5 ms·

Wheres the print?

by evanlivingston 9y ago

Wheres the print?

yellowapple 9y ago
The printer in question hasn't been released yet, so I'm guessing there's no physical print yet.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ClassyJacket 9y ago
It's a ten thousand dollar printer and isn't out yet. The OP probably doesn't have access to one.
- delhanty 9y ago
  Or possibly OP has access via his employer Kitware? Kitware could be doing software consultancy for Formlabs. They already have expertise in 3D slicing [1][2][3], which is just what you need for 3D printing. This is pure uninformed speculation: Formlabs look like they have great hardware. On the other hand they could be under competitive pressure on the software front. Firstly there's Autodesk who launched Ember as an "Open" design [4] in roughly the same market as Formlabs Form 1/2. This is straight out of the Joel Spolysky playbook [5] "Smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements." Autodesk's (MCAD) product is Inventor now transitioning to Fusion 360. 3D printing is the complement. That's why Ember's "electronics are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, the same license under which we've shared Ember's resin and mechanical designs; the firmware is licensed under GNU GPL (see the source code itself for the full details)." [4]. You can bet that it will be a cold day in hell before Autodesk releases Inventor and/or Fusion 360's source code under any sort of FOSS license. Secondly, there's Stratasys that bought GrabCAD mainly to acquire there MCAD software team, several of whom are ex Solidworks / Siemens PLM (Unigraphics/Parasolid/D-Cubed). Expect in the next few years for slicing of STL to be replaced by slicing of native MCAD file formats. That's a step up in development effort and probably needs Modeling kernel (Parasolid, Acis ...). Thirdly, there's 3D Systemes who decided to compete with lawyers rather than software developers - but eventually that got settled [6]. Possibly strategies for Formlabs: Either, invest heavily in their software. That's wny they might contract Kitware. Maybe they license a modeling kernel. Or, get acquired by one of the other (not Autodesk) big three MCAD vendors: (1) Dassault, (2) Siemens PLM, (3) PTC. [1] https://www.kitware.com/platforms/#3d-slicer https://www.kitware.com/platforms/#3d-slicer [2] https://www.slicer.org https://www.slicer.org [3] https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/ https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/ [4] http://learn.ember.autodesk.com/blog/ember-open-source-electronics-and-firmware http://learn.ember.autodesk.com/blog/ember-open-source-elect... [5] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ [6] http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/3d-systems-and-formlabs-settled-two-year-patent-dispute http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/3d-systems-and-formlabs-s...
  - delhanty 9y ago
    Think I was probably completely off-base and the OP doesn't have the printer ... Anyway, I forgot to say the write up and project on Github is very nice. I ended up buying the OP's Primitive for MacOS [1], [2] which is very nice too! [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12958445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12958445 [2] https://primitive.lol https://primitive.lol
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
Eduardo3rd 9y ago
I'm the lead engineer for the Fuse 1 project here at Formlabs and I think it is safe to say that we'll have something to show off soon. Really glad that Michael shared his code with us all here. Stay tuned!

Wheres the print?

yellowapple 9y ago

The printer in question hasn't been released yet, so I'm guessing there's no physical print yet.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

ClassyJacket 9y ago

It's a ten thousand dollar printer and isn't out yet. The OP probably doesn't have access to one.

delhanty 9y ago
Or possibly OP has access via his employer Kitware? Kitware could be doing software consultancy for Formlabs. They already have expertise in 3D slicing [1][2][3], which is just what you need for 3D printing. This is pure uninformed speculation: Formlabs look like they have great hardware. On the other hand they could be under competitive pressure on the software front. Firstly there's Autodesk who launched Ember as an "Open" design [4] in roughly the same market as Formlabs Form 1/2. This is straight out of the Joel Spolysky playbook [5] "Smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements." Autodesk's (MCAD) product is Inventor now transitioning to Fusion 360. 3D printing is the complement. That's why Ember's "electronics are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, the same license under which we've shared Ember's resin and mechanical designs; the firmware is licensed under GNU GPL (see the source code itself for the full details)." [4]. You can bet that it will be a cold day in hell before Autodesk releases Inventor and/or Fusion 360's source code under any sort of FOSS license. Secondly, there's Stratasys that bought GrabCAD mainly to acquire there MCAD software team, several of whom are ex Solidworks / Siemens PLM (Unigraphics/Parasolid/D-Cubed). Expect in the next few years for slicing of STL to be replaced by slicing of native MCAD file formats. That's a step up in development effort and probably needs Modeling kernel (Parasolid, Acis ...). Thirdly, there's 3D Systemes who decided to compete with lawyers rather than software developers - but eventually that got settled [6]. Possibly strategies for Formlabs: Either, invest heavily in their software. That's wny they might contract Kitware. Maybe they license a modeling kernel. Or, get acquired by one of the other (not Autodesk) big three MCAD vendors: (1) Dassault, (2) Siemens PLM, (3) PTC. [1] https://www.kitware.com/platforms/#3d-slicer https://www.kitware.com/platforms/#3d-slicer [2] https://www.slicer.org https://www.slicer.org [3] https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/ https://github.com/Slicer/Slicer/ [4] http://learn.ember.autodesk.com/blog/ember-open-source-electronics-and-firmware http://learn.ember.autodesk.com/blog/ember-open-source-elect... [5] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ [6] http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/3d-systems-and-formlabs-settled-two-year-patent-dispute http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/3d-systems-and-formlabs-s...
- delhanty 9y ago
  Think I was probably completely off-base and the OP doesn't have the printer ... Anyway, I forgot to say the write up and project on Github is very nice. I ended up buying the OP's Primitive for MacOS [1], [2] which is very nice too! [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12958445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12958445 [2] https://primitive.lol https://primitive.lol
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

Eduardo3rd 9y ago

I'm the lead engineer for the Fuse 1 project here at Formlabs and I think it is safe to say that we'll have something to show off soon. Really glad that Michael shared his code with us all here. Stay tuned!