5 ms·

I'm a little skeptical about the magnitude of the increase in time from concept to realization. Four hours is the printing stage, but laying out something like

by thefool 16y ago

I'm a little skeptical about the magnitude of the increase in time from concept to realization. Four hours is the printing stage, but laying out something like that in cad is fairly time consuming, on top of that every piece surely went through numerous iterations. Additionally, the medium seems hard to fiddle with, so if the part didn't turn out, you have to scrap it completely. Plus given that it is some sort of plastic, your only finishing options are probably powder coat, some sort of vapor deposition (which that photo looks like), or possibly some sort of plating if people have figured out how to do it. While I'm sure that the tech will make some people's lives easier, this is one of those things that seems like it could easily be over hyped.

steveklabnik 16y ago
> laying out something like that in cad is fairly time consuming, on top of that every piece surely went through numerous iterations. "Regular" design would still go through iterations. > Plus given that it is some sort of plastic, your only finishing options are probably powder coat, some sort of vapor deposition (which that photo looks like), or possibly some sort of plating if people have figured out how to do it. In this case, they're using plastic, but you can also print in metal, wax, rubber, nylon, paper, and resin. (And yes, you can plate the plastic. This is how Aston Martin makes headlamps for their vehicles.) > While I'm sure that the tech will make some people's lives easier, this is one of those things that seems like it could easily be over hyped. It's true. People get really, really excited about all of this, and start talking about "When everyone owns a 3D printer..." It's such a sexy technology that people get irrationally excited. It certainly has downsides as well as upsides.
- eru 16y ago
  Yes. Normal printers haven't made everyone an artist, either.
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    It's sort of an imperfect analogy, though. The people who say things like that are thinking of it in the "You wouldn't download a car?" sense. You can already download 3D models from a place like Thingiverse, so if everyone had a printer, we could just print new household items rather than purchase them. It's a functional thing, not an aesthetic one. The issue with this is that just because they make things doesn't mean they make them _from nothing_. Are you going to keep not just a printer, but large vats of materials hanging around your house? I don't really think so.
    - eru 16y ago
      OK. And the things you make with your printer still have to compete with stuff from custom processes. So e.g. your printed tea cup will probably not as good as a normal tea cup, but it may be more convenient to just print some cups instead of going out and buying some.
      - thefool 16y ago
        If this were true, the greeting card market wouldn't be nearly as big as it is. Also, printing will probably more expensive than buying things made via more conventional processes.
        steveklabnik 16y ago
        It depends on how you define "more expensive." Traditional manufacturing processes have really expensive tooling, but then each part is really cheap. Printed parts are always the same price. There's an inflection point where if you're going to make more than a few tens of thousands of things, it's cheaper to make the tooling. But if you're not going to make that volume, printing is cheaper. Like many things in life, it's all about the best tool for the job.
    - derefr 16y ago
      I tend to imagine the large vat of materials becoming part of the corner convenience store/gas station. "Hi, I'd like $50 of gas, $38 of aluminum composite solid #3D2, and this bag of chips." Alternatively, it could coincide with the one-hour photo lab: "plug in your USB drive to begin uploading model." prints out receipt
sliverstorm 16y ago
I figure 3D printing is still in it's infancy. Sure, it can't do all you can imagine it doing, but that's just because nobody's figured out how to make it do those things. Yet. Definitely easy to over-hype it, but it deserves attention. Plus... one of the things that has always sucked about modeling in my opinion is the difficulty of entering a model. Maybe with a good way to get a structure out, we will soon work out a good way to get a structure in?
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  The best current way to "get a structure in" is through laser scanning the part, and converting the resulting point cloud to an STL file. This isn't yet to the point of being automatic, though, as laser scanners aren't yet perfect. There's still a bit of artistry involved.

by thefool 16y ago

steveklabnik 16y ago

> laying out something like that in cad is fairly time consuming, on top of that every piece surely went through numerous iterations. "Regular" design would still go through iterations. > Plus given that it is some sort of plastic, your only finishing options are probably powder coat, some sort of vapor deposition (which that photo looks like), or possibly some sort of plating if people have figured out how to do it. In this case, they're using plastic, but you can also print in metal, wax, rubber, nylon, paper, and resin. (And yes, you can plate the plastic. This is how Aston Martin makes headlamps for their vehicles.) > While I'm sure that the tech will make some people's lives easier, this is one of those things that seems like it could easily be over hyped. It's true. People get really, really excited about all of this, and start talking about "When everyone owns a 3D printer..." It's such a sexy technology that people get irrationally excited. It certainly has downsides as well as upsides.

eru 16y ago
Yes. Normal printers haven't made everyone an artist, either.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  It's sort of an imperfect analogy, though. The people who say things like that are thinking of it in the "You wouldn't download a car?" sense. You can already download 3D models from a place like Thingiverse, so if everyone had a printer, we could just print new household items rather than purchase them. It's a functional thing, not an aesthetic one. The issue with this is that just because they make things doesn't mean they make them _from nothing_. Are you going to keep not just a printer, but large vats of materials hanging around your house? I don't really think so.
  - eru 16y ago
    OK. And the things you make with your printer still have to compete with stuff from custom processes. So e.g. your printed tea cup will probably not as good as a normal tea cup, but it may be more convenient to just print some cups instead of going out and buying some.
    - thefool 16y ago
      If this were true, the greeting card market wouldn't be nearly as big as it is. Also, printing will probably more expensive than buying things made via more conventional processes.
      - steveklabnik 16y ago
        It depends on how you define "more expensive." Traditional manufacturing processes have really expensive tooling, but then each part is really cheap. Printed parts are always the same price. There's an inflection point where if you're going to make more than a few tens of thousands of things, it's cheaper to make the tooling. But if you're not going to make that volume, printing is cheaper. Like many things in life, it's all about the best tool for the job.
  - derefr 16y ago
    I tend to imagine the large vat of materials becoming part of the corner convenience store/gas station. "Hi, I'd like $50 of gas, $38 of aluminum composite solid #3D2, and this bag of chips." Alternatively, it could coincide with the one-hour photo lab: "plug in your USB drive to begin uploading model." prints out receipt

sliverstorm 16y ago

I figure 3D printing is still in it's infancy. Sure, it can't do all you can imagine it doing, but that's just because nobody's figured out how to make it do those things. Yet. Definitely easy to over-hype it, but it deserves attention. Plus... one of the things that has always sucked about modeling in my opinion is the difficulty of entering a model. Maybe with a good way to get a structure out, we will soon work out a good way to get a structure in?

steveklabnik 16y ago
The best current way to "get a structure in" is through laser scanning the part, and converting the resulting point cloud to an STL file. This isn't yet to the point of being automatic, though, as laser scanners aren't yet perfect. There's still a bit of artistry involved.