Another really useful plugin has emerged for the popular and powerful ZBrush digital sculpting program. The new 3DPrintExporter does exactly that: it prepares a properly formatted .STL file quite suitable for transfer to any 3D printer or 3D print service that accepts .STL (which is pretty much all of them.) The proper preparation of… Continue reading ZBrush 3DPrintExporter
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XVL Studio Version 8.1 Released
Lattice Technology has just released a new version of their 3D modeling suite, XVL. It’s being distributed to customers with maintenance contracts this week. There are some pretty amazing features in this release: Geometry Difference Detection – detection of geometry differences so that changes in models are easily tracked Export of Assembly Animations to AVI… Continue reading XVL Studio Version 8.1 Released
The Objet Connex350
Today Objet announces their newest printer, the Connex350, joining the Connex500 in Objet’s flagship product line. Like the earlier Connex500, the new Connex350 has the unique ability to print with multiple materials, and we don’t mean that you stop the print, change the cartridges and resume printing with that other squishy material. No, these… Continue reading The Objet Connex350
Chair Made of Itself
Designer/Artist Eric Ku has several very interesting projects on his website, but this one caught our eye: An inspiration from the American contemporary artist Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chair. Instead of giving new definition, I redefined the concept of a chair by using alphabet. One is able to construct a chair by assembling… Continue reading Chair Made of Itself
Offload Studios
There are many 3D print services open today, and most now focus on particular niches. Today’s service bureau profile is Offload Studios, who specialize in producing game models from digital models. According to their overview: … specializes in creating custom 3D output from digital models supplied by our clients. These models range from game… Continue reading Offload Studios
DIY Car Manufacturing?
Bob McCarty predicts that: within the next 10 years, begin designing and manufacturing their very own vehicles using in-home three-dimensional printing systems, services and consumables. That’s a tall order, given that a 3D printing is still a toddler among technologies. We suspect it may eventually come to the point he describes, but it might… Continue reading DIY Car Manufacturing?
3D Rubber Stamps
In retrospect, this is totally obvious, but Shapeways now provides a way to produce your own rubber stamp from uploaded images. Here’s how it works, as shown above: Start with a desirable image Convert it to black and white Reduce the image’s colors to black or white – with as little gray as possible… Continue reading 3D Rubber Stamps
Desktop Factory Crunched!
You might not have heard much from Desktop Factory lately, as they’ve been a bit preoccupied with a rather difficult problem. They’re a startup company intending on creating the world’s first quality desktop commercially available 3D printer for less than USD$5,000. They’re very close to completing their first model, but have run out of… Continue reading Desktop Factory Crunched!
Ponoko Invades North America!
That inventive New Zealand personal manufacturing company sent landing craft across the pacific and has established a beachhead in San Francisco. Their next objective: we’re not sure, but North Americans should get used to Ponoko being close by, as you can now get your manufactured goods much more quickly and less expensive. Just make… Continue reading Ponoko Invades North America!
MakerBot in the Wild
MakerBot made a big splash recently when they announced their new fabulously inexpensive hobbyist 3D printer kit. As expected, people are now buying the kit and now we see a report from a typical buyer. In the RepRap Builders blog, user Tigger posts his experience, complete with photos of the assembly and output. He… Continue reading MakerBot in the Wild
Get Your Own Evil CandyFab?
Quite a while ago Fabbaloo reported on the CandyFab 4000, an ingenious prototype 3D printer that used common sugar as the build media. The device uses the familiar X-Y-Z inkjet-style motion, but instead of depositing the media it simply heats a successive layers of powdered sugar to its melting point and fuses it into… Continue reading Get Your Own Evil CandyFab?
Another Sub-$10K 3D Printer
This one is from Solido, whose new entry into the market is the SD300 Pro 3D Printer, and it looks very attractive. Highlights: Includes SD View, a 3D modeling system and controller that directly integrates with the printer and can even monitor consumables status during prints SD View can import .STL files from any… Continue reading Another Sub-$10K 3D Printer
V-Flashed
Quite a while ago we wrote on 3D Systems’s upcoming V-Flash Desktop 3D printer. At the time it was only in Beta, but now it’s available for purchase by anyone. According to 3D Systems’s press release: It’s the very first commercial 3D Printer priced at less than USD$10,000 (actually it’s USD$9,900, we’re told) Produces… Continue reading V-Flashed
Extreme Redesign Winners Announced!
