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3D Printing For Everyone
mmacx writes "Technology Review has up an article about Shapeways, a new online rapid-prototyping service that allows users to upload digital designs which are then printed on 3-D printers and shipped back. A spinoff from Philips Research, the service gives small businesses, designers, artists, and hobbyists access to prototyping tools that were once available only to the largest corporations. The fee for a typical printed object is $50-$150. Their video shows the steps behind the process." We've been talking about 3D printing for years.
A life-size statue of CowboyNeal.
You mean like this one ?
Haha, they don't realize that they will bring about their own downfall:
1. Order prototype of prototype-making machine
2. Make your own prototypes.
3. ???
4. Profit!!!
Every time 3-D printing comes up I like to consider what this will do to my favorite hobby, model-building...
Styrene injection kits have been around for ages, and they're generally the cheapest way to get a kit made in large quantity - but because it costs so much to set up the molds, usually they're pretty hesitant to make a kit of anything that's not a pretty sure-fire seller... Additionally the hobby has been dying by inches for a long time.
To fill all the niches of interesting subjects that nobody's bothered to make injection kits of (this would be, for instance, things like the Serenity cargo ship) there's resin kits - but because of the high degree of manual labor involved in casting the parts, as well as the material expenses and the initial sculpting work divided over a run of maybe a couple hundred kits, they're pretty expensive for the person buying the kit...
But then you think about stuff going on these days, like papercraft - people making model designs, putting them online in a form that other people can print out and build dirt-cheap. The results aren't generally as good as injection or resin models but it's quite impressive, and inspiring what they've accomplished...
So it's fun to think about what fabrication could mean for the hobby. On the one hand it may actually mean less people buying and building models, or scratch-building parts themselves. Rather, once the technology is cheap enough, more things will be simply fabricated. But on the other hand - to think of something that would today be a garage kit, only done up as a downloadable design for fabrication... that would be pretty damn cool.
Bow-ties are cool.
Holler when they can selectively print with highly conductive and non-conductive inks. I can then design 3D, flexible, massively interconnected PC boards.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Great there goes my plans of printing tesseracts.
Don't anthropomorphize computers. They *hate* that.
...in the pubic domain!
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
I would have complained about a direct link (http://www.shapeways.com/ in the summary, but the site is a bit rude to looky-loos like us who just want to see what's going on. Almost all their front page links are blocked until you log in, even the "getting started" page! The "about" page is about all you can see, and it's got no real details. What is the printing resolution? What material choices? Can you print two-material designs? Come on, Shapeways, if you want to generate buzz, put out a bit more welcome mat.
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...because someone used that service to copy a product. It will be from a dildo manufacturer, I promise you that much!
Well they do have a limit in size, so [insert penis size joke here]
We've had 3D printing for over 15 years to my knowledge. Probably more like 20 years. My high school got one way back when, it was called a "Stereo Lithography Apparatus" or SLA for short. You inserted a disk containing an acceptable 3D wire mesh file format, put in a bucket of "printing goop" and pressed a button. An ultraviolet laser then solidified the goop in the shape of the 3D object you gave it and drained the rest of the goop back into the drainage pan. We used it for rapid prototyping in our CAD/CAM lab.
The goop used is the same stuff that dentists use for "clear" or "tooth colored" fillings. It is a translucent yellowy resin that solidifies when exposed to ultra violet light.
The goop was pretty darn expensive stuff. I imagine if demand hasn't increased greatly or if SLAs haven't gone down in price then the goop probably hasn't changed much in price over the years.
Hello, gentlemen. I am interested in your offering. I am linking to my specification here: http://babes.com/monica_bellucci. How long should I expect to wait for delivery?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Not sure on the open source software front but i've always been fond of Rhinoceros 3D for doing modeling since it is relatively in-expensive to buy a commercial copy ($900).
You can send your 3-D file to lots of companies, i'm not sure why ShapeWays is getting all the press when there are thousands of RP companies called "service bureaus" that will take 3-D models you upload and print them using some RP machine then ship them to you, usually with a 1-2 day turn-around time.
I used to get some parts done with http://www.rjmrp.com/ but they focus mainly on high-resolution small parts (such as jewelry pieces). So, if you're designing jewelry i'd recommend them otherwise look for some other companies using Stratasys type machines (there are lots). The costs they quote sound about normal, typical jewelry prototypes were around $100 or so for a ring in .001" resolution.
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson
It isn't mentioned in the article, but it is clear from the images that they used Blender for the demo items and screenshots, indeed the two images from the article are rather well known among Blender users, one is from 'man in man' a short by Sacha, and the other is Petunia by macuonu which was used for a collaborative animation for the Blender art festival. Also some of individuals involved in Shapeways are major Blenderheads.
I thought Shapeways was being supported by Phillips but was under the impression that it started externally and hence would not be a spinoff.
LetterRip
But it still suffers from the age old problem of control by those who own the press. Let's get the printers in the hands of everyone to insure that control goes where it belongs. Then we can make our own DRM free hardware for instance.
What?
DUDE! 50x50cm is the max size (source).
If you get sqrt(2*50)cm (about 28in) into any orifice of yours, I'd go for a career in the porn industry. I'm pretty sure there's a market for that (hell, there's people who get off on anything, so I'm almost sure!).
