HaptoRender is an OpenStreetmap project that will produce static maps, repeatable 3D print-outs, focusing on small areas for the blind and visually impaired.

Originally brought to my attention by @metazool and @RealIvanSanchez when they stumbled upon the 'sort-of haptic map' in Edinburgh, pictured above.

"...what is meant to be a 3D map that would give a blind person an impression of the scale and scope of Edinburgh and the beautiful built things in it. It gives an impression only; it's not an accurate map of Edinburgh streets, not reliable for building a mental model with.

The plaque announces its purpose in Braille and text; but the labels on the map are just text, not braille. So this is more of a pseudo haptic map."

Started in April 2009 by Lulu-Ann, HaptoRender is planned to be a renderer that uses OpenStreetmap data to create tactile maps for blind and visually impaired persons.  The first known tactile map based on OSM data published on May 12, 2009. It is a copper sheet with the size of an DIN A4 paper sheet. This was shown (and touched) at the SOTM 2009 in Amsterdam.  It is easy to see how well 3D printing is suited to a project such as this that would enable the blind and visually impaired to navigate a new city with a better understanding of the lay of the land, where hills, open spaces, bridges and buildings are in relation to each other.  Perhaps it is the sort of thing they could have sent to them (via Shapeways) prior to visiting a city to enable them to study it in advance.

If you would like to get involved in the HaptoRender project visit their wiki at OpenStreetmap

Previously designers using Shapeways had to work with what to many would be considered inferior materials, but to some exciting and unique like

To celebrate the inclusion of silver in the material range I thought we might take a look at some contemporary, digitally manufactured jewelry designs using a broad range of materials.

Starting with Shapeways community members Nervous System with their algorithmic excellence.

Ted Noten who's series Haunted By 36 Women is the result of a one year survey through the world of women. Featuring: the Fashionista, the Icecream Girl and the Femme Fatale. To produce the works he created full scale assemblages which he 3D scanned and then translated into a range of experimental, 3D printed jewelry.

Arthur Hash from State University of New York, New Paltz Lectures in Digital Fabrication in Studio Arts and has a prolific practice embracing many digital techniques. Keep an eye on his blog to see new works and random inspiration.

After a brief intermission filled with trade fairs, flu and flights we return to our regular friday feature of the latest amazing models to be shared on the It Arrived forum by the Shapeways community.  If you would like to be featured next week be sure to post your clear photographs and descriptions....

First up and quite mind blowing is the Minime by Tristan Bethe from a full body 3D scan. Can't wait to see the results of the 3D scan of his wife in her wedding dress!!

Stunning first attempt at 3D printing is the Pilot and accessories for an Remote Controlled Mustang by Lupus. Amazing level of detail achieved using Softimage XSI and Zbrush with clean and clear detailed prints.

The first silver prints have started to be shipped with Václav Mazaný's Holey Ring showing the polished finish you can expect with Shapeways silver.

You may already know of Creative Commons, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.

They provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.

Creative Commons released its first set of copyright licenses for free to the public late 2002. Creative Commons developed its licenses inspired in part by the Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) to help people license their works freely for certain uses, on certain conditions; or dedicate works to the public domain.

Sure, you have to pay for their courses that start at U$95 but more like U$473.96 for a Solidworks Training bundle that includes 106 courses, 21 assessments AND certificates.

If that is a little too much you can try a free trial to see if it is worth the cash outlay for you or your company.

I managed to get myself a two day subscription at some point when I was studying industrial design and literally watched the tutorials until my eyes bled (not literally) and learnt more about what the possibilities were of the software then how to really do too much.  Even now I just took a quick look and learnt more about testing cogs, gears and pulleys in sketch mode in Solidworks, something I was vaguely aware of but did not Know how to do, but could probably figure it out from the two minute micro tutorial.

 Oh, and what would I do with this new found knowledge of cogs, gears and pulleys?  Maybe 3D print something like Braley Litwin's Mechanicards?

Attention all architects, interior designers, furniture makers and anyone who has come up against the build envelope of White Strong Flexible, you can now supersize your 3D prints...

Now any models that are larger than the previous limit of 230 x 180 x 310 (WxDxH mm) will be sent to a new machine in our SLS arsenal that can print up to 700 x 380 x 580 mm or 27.6 x 15 x 22.9 in or approx. 7 x 4 x 5 MakerBots.

So if like Scott Summit you are in the business of prosthetic limbs you can now 3D print them with Shapeways.. Or if like furniture designer like Chris Hardy you can 3D print your furniture components without having to break down the parts into sections to fit the build chamber. If you are an architect or interior designer you can 3D print scale models for client presentations, sales centers and architectural competitions.

Check out this video behind the scenes at Aardman and what went in to making the world's smallest character animated film using 50 3D printed models, hand painted with microscope and tweezers.  The models were printed at only 9 mm in height which according to the Guinness Book of World Records, Dot is the smallest model of her type, and was shot using a Nokia N8 to celebrate the Cellscope.

Note: This does not mean it is ok to do all your images & videos on Shapeways with your cell phone!!