Dimension Printing’s annual contest for imaginative designers has concluded for 2008-9 with the winners being announced. They are: University category: Chris Triska & Alexander Soloviev of Toronto for their imaginative light switch cover High School: Jordan Berger of New York for her fun Alphabet Blocks (we liked that one a lot) Art and Architecture:… Continue reading Extreme Redesign Winners Announced!
The DIY Wave?
The Financial Times posts their observation of the recent increase of Do-It-Yourself projects and services. This should be no surprise to Fabbaloo readers, but it’s definitely true. More and more people are taking on DIY projects for a variety of purposes. Why is this so? We believe the convergence of several factors has led to… Continue reading The DIY Wave?
How Small Are Your Fingers?
Ours are not exactly small, and therefore we’ll probably not be able to handle what’s being called “the world’s smallest cube puzzle”. It’s available at ShapeWays right now. It’s a classic 3D puzzle with tetris-like 3D shapes. The only catch is that they are really tiny, with the maximum dimension being only 7.5mm! Fortunately,… Continue reading How Small Are Your Fingers?
Ponoko in the News
We always get a little excited when fabbing hits mainstream news because it means we’re getting a teensy bit closer to a world of digital fabrication. One example of this comes from 3News New Zealand, who’ve recently done a short piece on Ponoko, their local (and global to the rest of the world) 21st century… Continue reading Ponoko in the News
Students Sketchup a New School
A great post on the Google Sketchup Blog tells the story of educator Michele Macloud of Louisiana who introduced Sketchup to her 8th grade students as part of their Mathematics curriculum. As you might imagine, the 8th graders were not terribly interested in traditional math material. But when shown Sketchup, they immediately took to it… Continue reading Students Sketchup a New School
The Force is Strong…
Those guys at MakerBot (including Bre Prettis pictured above) certainly know how to have fun. In this amusing short video, they not only persuade their amazing and inexpensive Makerbot 3D printer to punch out a Darth Vader head (to illustrate their newly available Black ABS plastic material), but they also push their printer to… Continue reading The Force is Strong…
Can 3D Printing Help the Next Boom?
In a provocative article from Cleveland.com, Frank Bentayou proposes that “Smart manufacturers are gearing up for a turnaround in the economy”, and this got us thinking. There are signs that the economic collapse of last fall has or is about to bottom out, and indeed a few signs that economic activity may be beginning to… Continue reading Can 3D Printing Help the Next Boom?
Swiss 3D Video
This video is from a rather interesting Swiss video program showing archeologists making good use of 3D print tech. They’re excavating an ancient Roman amphitheater and surrounding structures, carefully recording locations and dimensions of the buried buildings. Back at the lab, they transform the field survey results into 3D models, which are then printed and… Continue reading Swiss 3D Video
The Early Angle on Growth
Martin Stevens, CEO of A1 Technologies (makers of the Rap-Man we covered recently) dropped us a line to follow up on our post regarding the growth of the 3D printing market. Stevens says: … we have been amazed on the response from industrial organisations. We have taken orders from large corporations, which are interested in… Continue reading The Early Angle on Growth
Electroplating
Most 3D printers produce objects that are only a single color, and usually it’s awful. A few higher-end 3D printers can produce color objects (ZCorp), but most model makers end up painting their objects by hand after they come out of the build chamber. We ran across an interesting alternative to painting: Electroplating. RapidToday posted… Continue reading Electroplating
RC Racing with RP Parts
RP = Rapid Prototyping. We all know that – RP technologies are traditionally used to create rough “test” objects, suitable only for eyeball inspection. This is due to current limitations in materials that result in solid, but not so robust printed objects. Don’t sit on that model! “Yes, it looks good, now send it… Continue reading RC Racing with RP Parts
Meshlab
Just so you know, Meshlab has released version 1.2.0 of their software recently. What is Meshlab, you ask? From their project site: MeshLab is an open source, portable, and extensible system for the processing and editing of unstructured 3D triangular meshes. The system is aimed to help the processing of the typical not-so-small unstructured… Continue reading Meshlab