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The site seems slashdotted already. Google's cache should have a copy of their 3D printer, laser etcher, and other services for building (nearly) anything that you can imagine.
This is the most innovative thing to hit Silicon Valley in years. It really should've been covered by Slashdot long ago.
The advantage the Techshop has over mail-in is that you can get advice on how to create your prototype. The costs for a 3D print job can vary greatly depending on how you do it. Just the orientation alone can either save you or cost you quite a bit. So that's why I prefer "hands on". Now, if I really knew what I was doing, or I didn't have a TechShop nearby, then I'd probably do a mail-order service.
As far as apps goes, you can pull down one of the Google apps (whose name I've forgotten at the moment) and use that.
Oh - and the guy who founded the TechShop used to work with Mythbusters in creating their gadgets. I hear they even showed up on opening day.
I have no connecting with the Techshop other than has a happy and frequent customer.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
I can see one stumbling block for 3D printing becoming more popular: the software you need to create a 3D model is generally expensive and difficult to use.
Google Sketchup is a potential answer here, but the last time I checked, the 3D printing house I wanted to use didn't accept Sketchup files (and/or the free version of Sketchup doesn't allow export to any generic 3D format).
Which is why I tagged this story dildo.
Seems like the perfect use for the service :)
Can they do cavities? ;/
When everyone can accurately 3d-print objects, does getting the design for, say, a type of chair then 3d-printing it without paying, count as theft? After all, you're not depriving anyone else of the model chair the 3d specifications were based on.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
this has been done before quite a bit, there are plenty of places online that let you upload a model to their website and purchase the fabbed plastic result.
however, more competition will probably bring the prices down. also, more attention to this sort of capability will make it more popular, and bring the prices down/advance the technology.
i worked at a place where they blew tens of thousands of dollars on a 3D printer, printed one prototype out and then let it sit there. big companies can't think outside the box. they'd probably make a lot of money running an operation like Shapeways. i think the reason they bought a whole machine to make one simple prototype (i'm sure they'll use it in the future as well, it just seems hard to justify not just having it fabbed quickly by someone else who owns one already) is because they were very paranoid about someone stealing their designs, plus they're just fun to use.
my first hand knowledge watching them use the machine is this; the layering technique using two kinds of material, a white plastic and a black or brown organic substance. in order to make gaps/holes/crevices and other 3D abnormalities the darker substance is used in those areas. when the printing is done they have to place the model in a lye solution to eat the darker matter away.
you see the fella in the video doing this at the end, it is also why he is using gloves. lye is very dangerous to human skin/flesh. if you've ever seen fight club you'll know what it can do, and you get a pretty detailed explanation and history from tyler about it.
i think they used borax afterward to clean the lye off and any residuals. the whole process can take a long time depending on how large and how complex your model is. some things are better left in overnight. the cubes they used were the simplest and easiest thing to make with this and they kept their model small, so the duration of the print was short.
the materials that go into this are expensive and since they only have one (maybe two?) machines this is most likely why they charge alot more for complex/larger models. it all depends on what you send them.
can you fax me some?
This Shapeways 3D printing service requires models in Collada (or X3D) format. Other than running Windows SketchUp under Wine, which is so buggy that it crashes when you try to save a file, what's a really good, basic Linux 3D studio, suitable for learning in about 10-15 minutes how to sketch out accurate scale models of houses and basic landscape, that imports and exports Collada format?
Then I can 3D print the models, and I can export them to Google Earth. I could even download and import my neighborhood, tweak it, and 3D print it for my trainset.
--
make install -not war
I'm a garage-kit maker -- 1/285 Macross and 1/2500 Star Trek, available at http://scifiskunkwerks.blogspot.com/. All of my models are done in CAD first, then rapid prototyped. I spent several months looking for an affordable way to get my parts printed out in the quality that I needed and I'm always on the lookout for being able to just buy my own machine. So when this PAID ADVERTISEMENT masquerading as an article came along I was pretty interested. RTFA and you'll see: "The 3-D printers that Shapeways is using are commercially available, made by Israeli firm Objet and Stratsys in Eden Prairie, MN." That means they're nothing more than a print bureau. Big farking whoop. Last night I saw a nice, big Objet add on the front page and now I know why. Incidentally, I'm already having my stuff printed on Objets. The quality is top-notch. I'm just irritated (no coffee this morning) because this is a non-article.
> Wake me up when we have a 3D printer that is capable of printing a 3D printer. Then we'll be on to something.
But if it copied itself, wouldn't the copy that came out be in the process of copying itself? If that happens, then it will become possible for someone to phsyically fork-bomb the universe!
This is just the sort of end to the universe that Douglas Adams would have really appreciated.
Most of our users are using Blender to create their own model. In fact, one of the principles of the project is the former head of the Blender Foundation.
The difference here and the other companies is that this one is going for the mass market. The others are looking at niche areas. They are also looking at doing Cafe-Press-style stores and so on.
Life is complete only for brief intervals in between toys or projects -- John Dalton
why do they insist that you log-in before seeing anything on their site? I was interested until i had to register.
Actually, you can print on the volume diagonal, so the correct formula is sqrt(3*50^2), or about 87cm (34 in). Ouch indeed.
Well, non-adult, but similar... Printcrime...
It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage. - Colonel Henry Walton Jones, Jr., Ph.D.