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3D Printing On Demand

Posted by timothy on from the safer-than-a-cnc-machine dept.

Iddo Genuth writes "The Netherlands based company Shapeways is beta testing a new service allowing people to print three-dimensional models. Customers can upload designs or use a creation tool hosted at the Shapeways website, then order a printed model of their designs for less than $3 per square centimeter. The printed items are shipped to the customer in ten days or less, bringing 3D printing to consumers and not just companies large enough to afford their own printers."

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Eh? by Colin+Smith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Shouldn't that be cubic centimetres? Y'know... The third dimension.

     

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  2. Waaaaaah? by wisty · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So will they mind if some of the 'prototypes' have an eerie resemblance to 40k minitures?

  3. A new copyright battle? by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Right now this process is quite expensive, so this isn't going to be a problem, but I can imagine this getting cheaper.

    Some people are going to be using this to make 3D copies of cheap plastic items they own. Another poster mentioned Warhammer miniatures, and I could imagine lots of other small but expensive items being copied.

    Once someone with money takes notice of this, I guarantee a legal battle tying to make it illegal.

  4. not only is this not news by Libertarian001 · · Score: 5, Informative

    But it's a duplicate add from a few months back for the same company pimping their crappy service. Why do I say crappy? I've done a few prints (30+, actually) on the Objet Eden, the same manufacturer this SERVICE BUREAU is using. My bureau uses a high end machine set to high resolution. These guys use the low end machine set to high speed. And they've decided to write some proprietary translator to take my perfectly functional files and mangle them so they can't be used (and these guys have major self-induced scaling issues). In short, they're a bureau, nothing more.

  5. Nothing new about this... by swatje · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is really nothing new about this kind of service... Materialise is offering this service for already 10 years... http://www.materialise.com/materialise/view/en/91955-Online+service.html