T-Splines 2.0 Nearly Available
T-Splines 2.0 for the Rhino 3D modeling package is apparently going to ship in the next few weeks, and we noted some very useful features: Maintains a continously editable smooth and watertight model – watertightness is not lost during editing Organic shapes are easily and quickly created Ability to define high or low detail… Continue reading T-Splines 2.0 Nearly Available
3D Printing Market Still Growing
You might have noticed a slight financial crisis around you in recent months, but in spite of that, the 3D printing universe is still expanding, at least according to research done by nextgen. In their recent report, “3D Printing” on “Rapid Prototyping/Additive Fabrication/Solid Imaging via Stereolithography, Fused Deposition Modeling, Selective Laser Sintering and Inkjet Technologies”… Continue reading 3D Printing Market Still Growing
Extreme Redesign Finalists Announced
Dimension Printing holds an annual contest to find amazing 3D designs by students. Winners receive scholarships in various amounts. Entrants were in three categories, as usual: High School, University and Art & Architecture. We’ve taken a quick look at the finalists, and all projects are quite interesting. However, those that caught our eye included:… Continue reading Extreme Redesign Finalists Announced
New ULTRA 3D Printer
EnvisionTEC has announced their new ULTRA 3D printer, to be shown publicly today at the RAPID conference. According to the press release, the key features are: X & Y resolution 80 microns with ERM module(0.0032 in) Z-resolution adjustable from to 20 to 100 microns (0.0007 to 0.004 in) Build speed 0.5 in/hr (12.7 mm)… Continue reading New ULTRA 3D Printer
Breed!
We came across an interesting design that leverages 3D printing tech in a unique way. Erwin Driessens and Maria Verstappen are Netherlands-based artists who’ve developed many amazing pieces; their portfolio includes a wide variety of approaches. One of their works, “Breed” involves 3D printing. According to their website: Breed is a computer program that… Continue reading Breed!
Purple Crayon
Today’s discovery is Purple Crayon, a startup company intending on producing an inexpensive consumer-oriented 3D printer. And that’s not all: An old school garage style startup, Purple Crayon is a new company dedicated to developing and selling consumer personal fabrication technologies. At its core the idea of personal fabrication is to provide anyone the… Continue reading Purple Crayon
D_Shape Tech Prints Buildings
Joris Peels at the Shapeways Blog posts a rather interesting interview with Enrico Dini, who intends on constructing building-sized objects with 3D printing technology. We’ve seen building printers before, but this approach could be more interesting – because it’s actually happening! The image above shows an alien egg-shaped sculpture within a roundabout. Yes, those… Continue reading D_Shape Tech Prints Buildings
Geological 3D Printing
It’s not only geological, it’s also transcontinental! What are we speaking of? It’s an incredible proposal from architectural student Magnus Larsson, whose idea is almost beyond conception. He proposes to use a form of biological 3D printing to create a habitable “green wall” across the entire width of the Sahara desert in order to… Continue reading Geological 3D Printing
The RapMan
We’ve seen several RepRap kits before, and here’s another low priced option. This one is specifically designed for educators. This fills a need for educators unable to afford the still-quite-expensive commercial 3D printers – because The RepMan is priced at only GB£750! The price breakthrough will permit a great many more schools to consider… Continue reading The RapMan
“Fully Functional Biorobots”
Do you know about the new Biorobotics and Biometrics lab in Israel? Founded in 2006 byDr. Alon Wolf, BRML, is a new lab in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. The scope of work done in the BRML provides the framework for fundamental theories in kinematics and mechanism… Continue reading “Fully Functional Biorobots”
ProTocuBe
We received a note of introduction from ProTocuBe, a Turin-based 3D solutions firm. Like many small 3D firms recently, they are addressing the conceptual barriers of 3D technology on behalf of their clients. Some service bureaus merely accept .STL files and print them for you. Others will offer tuning capability to ensure they successfully… Continue reading ProTocuBe
Is Mass Customization for Everyone?
