Several tools have emerged that permit viewing or even development of 3D models on your iPad or iPhone – although intricate modeling on an iPhone with your fat fingers is not particularly fruitful. We had some concerns that those not using iOS devices might be at a disadvantage. But not now as some 3D modeling software has been announced for Android platforms. The folks at Pretoria, South Africa-based House 4 Hack have been working on MakerDroid. It’s an Android app that permits conversion of 2D shapes into extruded 3D shapes. The 3D model can then be exported in STL format, suitable for 3D printing. But wait – it does more than that. It also can run Skeinforge against the STL file to generate GCode suitable for direct printing on a specific RepRap 3D printer configuration.
We think this is a huge step for the Android 3D printing community. It’s rough, obviously, as it’s unlikely you happen to have the precise RepRap configuration they’re using, but we expect them to improve the app by permitting user twiddling of the printer config. Better yet: you can take their open source code and improve it yourself.
Via House 4 Hack and GitHub
