The Shapeways Blog: 3D Printing News & Innovation
Entries from June 2011
Thursday, June 30. 2011
Wednesday, June 29. 2011
A Hello World! from Mary
Hello everyone! I'm Mary, and I've recently joined Shapeways as Product Designer.
I like to think of Shapeways as the "Future of Stuff". It's an exciting time where 3D printing is coming out of labs and classrooms and becoming an accessible technology for making finished products, and I'm really happy to be a part of that.
I'm also co-founder of tech fashion label Continuum, where we recently released the N12 bikini. Previously I've worked at Local Projects and Small Design Firm designing interactive installations. My direct background is interaction design, although essentially I'm a generalist. I've done a bit of everything--illustration, costume design, animation, computational art, physical computing. (If you're curious, you can see some stuff I've made here.)
As a designer, I'm specifically interested in how to design products that are dynamic, customizable, and represent the best potentials in materials and fabricating each piece on demand.
As a maker, I'm excited by the creative platform that brings together so many people who make so many different things.
As an overall tech geek, I just really love 3D printing. and lasers. and robots.
I'm working on a number of things at Shapeways, both digital and physical.
One thing I'm working on can be summarized in this doodle:
In short, I hope to bring you some fun things in the coming months! The future is an awesome place.
Tuesday, June 28. 2011
What's Your Favorite Shapeways Shop?
I have been trawling through the Shapeways site checking out some of the amazing designs you are all 3D printing with Shapeways and I am a little overwhelmed as there is currently over 1600 Shapeways Shops full of an incredibly broad range of items. It is no longer possible for me to keep track of all the new shops that are opening let alone the thousands of models that are uploaded each week.
To help me keep on top I would like you to let me know your favorite Shapeways Shop? I will feature the favorite on the blog and randomly pick a winner from the people who suggest shops who I will personally give a $25 3D printing voucher!!!
I will keep this running til the end of the week and let the winners know over the weekend..
So, For $25 worth of 3D printing, Which is Your Favorite Shapeways Shop?
AMF: A Better File Format for 3D Printing?
The STL has been the quasi-default file format for 3D printing/rapid prototyping since the mid 80's when it was developed by 3D Systems but a lot has changed in 3D printing since then with increased quality and complexity yet STL has remained the same.
Now we have a new contender called AMF (Additive Manufacturing File Format) that is better suited to today's and hopefully tomorrow's) 3D printers. Developed by the American Society for Testing and Materials under the leadership of Professor Hod Lipson of Cornell University AMF addresses what STL lacks with a more advanced file structure including object, material, texture, constellation and metadata with a specifiable unit system, curved triangles, Metadata and all of this in half the size of a comparable STL file.....
UPDATE: You can download the STL converter and some sample files to take a look.
Read More »
Monday, June 27. 2011
3D Printed Monogram Branding Iron
By Museum of Small Things show a great example of using 3D printing to add value to 3D printed products through professional presentation, both in the packaging and photography. Great work...
Friday, June 24. 2011
Friday Finds: 3D Printed Designs From the Shapeways Community
Friday Finds is here, with some of this week's most beautiful and daring designs from the Shapeways community. Want more? You can find it in the It Arrived section of the forum, or on 3D Printspiration, the Shapeways' tumblr.
Lukas.Suess' algorithmically generated Broad Thorn Pendant in 3D Printed Silver, garnished with gemstones
stop4stuff, wielding the power of Frosted Ultra Detail, has created an atmospheric 3cm (!!) Kiosk 6 Telephone Box
Museum of Small Things shows off their organic-looking Black Crown Ring -- 3D printed glass and 3D printed steel, living together in harmony
Andehans City Grid Coasters, use ceramics to outline the grids of Oslo, NY and other cities chosen based on personal significance.
So, what will you make today?
And the Fate of the Frosted Detail/Ultra Detail is...