MIT’s been doing some deep thinking about Mass Customization recently. For those of you who are not aware of mass customization, it’s the concept where customers are able to a very great degree determine the form of the product they receive. In other words, the customer knows more about what they want than a central… Continue reading Is Mass Customization for Everyone?
Manufacturing vs. Design
Mark Tomlinson, Exec Director & GM of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers proposes that economic recovery should really be about supporting the making things instead of supporting unproductive financial services. We tend to agree, with a few caveats. Certainly there always must be manufacturing (or physical services) present at the base of the economy,… Continue reading Manufacturing vs. Design
Ive vs. Rapid Prototyping
designWeek reports on comments from famed Apple designer Jonathan Ive, who feels that rapid prototyping tech is not necessarily the best approach. He apparently said: When we started out we made all our own models. Just pressing “print” is an obstacle to designers being close to the materials and the object. There is a… Continue reading Ive vs. Rapid Prototyping
Shapeways in COLOR
Shapeways takes another step forward in capability. Their most popular material, the eponymously-named “White, Strong and Flexible” is now available in colors! Three, actually: Limestone, Blue Jeans and Terracotta, or as we might say: grey, blue and orange. But they are a really good grey, blue and orange! The selected color is dyed into the… Continue reading Shapeways in COLOR
Reformat Your Shopping
Portfolio.com speculates about the future of mass customization in a recent post examining the footwear industry. The idea is that although people may like a product’s function, they may desire certain superficial changes, such as color or texture. Traditionally we’ve unconsciously accepted the lack of choice when we’re staring at the display case in Wal-Mart… Continue reading Reformat Your Shopping
Fix That Rhinoceros!
The University of Minnesota’s course “ARCH 4150” provides an introduction to Rhino, but we noticed they’ve posted a detailed workbook on how to prepare your Rhino files for 3D printing. The book covers aspects such as naked edges, mesh conversion and accuracy. Enjoy! [UPDATE] Fixed the link below. Via uofmdigifab09 (PDF)
NanoPixies?
Years ago Eric Drexler proposed the concept of Nanotechnology in his breakthrough book, “Engines of Creation”. The book envisioned titanic swarms of microscopic machines beavering away at problems in an almost magical way. Converting a vat of raw chemicals into a house, picking off virus cells one by one from within your living body,… Continue reading NanoPixies?
Boing Boing Reviews 3D Printed Art
Over the past year we’ve featured many interesting works of art created by designers using 3D print technology to enable pieces previously impossible to create. Boing Boing has picked up on this concept and posted a gallery of many interesting pieces, several of which have been featured in Fabbaloo. Our favorite? It has to… Continue reading Boing Boing Reviews 3D Printed Art
ZCorp’s Good, Bad and Ugly
Desmoda tells all in a recent expose of his experiences using ZCorp 3D printers over the past few years. While ZCorp’s devices are praised – for speed, consumable cost and color capabilities, Desmoda reveals the dark side of using the devices, including: Problems obtaining a suitable smooth finish, as the raw printouts are “plastery”… Continue reading ZCorp’s Good, Bad and Ugly
Two Routes to Low Cost
Fluid Forms poses an interesting question: how to obtain an inexpensive 3D printer. They correctly point out the two possible courses of action for obtaining inexpensive 3D printing solutions: Commercial units, such as the Desktop Factory and MCOR printers. Open Source hardware solutions such as RepRap, Fab@Home and the recently announced MakerBot The problem,… Continue reading Two Routes to Low Cost
SOLIDO
We just bumped into another interesting 3D print service, this one based in Rome, Italy: SOLIDO. While they deliver only to Europe, they do indicate they have competitive pricing and offer a full range of services, including Rapid Prototyping, Testing (Functional and Ergonomic), 3D Modeling, 83 micron 3D prints, mechanical analyses, postproduction and more.… Continue reading SOLIDO
Mudding with Autodesk
We’re always looking for ways to simplify the process of personal manufacturing, and Autodesk is pioneering a technology that we think might be able to break down some of the barriers. According to a great blog post at Robinz CAD Blog, we’re seeing the results of Autodesk’s 2007 acquisition of SkyMatter, as Autodesk recently… Continue reading Mudding with Autodesk
