart I don't see any compromise in the near future if ever. Just saying to the editors can we keep it to a couple of stories a day and space them out a bit?

Please not that. We've been down that road, and we know where it leads. HP will be selling 3D printer "ink" for $100 per microgram.

We are already there.
http://cubify.com/cube/index.aspx
They have "cheap" consumer 3D printer, but they charge arm and a leg for plastic AND they charge for individual 3D designs!!!11one

The big story at CES is the debut of Cubify, a $1299 MSRP 3D printer that uses technology similar to the Makerbot, but it is a bit more professionally assembled. It will launch with accepting a USB drive with STL files on it, and may later have WiFi with an open API.