Warning! May come across as a Nokia advertisement but it is still worth watching.

Thanks to Time Compression blog.

Embedding algorithmic aesthetics into structural logic.

Michal Piasecki and Małgorzata Mozolewska collaborated on “Structural Ornament”

For the project Michal developed the algorithmic software that has an arbitrary shaped mesh as an input. The user is then able to assign external forces upon which the software then conducts a series of steps to generate a 3d printable infill responsive to the forces present.

An outcome of this is a 3-dimensional array of voxels, each containing data on the forces and displacement. This data is used to generate a grid of points which becomes denser where forces are greater. Then the infill is generated based on this grid, thus it becomes responsive to the forces present.

Picking up from his Stripes for iPad, the iPhone4 snap case features a striped motif across the back Salokannel has developed a perfectly fitting case that may also solve the Antennagate issue.

Now with the iPhone, iPad, iPod and shuffle being well represented, what apple products can we see accessorized next? What about a HTC or Blackberry case, or even a Dell widget of some kind?

Ever wanted to know just how strong 3D printed full color sandstone was but did not want to destroy one of your own prints?  Now you can see just how surprisingly tough it really is at it is submitted to the hammer test by Kaetemi. I love the YouTube tags: Shapeways, 3Dprint, Hammer, Destruction. Say is it all.

Perhaps we will need to make some videos for ourselves of material tests, model fails, and just general destruction?

Feeling the need for rodents hanging from your earlobes? Then have we got a treat for you..

Rat Earrings by Martynas are disturbing yet delicate, creepy but cute, the perfect accessory for your halloween outfit or a christmas gift for the macabre one in your life.

Will Gorman of BattleBricks has built himself the MakerLegoBot, constructed of Lego bricks it constructs with Lego bricks.....

The MakerLegoBot uses 3 Lego Mindstorms NXT Bricks, along with 9 NXT motors, and is inspired by the  by the MakerBot and RepRap teams. A Java Application that runs on the PC takes an .ldr MLCad file, determines a set of print instructions, and then sends the instructions via USB over to the MakerLegoBot for printing. The current design works with 1x2, 2x2, 3x2, 4x2, and 8x2 Lego bricks. Once a brick is grabbed, the next brick in line falls into place. Once a brick is retrieved, the printer head rotates vertically and moves to the exact location where the brick should be placed. The printer then places the brick, and uses an axle based release mechanism to leave the Lego in place. Immediately after placing the Lego, the bottom of the printer head applies pressure to the brick to ensure its proper placement. Once each layer has completed printing, the printer rotates up a single brick height. It can print objects that are up to 12 bricks tall.

the MakerLegoBot, a Lego Mindstorms NXT 3D Printer will be appearing at LegoWorld October 22nd through October 26th, 2010 in Zwolle, The Netherlands. Of course if you cannot wait till then you can always follow the 447 step by step (brick by brick) instructions to make your own...

Thanks to Hack a Day

Those of you who made it to 100% Design in London may have had a chance to see the desk in our booth that was constructed from 3D printed connector pieces, aluminum square tube and a standard hollow core domestic door.

Sure ours was not the most expensive stand at 100% Design in London with some displays looking like they may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their four days of exposure but Shapeways was definitely much busier....

The sixteen 3D printed components of our stand made it possible to design a unique, collapsible, modular stand that could be easily transported around the world, assembled by one person, strong enough to support the weight of the display along with the throngs of people leaning on the desk.

Most of the Shapeways community would be considered on the high end of tech savvy, with the ability to generate 3D models in CAD, the initiative to seek out and use a site like Shapeways to realize their ideas and the entrepreneurial spirit to commercialize those ideas using Shapeways to handle the financial transaction, manufacture and distribution of their products.

Those of you who have installed Google Analytics into their Shapeways shops can now see where your traffic is coming from and can work to promote your designs to those that are showing interest.  What you may not be able to see is the overall trends emerging of how visitors to Shapeways are finding the site.  To share a little with you we are seeing increasing, significant and constant traffic from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Those of you who have been embedding your YouTube videos into your shops we are now tweeting each of the videos you now upload onto the site from our @Shapeways account. YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the internet so it is well worth creating a video and embedding links to your shop making sure you use a descriptive title and add more details about your product in the description.

You can also tweet each time you purchase yours, or anyone else's product on Shapeways using the Share It button upon confirmation of your order. You can also share your gallery of favorites using the same button.

Shapeways currently has over 2000 followers on Twitter including members of the Shapeways community like  @4m3d, @VirtoxNet & @JakeMDrews along with industry DIY/mass customization/co-creation peers like @makerbot, @Josephflaherty & @joepine to design heavyweights like @johnmaeda and a large group of press and marketing types from bloggers to print journalists keeping an eye on the products, people and processes Shapeways is tweeting about.

Be sure to follow @Shapeways and tweet about your designs, and we will add you to our twitter list of Shapeways users, retweet to our followers, and from time to time we will have special offers for our twitter followers so keep an eye on the feed.