Succeed with Ponoko
Ponoko, one of the pioneers of distributed personal manufacturing and sales, has posted an interesting video that describes their methodology and cites two amazing examples of how people are succeeding with this new technology approach. Alan Chao designed a beautiful coaster of letters and brought it through the idea, design and build stages to be… Continue reading Succeed with Ponoko
New Prez at Objet
Objet, makers of the very interesting Alaris, Eden and Connex500 series of 3D printers, has announced they’ve installed a new President and CEO. David Reis takes over from Adina Schorr, who will “retain an advisory role to the Objet board in various activities”, according to the press release. Previously, Reis had been on the… Continue reading New Prez at Objet
Next-Make at CPW
CPW is MIT‘s “Campus Preview Weekend”, which occurs 16-19 April this week. According to MIT’s tagline: So here’s the experiment: Pour into one MIT campus 1,000 highly charged members of the Class of 2013. Immerse in a saturated solution of classes, special lectures, hands-on activities, campus explorations and faculty encounters. Add several days and nights… Continue reading Next-Make at CPW
Living in the Past with Future 3D Printing Services
3DScanCo, makers of what else, but 3D Scanners, published an interesting case study involving their scanning products. They were approached by Priceless Past, who wished to obtain a highly detailed digital capture of a priceless bronze dagger from ancient China: Priceless Past entrusted 3DScanCo to perform non-contact 3D laser scanning on the dagger at… Continue reading Living in the Past with Future 3D Printing Services
The LEGO 3D Scanner
Philippe “Philo”Hurbain is a master LEGO hacker. How do we know? He’s built something truly amazing out of LEGO to solve a 3D problem. He normally posts tips and tricks for using LEGO Mindstorms® NXT®, showing folks how to build all manner of things. One problem, though: while many LEGO projects involve relatively straightforward… Continue reading The LEGO 3D Scanner
Shapeways Lowers Media Pricing
Shapeways, the innovative 3D printing service announced they’ve lowered the pricing on their most popular print media, “White Strong & Flexible”. It’s now 10% less expensive than before. This means we can order that Neko Woman for only USD$23.76! Erm. Coincidentally, Ponoko also recently reduced (albeit temporarily for 24 hours) the price of some… Continue reading Shapeways Lowers Media Pricing
Stone-Age 3D Printing!
There’s always complaints about the price of 3D print media, as exhibited in our comments in recent days. People say it’s not the cost of the printer that matters, it’s the ongoing cost of the media! But today there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Mark Ganter, University of Washington Engineering professor,… Continue reading Stone-Age 3D Printing!
Sony Ericsson’s 3D Printing Habits
It seems there are new mobile phones every day, but exactly where do these new designs come from? The SolidWorks APAC Blog posts an interesting article and video of how Sony Ericcson design engineers come up with unique designs. Evidently 3D printing permits the designers to punch out a physical prototype very early in… Continue reading Sony Ericsson’s 3D Printing Habits
Dimension Prices Decreasing
If you happen to be shopping for a serious 3D printer, you might want to take another look at Dimension’s line of printers. Why? Because they’ve recently dropped pricing on their 1200es line. From their press release: The Dimension brand of 3D printers by Stratasys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSYS), today announced that it has reduced… Continue reading Dimension Prices Decreasing
Keith Prints a Puck
Keith’s Electronics Blog has a series of posts on the development of an “LED Puck”. What does it do? Special Purpose Lighting: Power goes out and you need to enough light to shut down the UPS-protected computers? LED puck. Camping and you need to find your gear inside your tent? Puck. Kidnapped and locked… Continue reading Keith Prints a Puck
Shapeways Take on Mass Customization
We read a very interesting take on the future of mass customization from the Shapeways blog, in which they propose a future vision of 3D printing. They view the current mass media understanding of 3D printing, in which everyone has a 3D printer on their desk and they happily create 3D models and print them… Continue reading Shapeways Take on Mass Customization
Shapeways Enters the Bronze Age
