That didn’t take long: 3DQue released their revolutionary Direct2Print system.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that we learned 3DQue was readying a new feature they call “Direct2Print”. Now it seems to be publicly announced and ready for anyone to join the waitlist.
Understanding Direct2Print and 3DQue’s Services
It’s important to understand what 3DQue does: while they sell a special 3D print surface that can automatically release prints, their prime focus these days is on the software that can drive 3D printer farms. Their flagship product is AutoFarm3D, which can easily control and manage large quantities of 3D printers in production settings.
That’s not a unique capability; there are a couple of other 3D farm systems on the market. But AutoFarm3D has a number of very interesting features, and it looks like they’ve added another one that will no doubt prove highly popular: Direct2Print.
How Direct2Print Enhances the 3D Printer Farm Workflow
Normally a 3D printer farm system will be able to accept requests and automatically dispatch them to an appropriate and available 3D printer within the farm for production. The systems will track the activity and some systems will even have integrations with accounting systems.
But it’s important to understand how these print farms work in real life to appreciate the true benefit of Direct2Print. Here’s a typical scenario:
- Designer develops a cool 3D printable product, puts it for sale online
- Public interest is good and orders come in
- Designer acquires a 3D printer to make the products for customers
- Interest increases and many more orders arrive
- Designer acquires another 3D printer to keep up
- Orders increase as the designer launches more products
- Designer acquires more 3D printers to maintain production
- Designer spends too much time administering the 3D printers and opts for AutoFarm3D or similar software to manage operations
- That’s how this usually works, and there are thousands of such operations around the world, with numbers increasing each day due to the accessibility of 3D printing and design tools.
Direct2Print’s Impact on Online Sales and 3D Printer Manufacturers
Here’s where Direct2Print comes in: it’s part of AutoFarm3D, but connects DIRECTLY to the online store!
In other words, when an order is placed on either Etsy or a Shopify-powered online store, the system automatically creates a print job and queues the appropriate GCODE for 3D printing on a suitable 3D printer. Later, the job is dispatched to an available 3D printer and produced.
This happens all without ANY human intervention, aside from ensuring the filament spools are changed and the product bins are emptied.
This is a level of automation we haven’t seen previously, and kudos to 3DQue for analyzing the workflow for this group of 3D print operators.
My thought is that this will be extremely attractive to the increasing thousands of small 3D printer farm operators that live off of Etsy and Shopify sales. It will also be of benefit to 3D printer manufacturers, which could see increased sales as these operations can handle more devices without additional effort.
Via 3DQue
