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Complex designs: The fabrication possibilities enabled by a new 3-D printing service include objects inside of other objects, such as this figurine, and even objects with working mechanical parts.
Shapeways
While some 3-D printing services already exist, they are geared to professionals familiar with rendering designs in software suitable for 3-D printers. Shapeways makes this process far easier. Its proprietary software checks customers' designs to ensure that they are printable, and it tweaks them if necessary. "You need to check that the object is a closed volume," Weijmarshausen says. "That's quite hard to do." But precisely how Shapeways does this is proprietary, he says. "If we see a small mistake, we will fix it" and then review the proposed changes with the customer.
Ponoko's Elley says that the average consumer's understanding of design software today is probably comparable to his or her understanding of word-processing software in the 1980s, but he predicts that this will improve.
"What's interesting about these kinds of services is that the cost does not depend upon the complexity of the object," says Cornell's Lipson. In a traditional parts shop, complexity is a significant factor, whereas with 3-D printing, the main cost factor is the amount of material needed, he says.
"Ultimately, I think people will have these printers at home," says Lipson. The idea is that people will pay a nominal amount for blueprints and then download them, in much the same way that music is shared over the Internet now, he says.
The technology could be used to make parts that perform better and cost less.
With different types of color polymers, and numerous techniques to create colors, when will we see 3-D prototype color printers?
Re: Let There Be Color, And ...
The is one company that has a range of color 3D printers, Z Corp.
Once one has a prototype, then the question is what's are the next steps in the supply chain. There is a business opportunity for this 3-D Printing firm to sell education & advertising appropriate for later phases of commercialization.
I might be considered a hobbyist. I have been using a 3D design program (Alibre Design, they have a free version of the program that has many of the bells and whisles turned off, I bought their standard edition which is very inexpensive considering the competition) for the last four months designing some items to be used in one of my hobbies. Additionally, I have been very interested in 3D printing for a number of years. I really would like to have a 3D Printer but for a hobbyist the cost of the machine is out of the question. I found a company Redeye RPM (a division of Stratasys mentioned in the article) that I can get my designs printed in one to three business days at a very reasonable cost (as low as $20 for a design so long as I meet the minimum order value of $150). Redeye RPM has an add in to Alibre Design that will allow me to get a quote for the design directly in the 3D design program, a really great feature. The design program and the 3D printing service have really made it for the masses.
.. CNC cutting made available for the masses. Of course, printing little figurines is nice, but for the real DIY people, be it designing or the actual crafting of stuff, I reckon they'd rather be able to purchase a self designed crank shaft, or self drawn boards for a cabinet, etc. The versatility in getting designer parts from wood, steel, plastic etc allow for more constructional freedom than a printer can ever provide.
Uhhhh. I think you guys are a bit behind on the times
There are already a number of places that do this. www.quickparts.com does good work with plastics. A variety of other options exist, including www.approto.com and www.redeyerpm.com. Several will even do parts made of metal (through selective laser sintering or rapid investment casting.
Re: Uhhhh. I think you guys are a bit behind on the times
For Europe, you can try the online service <b>OnSite</b> of <b>Materialise</b>.
This service has been around since 1997.
WiM
Getting the most inexpensive prototype, is like getting the least expensive used Yugo you can find.
You have to define your needs BEFORE you pick your prototyping method.
If all you want to do is look at something, maybe "cheap" is the way.
If you have to fit two parts together, now it starts to get interesting, and potentially critical on tolerances, surface finish and material properties if it has any snap fits.
If you need high strength, watertight parts, or high flexibility, then cheap is not the order of the day.
I think the writer was doing more of a manufacturer inspired article than one which really elucidates the nature of the game.
Good job shop 3D prototyping firms have good websites that go over a lot of the details in these choices, and there is at least one magazine which covers the subject; Time Compression Technology magazine:
http://www.tctmagazine.com/x/default.html
This article is pretty much a run of the mill white paper that needs lots of corrections to get the story straight. I'm here to do just that. For one, Stratasys, Eden Prairie, MN does not and never has manufactured the Eden PolyJet printer. These printers have always been manufactured by Objet Geometries, Rehovot, Israel. Objet had only signed a North American Sales distribution agreement with Stratasys that lasted for less than 3 years. No R&D or Manufacturing was ever performed by Stratasys. Also, RedEye RPM and Quickparts.com both do not have a service like this spelled out in this article. They are only service bureaus and not very good quality services at that. The service spelled out in this article is an idea who's time is coming and neither RedEye or Quickparts developed anything like it.
Ok, first thing...nowhere does it say that Stratasys produces the Objet printer. It simply says that they(Shapeways) use printers that use Objet technology and Stratasys technology. I guarantee that they mean that they have both Objet Edens and Stratasys Dimension machines. Secondly, how can you say that RedeyeRPM is just a Service Bureau like QuickParts when they are a division of Stratasys, and Stratasys manufactures the machines that they use? Also, I don't know of any place that has the shear number of machines that Redeye employs. The number of material types available also surpasses anything that I have seen out there, so if you know of somebody with more material types and machines available, please let me know.
The only difference in Services that I see here is that Shapeways can receive a different file type from the customer. Both QuickParts and RedeyeRPM accept .stl files and can convert some of the more popular file types to .stl. Shapeways has to do the same thing, as the only input file accepted on for Edens and Stratasys FDM machines is the .stl file format. One last thing, the article says that the parts can be received in approx. 10 days, when I know that Redeye and QuickParts both send parts at an average of 3-5 business days, depending on size and geometry.
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kitk
76 Comments
Great Fun!
This service could be a lot of fun for artists, designers, hobbyists and just anyone who wants s custom,,, thingie,, object de art, velociraptor resonating cavity,,, whatever. Does anyone know how to get a coupon for joining the beta testers, or how to actually sign up with them? It seems to me their web site is not yet fully functional. Does anyone know if a familiar 3D program such as Poser could be used for creating an object that Shapeways could build?
Reply
vzach
1 Comment
Re: Great Fun!
They say they accept models in X3D and Collada format; i don't know whether Poser can export either of these. However, the newly free TrueSpace Software by Microsoft can export in Collada format; also the professional version ($500) of Googles SketchUp (and the Wikipedia page about the Collada format points to a way to create Collada files with the free SketchUp version, this page also list many other programs that could be used to create Collada files).
Reply
Orinoco
1 Comment
Re: Great Fun!
The program the modeling was done in, for both examples shown in the article, was Blender. It's open source, and available from Blender.org.
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