An interesting announcement from Shapeways this week says they are offering bronze prints of their popular Ringpoem model for the first time ever. The catch? It’s an experiment that concludes on 31 March 2009 (today, sorry!), so you may have missed out. They say that if there is demand and if they can work out… Continue reading Shapeways Enters the Bronze Age
MakerBot
There’s a new option for aspiring 3D print operators: MakerBot. It’s not a service – but is in fact a new printer product emerging from the community. MakerBot leverages current knowledge, experiences, software and hardware to produce a truly inexpensive 3D printer: it’s priced at only USD$750! Their first product is the Cupcake CNC printer… Continue reading MakerBot
Shapeways on Rails
No, they’re not producing a magical 3D development framework with a ton of plugins. At least not that we know of. No, they’ve just joined up with Beneluxspoor.net, a community of European model railroad enthusiasts. We’ve written about the application of 3D printing to model railways before, and it seems to be a natural fit.… Continue reading Shapeways on Rails
Better Than Cheap
Intent Design, a UK-based design firm specializing in retail environments recently acquired a Z Corp ZPrinter 450. As readers will recall, the 450 is one of Z Corp’s popular units, capable of rapidly popping out stunning colored objects according to the models fed to it. As many other design firms have discovered, Intent Design… Continue reading Better Than Cheap
Five Reasons Why?
Joseph Flaherty at Replicator posits five reasons why 3D printing will never go mainstream. While we agree in principle with many of the positions, we thought we’d take a stab at a rebuttal. Publishing on Demand Didn’t The idea is that while 2D printers became commonplace, their presence in homes didn’t really change the book… Continue reading Five Reasons Why?
Desktop Factory Crunch!
Desktop Factory’s most recent status update has some rather dire news: they’ve reduced their spending to overcome a cash crunch. Specifically, they’ve postponed the long-awaited beta release of their sub-USD$5,000 3D printer until they can sort out the cash flow woes. Desktop Factory has had difficulties over the past year, and that’s something one would… Continue reading Desktop Factory Crunch!
Are 3D Skills Mandatory?
Fabbaloo readers are likely quite familiar with 3D concepts, including the idea of a digital representation of an object stored as a model, printing of objects from those models and perhaps even 3D virtual reality. But beyond those directly involved in the space, who needs to understand 3D concepts? According to Bill Williams, Career Focused… Continue reading Are 3D Skills Mandatory?
The RepRap Symbiosis
Adrian Bowyer, the force behind the RepRap project, recently explained some of the thinking behind the idea grand idea of RepRap: Create a machine that can replicate itself. Bowyer writes: Life is the nearest thing to magic that this Universe can do, and – like everyone – I have always been delighted by the… Continue reading The RepRap Symbiosis
Make No Mistakes
One of the wonderful aspects of online services is the communities that form around them. These communities can not only share ideas, but sometimes they create very useful tools and add-ons that make the original service even better. That’s just what happened when Shapeway user Virtox created a special script for 3DS Max that computes… Continue reading Make No Mistakes
You Can Put Spares In Your Pocket!
New Scientist reports on a medical breakthrough using 3D printing: exact replicas of finger bones have been produced. Christian Weinand of Berne Switzerland has been testing a new technique in which a 3D model of a finger bone is fed into a 3D printer, and an exact duplicate is printed. By using a suitable print… Continue reading You Can Put Spares In Your Pocket!
3D Printing Wins the Race(s)
Two recent articles show the potential for custom designed objects in competitive racing. BMW’s F1 team uses several rapid prototyping techniques to create the unique parts used in their Formula One race cars. A series of videos shows many of the techniques, resulting ultimately in the curing of strong carbon-fibre parts placed on the vehicles.… Continue reading 3D Printing Wins the Race(s)
The Photoshaper
Shapeways continues to innovate, and this time it’s The Photoshaper. What is it? It’s a cross between 3D and 2D mediums in which you submit a standard 2D photograph and Shapeway’s unique software will interpret the colors and shading to produce a semi-3D model of the photograph. The object can then be illuminated from… Continue reading The Photoshaper
More Metal – This Time Saving Lives!