We are happy to announce that we will be welcoming Frosted Detail and Frosted Ultra Detail permanently to the Shapeways materials family! That is right, designers, the smooth and high detail material you've known and loved for the past few months will be here for good. We've spent the past week evaluating the trial period, looking at pricing, design rules, successes and issues. We understand that many of you were expecting news a bit earlier, but we wanted to make sure we spend adequate time discussing how to improve and grow based on what we learned during the trial. With the continuation of this material, you can expect better packaging, more consistent lead time and quality.
We will also be adjusting our price to better reflect our costs. The good news is we are decreasing the cost per cubic centimeter for both Frosted Detail and Frosted Ultra Detail. Frosted Detail will be $2.39/cm3 (17% discount) and Frosted Ultra will be $3.49/cm3 (21% discount)! However, there will be a startup cost of $5.00 for both materials. The new pricing will go into effect next Monday afternoon NYC time. Like all materials, we will be continuously working to give you better pricing, lead time, and quality overtime.
As for design, we learned a lot over the trial as to what kinds of designs are possible and what are not possible. Over the next few weeks, we will be consolidating those learning into tips and guides, and will be announcing them on the blog.
Thank you for your patience and enthusiasm. We look forward to all the amazing designs coming our way for these materials. Have fun creating!
Best,
Nancy
3D Printed Bunnies are Breeding
Bowie the Bunny by Baroba has multiplied and we are now shipping them out as part of the Shapeways Photo Contest....
Make sure you have an order in for your chance to win $500 worth of 3D printing !!!!
But Bowie will not make it into every box, so to ensure you have a chance to win you may want to include Bowie in your next order, take some photo's of him in the wild and upload them to Flickr with the tag 'Shapeways Photo Contest' to win.
Check out the contest page for full details and Good Luck..
Interview with Jayesh Salvi of 3DTin & Cadmium
You may know of 3DTin, the very cool, easy and intuitive browser based 3D modeler that started out as a very 8-bit cube assembler that is getting increasingly more sophisticated while maintaining the intuitive user interface. You may not know of Cadmium, a library of Python scripts for 3D modeling curated by the man behind 3DTin, Jayesh Salvi.
Jayesh was kind enough to answer a few questions about his projects, the philosophy behind them and what he hopes to achieve with them.
Jayesh your projects include 3Dtin and now cadmium, a python library for solid modelling, tell us a little about your background and what has brought you to create these projects.
I am a software engineer currently based in Mumbai, India. I started work on 3DTin in March 2010. I always had a fascination for 3D modeling tools. I had tried to learn Blender for a long time. But even after using it on and off for a year I couldn't use it meaningfully. It was clear to me that there is a lot of scope for improving usability of 3D modeling tools. But I have no prior background in Computer graphics - neither as a programmer nor as a user, therefore I didn't consider it an option to develop a 3D modeling software on my own. However in late 2009, as WebGL started gaining ground, I saw a new platform that could be game changing for CAD tools. WebGL can do to CAD tools, what AJAX did to productivity tools (document/spreadsheet editors) a decade ago. Moreover the emerging interest in 3D printing clearly shows demand for easy to use CAD tools.
This gave me a very challenging project to work on, something I was looking for since I started working on my own in early 2009. In a previous life, I worked at companies like VMware and Symantec for 4 years in the US, and studied Computer engineering at Univ of Minnesota earning Masters. In Feb 2009, I relocated back to India to work on something of my own. At first, I developed couple of Android apps with moderate success, but I was clearly looking for something big to solve. Fortunately, the idea of 3DTin started taking shape and it provided a big enough challenge that I needed.
Read More »
Thursday, June 23. 2011
Our Current Color Strong and Flexible range will be extended to end of August
A while back, we introduced a few new colors to the Strong and Flexible family (Indigo, Dark Grey, and Red), with an expiry date of end of May. I'm happy to announce that we will be extending those colors until the end of August. The Black, Strong and Flexible will, as always, be there (it's a permanent color option). And yes, we will be re-evaluating the way we present colors for our Strong & Flexible family. I hear a lot of feedback around the possibility of having a permanent set of basic colors and we will be considering that option.
