The Shapeways Blog: 3D Printing News & Innovation
Entries from November 2012
Monday, November 26. 2012
Designer Spotlight: Stijn van der Linden
This weeks Designer Spotlight focuses on Stijn van der Linden, the creator of one of our most popular items on Shapeways: Gyro the Cube. He is an avid and prolific designer, and he also finds time to answer questions on the forum as one of our moderators.
Hi everyone! My name is Stijn van der Linden, probably better know as Virtox around here 
. I live in Tilburg, in the Netherlands together with my lovely wife and son. I am a work-at-home dad, so I juggle my time between housekeeping, changing diapers and late night sessions of tinkering, designing and programming. I have a college degree in Electrical Engineering and worked as a software engineer for several years, but shortly after discovering 3D printing and Shapeways, I switched careers to my life long passion of 3D Art & Design.
What's the story behind your designs? What inspires you?
Initial sparks often come from the intrinsic beauty found in nature, science and life: a twig, an atom or a kitchen sink. I have a particular fondness for using primitive shapes, such as circles, cubes and spheres and morphing them into the desired forms.
How did Gyro the cube come about?
I have a great love for trying to create the impossible and this is clearly visible in Gyro the Cube. At the time I had just discovered the real power of 3D printing and the possibility to make stuff with moving parts. So, while I was playing around with morphing cubes into spheres and vice versa, I noticed that two of these closely nested cubes could rotate freely about a diagonal axis. I could then repeat this and change the axis for each one and make this impossible looking gyroscopic sculpture, that could (theoretically) move and spin straight from the printer! I was quite anxious after ordering, whether I had made any calculation errors and if it would actually work. It did spin (phew!) and the ease of movement exceeded all my expectations! I still keep one handy near my desk.
How did you learn how to design in 3D?
What brought you to 3D printing with Shapeways?
In August of 2008 I saw a mention of Shapeways somewhere and I signed up for the closed Beta. At the time I thought it was mostly expensive and very complicated, but I kept a close eye on the newsletters and forum and started to learn about the wonders of 3D printing. I tinkered about on the site, uploaded some models and tried the shop feature. To my shock and amazement, I sold something within mere days! Someone had actually bought Holey, a model I had designed years before and now someone, somewhere, was actually going to hold something I had once designed to be impossible to make. And worse, they beat me to it! So this led me to quickly place my first order and ever since I've been hooked on 3D printing.
How do you promote your work?
It has never been my strong suit, and it's hard to find the time, but I try to post updates to social networks as much as possible, such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, my own blog and occasionally to design blogs and websites such as Designspotter and Behance. But all things marketing, I learned from the Shapeways blog, as it contains a goldmine of tips, tricks and hints on how to promote your designs and shops. 
Who are your favorite designers or artists? Who in the Shapeways community has served as an inspiration to you?
My all-time favorite artists are Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher and H.R. Giger. Their mind-bending work really sparked my love for art and I am very fond of surreal and impossible looking stuff! After four years of being part of this community, I must say there are so many great members helping and inspiring others, I could not hope to name them all! So a big thank you to ALL for making this place the success it is today! A special shout-out to Youknowwho, Magic, StonySmith and Stop4Stuff for driving the community forward and to Nervous System, Bathsheba, Unellenu and Opresco for making the most inspiring works. And apologies to all that escape my mind at the moment!
If you weren't limited by current technologies, what would you want to make using 3D printing?
Oh wow, well just about anything and everything! I can't wait to sink my teeth into an impossibly shaped designer steak, sit down in a fully personalized chair and strap on that pair of extra robotic arms to get things done. But this technology is evolving so quickly I really do not feel limited. If anything, 3D printing just seems to be the ultimate addition to any toolkit.
Thank you to all Shapies for all your efforts to make the impossible possible, you are changing lives and the world with it!
Check out Stijn's incredible designs on his Shapeways Shop, his website, or hop onto the forums and chat with him and the rest of the Shapeways community.
Monday, November 19. 2012
Quick Tip: Finding the Center of Mass of a Model
Do you need to know if your model is properly balanced? The first step is to determine where it's center of mass will be. Fredd shared an excellent tip on the forum - you can use the free MeshLab software to calculate it! Fredd writes:
Meshlab can detect it:Thanks Fredd!!Lots of goodies, besides it being free.
- Import your model, click Filter/Quality Measures and Computations/Compute Geometric Measures.
