I've always thought 3D printed houses were a dumb idea. Even when you get your concrete monstrosity to print properly you're still left with some gnarly walls t

I've always thought 3D printed houses were a dumb idea. Even when you get your concrete monstrosity to print properly you're still left with some gnarly walls that only some "freethinker" of an architect could love. Any openings are a massive pain as now you have to bridge over it with a header because your concrete doesn't really like to float in mid-air. Hose outlets, electrical, and plumbing are just kind of shoehorned in, good luck to the tradesmen who get to deal with that crap. Even ignoring all of the adjacent trades that have to deal with the headache it fails to even serve as a decent wall. It's all but guaranteed to crack between ribs and start letting in moisture and insects. It seems like every 3D printed housing shill out there always tries to point the camera away from the laborers coming in behind the print head to add in those headers, place horizontal reinforcing steel, clean up openings for windows and doors, etc. Personally, if I were making a construction robot, I'd target standard dimensional lumber. A robot could manufacture wall segments faster and more accurately than any framer. Imagine taking a digital cut list and automatically optimizing lumber yield to minimize scraps and cut out defects that would ordinarily be culled. Just drop a stack of studs and joists next to Lumbertron-5000 and watch it cut, build, raise, and tie in wall segments all by itself. Never have to worry about headers winding up an inch too short, rough openings too narrow, sheathing nails missing the studs, etc. You could even have it pre-drill every penetration and hole for plumbing and electrical and ban those trades from drilling or notching any framing at all. No more dealing with drywallers forgetting to cut out an opening for lights and outlets, have the robot measure it on the wall, cut it out, and screw it into place. And for roofing? So many roofers die or are seriously injured from falls, it's the 4th most hazardous job in the country. If you can get people off of roofs that could save tons of lives. And yet, with all those areas that are somewhat reasonable to tackle, the industry has decided that construction automation is basically just hobby 3D printers but swap pla with cement.