Both ProMetal and Sintef have been working on metal printing processes, quite different from traditional plastics and powders of other 3D print processses. One of the barriers to more common use of 3D printing (aside from cost and print time) is the robustness of the printed objects. If only they could be printed in something… Continue reading More Metal – This Time Saving Lives!
Information, Objects and Business
We just finished reading a fascinating 3-part post on Zeus Jones that resonated with many of the concepts we’ve been pondering. Fabbaloo readers will recall that our vision of the future includes a world where most people have desktop manufacturing equipment in their homes, and “shopping” for some, perhaps many objects is done by… Continue reading Information, Objects and Business
Following Up on Huntsman
Last December we introduced Huntsman Advanced Material’s unique laser sintering process, in which they use as much as 40,000 light pixels simultaneously. This approach greatly speeds up the laser sintering process, as it is traditionally done on a vector basis – a single pixel at a time. But recently an article in European Plastics News… Continue reading Following Up on Huntsman
XVL – Now EVEN SMALLER!
Last September we wrote about Lattice Technology’s 3D model storage format, XVL, which offers significant (i.e. up to 99%) savings over other formats. Now though, they’ve gone even farther by announcing XVL v10 that “delivers 2 times more compression of 3D data than the previous XVL formats, along with vastly improved memory consumption and speed… Continue reading XVL – Now EVEN SMALLER!
A Question For Readers
We often write of new applications of 3D printing. Most of the time new applications seem to fall into one of two categories: Faster turnaround time by printing onsite or via 3D printing service than using conventional hand-crafted designs Producing numerous unique items, where previously only a limited number were possible It’s the latter… Continue reading A Question For Readers
Ponoko Needs You!
Actually, while we’re certain Ponoko would like more clients, it’s their users who need you. You see, Ponoko is a kind of web-based clearing house for custom designs. Makers can find a design, submit a design or simply buy objects made from submitted designs. But there’s another approach too: you can request the creation of… Continue reading Ponoko Needs You!
Monaghan’s 3D Visions
We were contacted by designer and artist Jonathan Monaghan, who recently worked on the Digital Stone project in China. Jonathan normally works at much smaller scales, and much of his work involves use of rapid prototyping techniques. We particularly like the way in which he combines lighting to emphasize the 3D structures. The… Continue reading Monaghan’s 3D Visions
Rocks From 3D
After a few hints of 3D printing entering the jewelry manufacturing space, we bumped into an article from the All About Rocks blog. They say: The world of Jewelry Manufacturing is right now entering a phase of evolution, the old arts of sketching, modeling, reviewing and restarting that long time consuming process until satisfaction are… Continue reading Rocks From 3D
More’a Coraline
Last week we posted the inside details of how the popular movie Coraline was produced. The makers of the film shunned conventional CGI techniques and went with a traditional stop-motion approach with a twist: many model components were produced on an Objet Connex500 3D printer. This enabled them to make many, many more custom components… Continue reading More’a Coraline
Tape Wrangling
We’ve all struggled with a roll of packing tape, trying frantically to find the edge of the tape. Finally we realize we need one of those tape dispensers, you know the kind – they look like a pistol and can swiftly tape up anything placed within arm’s length. We’ve seen many different designs for such… Continue reading Tape Wrangling
Get Your Model from Moddler
As readers will know, any new 3D print service these days must specialize in a niche to succeed, and Moddler has chosen digital entertainment. From their site: Moddler is the premier 3d printing company for today’s digital entertainment creators, including digital film studios, visual effects companies, video game companies, and individual artists. We specialize… Continue reading Get Your Model from Moddler
Entire House Produced on 3D Printer
The catch: it’s a home for a hermit crab. Yes, 3D printing has produced pre-fab replacement homes for “needy hermit crabs”. It’s actually not a laughing matter, as hermit crabs habitually reside in leftover shells from other creatures, discarding and replacing them as the crab grows in size. The problem these days is that there… Continue reading Entire House Produced on 3D Printer
Jay Leno Wants A 3D Printer!
