MineToys!

If it's in 3D, it will be printed. That is the theme we see everywhere now. The latest venture in the theme is MineToys, a service that can 3D print your MineCraft characters. 

 

Like those who went before printing World of Warcraft, Mii or Second Life avatars, we now have a service that can replicate your Minecraft character. The service offers two sizes: Big and Small, priced at USD$50 and USD$20 respectively. How big is "Big"? It's 120mm or 4.7 inches tall, while the "Small" is half that size. Curiously, MineToys lists a mysterious "Deluxe" offering that isn't available yet. 

 

Are they actually printing these characters? Nope, it seems they've teamed up with Shapeways to actually produce the objects using their 3D print service in "Full Color Sandstone".  

 

Via MineToys

Shapeways NYC Base

Shapeways, one of the leading 3D print services, announced it's opening up a New York City production facility. This plant would include a variety of 3D printers suitable for printing customer objects on demand. While they already can do this with a European production facility in Eindhoven and through a network of partner 3D print services, having their own offers some advantages. Mostly these advantages are faster production and possibly lower costs (at least for Shapeways). The reduction in intercontinental shipping is obviously good for the environment, too. Shapeways customers could see diminished production and ship times if they reside in North America. 

 

We think 3D print services is really a volume-driven business. As Shapeways grows they'll be able to add more capabilities and locations. This is but one more step. 

 

Via Shapeways

Shapeways Smooths Out The Ceramics

3D print service Shapeways has re-announced their ceramic service. They've long been known for experimenting with different materials in their 3D printers and now offer what is probably the widest array of materials to choose from when using a 3D print service. 

 

As is their habit, they typically offer a new material experimentally so that they may learn how to do it just right. Earlier this year they brought in ceramics capability and now they have improved the results significantly. Just take a look at their before and after images above (click for higher detail). The left image looks just a tad wobbly, but evidently this has been solved by perfecting their glazing step. 

 

Via Shapeways

From iPad to Your Finger

The ubiquitous iPad is well known because the primary interface is, well, your finger. Sometimes more than one. Nevertheless, a new iPad app promises to turn the tables on the interface by permitting you to design (with your trusty iPad finger) a 3D ring. The iRing3D app by Paracloud does just that. 

 

The app lets you select an initial design from a group of typical ring shapes, after which you may play with the design (with your finger) to adjust the shape as you like. There's plenty of options for customization.  

 

While that's mildly interesting, it gets better: once you've completed your design you can upload your jewelry design directly from the iPad to 3D print services Shapeways or Sculpteo! Then the ring you designed will be produced in real life, hopefully in solid gold or some such valuable metal, and you'll soon have a real ring around the same finger that designed it. 

 

Via Shapeways

Tinkercad Adds Shapeways

As we suspected, another 3D print service has added Tinkercad integration into their interface. Shapeways joins i.Materialise as an option for printing your 3D models developed in Tinkercad. Tinkercad is a web-based, very easy to use 3D solid modeling tool. 

 

The addition of a Shapeways interface permits direct 3D printing capability, very similar to what you'd experience in word processing software. Well, the print may take a couple of days to get to you, but the software experience is very similar. 

 

The question is, does this mean Tinkercad is now the King of web-based 3D modeling tools? What about 123d? Will they add print service connections as well? 

 

Via Shapeways

The Hamburger Shoe

People always get excited about 3D printed food in spite of the fact there are precious few ways to do so. While we await the development of a consumer food printer, others continue to experiment. Shapeways reports on a great experiment in which their member Tristan Bethe 3D scanned his shoe, 3D printed a slightly smaller model of it, formed food-safe silicon around it to form a food mold. 

 

He then simply poured in semi-fluid bread dough and baked himself a shoe. Adding a sole-shaped meat patty completed the "shoe burger".

 

Not exactly 3D printed food, but that's about as close as you can easily get these days. However, a commenter pointed out that the 3D printing step was overkill, as you could simply sacrifice a shoe by hardening it and using the shoe itself to form the silicon mold. 

 

We really need an inexpensive food printer. 

 

Via Shapeways

Shapeways Reveals Production Status

3D print service Shapeways has grown much in the past few years. Now they're so large it's hard to keep track of all their materials offerings let alone their production status. But now you can see exactly what's going on by checking out their brand new "Material Production Status" page. 

 

On this page you'll see a long list of all the materials they can produce, including not only the plastics but also the glass, ceramic and metal. They color-code any deviances from their normal service levels, which tend to be 10 business days. 

 

We're fascinated by this report because it provides a glimpse inside of Shapeways operations. For example, the comments from the other day indicated they were shopping for a new tumbler to polish their White Strong & Flexible product, or that they were working with providers to gain more capacity. 

 

It's an indispensable resource if you make frequent use of Shapeways - especially if you're on a deadline. We also applaud Shapeways' total transparency on this. If only other companies did the same..

 

Via Shapeways

Shapeways AbFab3D

A powerful new capability was announced by 3D print service Shapeways: AbFab3D. It's a software architecture that permits the existence of "3D Creators", which are programs that create printable 3D models based on some input parameters. In other words, on-the-fly customized models. 

 

The catch is that you need a "3D Creator" for each type of customization. However, what they can do is limited only by the imagination and programming ingenuity of the 3D Creator creator.

 

For now, Shapeways has released the code to encourage programmers to make more 3D Creators. The sample 3D Creator is "Image Creator", which simply takes a 2D image uploaded by the user and embosses or engraves it to create a custom 3D model. Then, of course, you can print it on Shapeways' system. 

 

We think this is a great start and positions Shapeways a bit closer to Ponoko's personal factory concept. We're wondering what kind of 3D Creators will be made by ingenious Shapeways designers. More than likely the best results will come from collaborations between the very artistic Shapeways designers and expert programmers, as those two skills are not often found in the same person. 

 

Via Shapeways