The amount of time investment is really surprising coming into it, even as a hobby developer. The media portrayal seems to imply that you download a model, pres

The amount of time investment is really surprising coming into it, even as a hobby developer. The media portrayal seems to imply that you download a model, press a button, and out pops this perfectly printed part hot off the bed. The reality is more like 1. Calibrate the Z-axis again because that end-stop is glitchy 2. Apply some sort of adhesive to the print surface 3. Print with support (wait 5-20 hours) and hope nothing goes terribly wrong causing you to start over at step 1 4. Carefully remove the support material, hope the delicate bits of the part don't snap off in the process, if so start over at step 2 5. Sand, polish, and generally clean the part That's just for my hobby printer making, let's not mince any words, rather low quality prototype parts and figurines. I can't imagine the complexity that goes into printing these huge structures with production quality requirements. It's impressive, and I'm sure they're making the most of the tech since it can accomplish certain things that would be quite difficult in other mediums (the embedded sensors seem like such an awesome idea) but the time investment seems like it would certainly be quite high. Other than the coolness factor, I'm not sure it's more efficient than ordinary construction techniques, but I'm also just a hobbyist with a desk printer; I'm sure the folks actually working in that industry have much better insight.