How mainstream is this? Late night host Jay Leno, one of the world’s most notable car fanatics. As the owner of very large number of vehicles, he has a problem that anyone with a collection of old things may have: “I can’t get a replacement part!” In a video on Jay Leno’s Garage, Jay describes… Continue reading Jay Leno Wants A 3D Printer!
Coraline’s 3D Roots
We thought the new animated motion picture Coraline was made entirely via computer graphics, but apparently not. Instead stop-motion/replacement animation was used. Scarlet Star Studios has a very interesting photo expose of the models used in the making of the movie. Needless to say, all of the model characters are unique – and thus… Continue reading Coraline’s 3D Roots
Solidworks Predicts…
At the Solidworks World 2009 conference, the co-founder of Solidworks, John Hirschtick, made four interesting predictions. User interfaces involving touch and motion We’ve noticed this too, as the problem of transforming a 3D idea stored in your brain into a 2D representation on a flat screen is often difficult. We agree that new interfaces,… Continue reading Solidworks Predicts…
Wear Your 8Hertz By Speaking to 1234Lab
Yes, we wrote the headline specifically to baffle readers. It’s all about a rather amazing new process developed by 1234Lab, a very interesting operation that is “a design group that is focusing on designing innovative product with business potential”. Among their inventory of radical products is the 8hertz line of jewelry. Here’s how it works:… Continue reading Wear Your 8Hertz By Speaking to 1234Lab
Homemade 3D Printer: The Details
Alvaro Fogassa of Homemade 3D Printer has posted some details about his inexpensive design. We’ve written on Alvaro’s expedition before, and now he tells us how it works, and points us to the software he used. The Lexmark Z12 inkjet-printer based design involves using common dental plaster as it’s material, mixed with a water-based glue… Continue reading Homemade 3D Printer: The Details
The Trends
Every once in a while we troll through Google’s amazing trend service to see what people are thinking about various topics. Of course, we investigated 3D printing. What’s Google’s amazing trend service, you ask? It’s a leverage of their colossal record of search requests. Just as you can search for a term, you can use… Continue reading The Trends
Oh, Really? RepRap Meets O’Reilly
Zach Smith of the RepRap Research Foundation is set to conduct a workshop at the O’Reilly ETech Emerging Technology Conference being held March 9-12 in San Jose, California. Zach’s session is scheduled for Monday the 9th in the afternoon, and his session abstract says: An exciting 3 hour workshop led by Zach Smith featuring… Continue reading Oh, Really? RepRap Meets O’Reilly
ULTEMate Material?
RedEye on Demand, one of the larger-sized 3D print services now offers a new printing material: ULTEM. What is it? We believe it to be the “superman” of materials, offering “a variety of exceptional thermoplastic properties”, according to RedEye’s specs. Does it leap over tall buildings or save cats from trees? Not yet, but… Continue reading ULTEMate Material?
MAKE Makes a Character
Shapeways provides a wonderful and simple way to create many types of objects. Their software does have restrictions, but don’t fret – you can always use your own 3D design software to produce, well, what ever you desire. And that’s precisely what John Park did at MAKE magazine. Using MAYA 3D software and a cute… Continue reading MAKE Makes a Character
Coffee Printer!
Once again another print media has emerged: Coffee Grinds! Yes, this one-of-a-kind specialized printer actually uses coffee grinds as its print media. It can also use tea dregs, according to the documentation. It was an entry into Core77’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition by Jeon Hwan Ju of Korea: RITI Printer is a eco-friendly printer… Continue reading Coffee Printer!
Home Printing? Home-Based Printing?
So you want to print out your model, but don’t happen to have a USD$49,000 3D printer under your desk (because your desk would likely collapse if it was ON the desk). You realize you need to use a 3D printing service. Unfortunately, most locales don’t have such services scattered around town like FedEx… Continue reading Home Printing? Home-Based Printing?
Architectural Concepts via 3D
Readers may notice our occasional rant on how 3D tech is often used to produce common objects, simple things that are merely more conveniently produced than traditional approaches. But that’s not what gets our gears turning. We look for entirely new concepts, things that would not have existed if not for the exploitation of contemporary… Continue reading Architectural Concepts via 3D