3D printing – Don’t Try This At Home

Most people think 3D printing is following a trajectory similar to photo printing. The quality is currently low relative to the industry standard, but will steadily improve, prices will drop, and we will soon print replacement parts for our coffee makers from the comfort of our desk’s. However, physical models introduce a variety of new challenges that complicate the analogy.

This video illustrates the fragility of physical models created with 3D printers. With photography you might do a little red eye reduction, but 95% of the work is done when you snap the photo. 3D production requires more knowledge of material properties, design for manufacturing, etc. Photography is highly intuitive, mechanical engineering is not.

Products like CADspan provide a set of tools that make it easier for non-engineers to use 3D printers. It modifies CAD data used to design a building, but removes unnecessary details. This simplification increases the physical strength of the model and reduces cost without negatively impacting quality. It currently only works with Google SketchUp, but is exactly the kind of tool that will be required to help 3D printing cross the chasm.

Tagged as: 3D printer, Computer-aided design, Printing