Thanks guys!
Nancy
PS. Somebody told me it's no longer Winter... so our Winter Red, Strong & Flexible is now just Red Strong & Flexible. Even though it is no longer winter, the material is still red.
(Note: It is winter the Southern Hemisphere, so Winter Red still technically valid, Duann 
Wednesday, June 22. 2011
Win $500 Worth of 3D Printing: Shapeways Photo Contest
$500 worth of 3D printing is just a photograph away.
To celebrate the holidays and all things summer, Shapeways is giving you the chance to win $500 worth of 3D Printing. To enter simply take a photograph of Bowie the Bunny out in the wild and upload it to Flickr with the tag 'Shapeways Photo Contest'. We want to see Bowie the Bunny EVERYWHERE!!! If you go to Paris, take Bowie, if you go to Rome, take Bowie, if you go to Niagara Falls, take Bowie.
To make the contest even easier to enter we will be including a 3D print of Bowie the Bunny for free in as many orders as we can over the coming weeks but we cannot guarantee every order will get one, depending on how many of the bunnies multiply during the breeding period until August 19th when entries close. If you want to ensure you have a chance to win $500 worth of 3D printing you can always order a Bowie the Bunny designed by Baroba for yourself for as little as $4.90 (that's less than 1% of the prize).
Read More »
Tuesday, June 21. 2011
Enabling the Makers: An Intro to Design for 3D Printing
Read More »
Monday, June 20. 2011
Chibi-Devs: 3D Printed Brainchild of a 16 yr old
An incredibly ambitious project by A1 Kitbashing taking 3D Printing Transformers to the next level....
Chibi-Devs splits into his six Chibi-Structicons, all of which transform individually from robot to vehicle and back. Chibi-Devs himself is articulated everywhere, with the ubiquitous joints all there, knees, hips, shoulders, neck, elbow.
Check out more 3D printed transforming awesome.
Friday, June 17. 2011
Friday Finds: 3D Printed Designs From the Shapeways Community
As we all begin gearing up for the weekend, here's a look at some of the amazing pieces the Shapeways creative community has fabricated this week. If you want to see more, you can check out lots more treasures in the "It Arrived" section of the forum. We hopes it's as inspiring for you as it is for us. Happy Friday!
unellenu's otherworldly Fractal Shade, designed for an LED candle.
Gibell's Exploding Ball Puzzle is a 3D printed remake of the wooden one. In Polished WSF, the pieces come apart properly for the 1st time!
archenemy76's Faceted Cuff Bracelet is another Polished WSF front runner this week. Efficient use of materials, combined with beautiful mathematical shapes.
Virtox shows off Gyro the Cube, a crowd favorite, printed larger than ever before! (Catch the video to experience the full effect.)
Thursday, June 16. 2011
Frosted Detail/Ultra Detail Next Steps
Mini Ninja by Figurine by Cradders
The demand for Frosted Detail and Frosted Ultra Detail has been overwhelming, and we hear your enthusiasm! We have learned a lot running the trial for these 8 weeks--much about design limitations, material properties, and most importantly how talented our community is at designing amazing things.
We are extending our trial period for an additional week until the end of next week. Over the course of the next week we will be doing a thorough evaluation of the entire trial. Rather than stopping to trial to evaluate, we want to continue ensuring that your designs can be 3d printed while we look back and plan forward. We are doing the utmost to ensure your demands for high detail materials and prints are met, and we hope to find clever ways to make this material a permanent part of the Shapeways material family while maintain great quality and lead time. In the meanwhile, we will also be working hard to get late orders out and to better manage lead times going forward.
We hope to have some good news for you next week, so until then--please hang tight and we look forward to helping you create!