- Then click show layer dialog icon. [It] looks like a sheaf of papers (It is under the Window in the top header)
- Center of mass looks like what you are looking for. Plus gives bounding box dimensions, surface area and volume.
I plotted the result for 'Suzanne' in the image to the right.
Friday, November 16. 2012
Glowing 3D Printed Architectural Models on Shapeways (VIDEO)
We see many architects 3D printing their models using Shapeways 3D printing service but most of them remain behind the scenes and never make it onto the Shapeways site or blog so it is always cool to see architectural 3D prints in the Shapeways marketplace to share what architects are doing.
One of the coolest architectural models we have 3D printed at Shapeways lately is the 1 WTC by Stefdos which is a 3D model of One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) that glows when lit from within with an LED.
This amazing model that is 3D printed in full color at 25cm high is only $25 on Shapeways, that's $1 per cm... bargain. Check out the video below....
Also check out New Orleans tower Rotterdam 15cm by the ame designer that also glows when lit from within.
Monday, November 12. 2012
8 Tips for 3D Printing with Sketchup
Sketchup is a great choice if you're new to 3D modeling: it's free, easy to learn and there are TONS of free tutorials available. Even so, you may need to know a few things before you can get your models 3D printed.
Community member Marcus Ritland from Denali 3D Design shares 8 great tips on MasterSketchup.com. These tips include making your models printable, making them look great and keeping them affordable.
Don't forget to give him some kudos on the forum!
Thursday, November 8. 2012
Autodesk Launch 123D Design for OSX PC iPad & Web
Yes, the free, awesome and easy 3D modeling app 123D has now been extended to 123D Design, available for OSX, PC, iPad AND Web App. That's four times as fantastic with interoperability between all four and the rest of the 123D suite making it easy for you to design for 3D printing with Shapeways.
With Autodesk 123D Design, anyone can have fun designing and making things. Whether it's a new design of your own, replacing a part of something you already have, or reimagining something so that it's just right for you, with 123D Design you can create a digital model of your idea and then directly 3D print or fabricate the things you want, just the way you want them. And the way you work with 123D Design is similar to how you work in other everyday software you're familiar with, so you can avoid frustrations and enjoy the process of making things.
I have had the opportunity to play with an early edition of the software and it is easy to learn and export to 3D print with Shapeways. This is a perfect tool for someone starting to design their own products as we will be sure to cover in our Design for 3D Printing 101 series.
Wednesday, November 7. 2012
Design for 3D Printing 101: Intro to Design for 3D Printing
Welcome to Design for 3D Printing 101: Intro to Design for 3D Printing.
When you are designing for 3D printing there are two main factors that you really need to take into account before you start.
- What application to design with
- What material you are designing for
In this first introductory session, we are going to look at choosing the right type 3D modeling software.
There are now many 3D modeling applications you can use to 3D model your designs to 3D Print, ranging from very expensive professional engineering software to free online tools to get you started. Choosing the right software is an important first step in ensuring you can realize your ideas with 3D printing.
If you want to create organic, sculptural forms and characters to 3d Print, you may want to start with freeform surface modeling software. This modeling process represents the surface of the object, not its volume. With this method you will manipulate the surface of the model to create the form with points and curves. This gives you the freedom to do flowing forms, but can sometimes make it harder to achieve tight tolerances if your design is made to integrate an external object.
Above is a screenshot from Sculptris, free surface modeling software. Image via Flickr
If you are looking to engineer a product (or robot) for 3D Printing, you are better off using Solid Modeling Software. This process defines the volume of the object you wish to model, by creating solid geometry, which you then modify by extruding or cutting away mass. The "Design for 3D Printing 101" image above was modeled using TinkerCad, a browser based 3D modeling application with drag and drop functionality to make it very easy to get started.
Above is Autodesk's 123D App, a solid modeler with which you can 3D Print direct to Shapeways.
You can of course experiment with each to to find what works best for you, but often the tools within the application are designed for a specific kind of geometry. There is a relatively steep learning curve when you start to learn to 3D model, but once you hold your first design in your hand, it makes those challenges a pleasure.
There are a number of free applications in each type that you may want to download and play around with to get a feel, watch tutorial on YouTube and ask questions in the Shapeways forums as there is a wealth of knowledge within the Shapeways community.
In the next Design for 3D Printing 101, we will look a little closer at some of the 3D modeling software options available to get you started 3D printing.
