What better gift for the Minecraft addict than a full color 3D Print of their avatar.

Minetoys is an online service that uses Shapeways 3D printing to create a full color 3D model of a Minecraft avatar.

How does it work?  Your Minecraft skin is rendered in HD file (yeah, HD pixels !) and applied to a 3D model, verified by a human being, and then sent to Shapeways for 3D Printing. You can also choose from over 600 Minecraft avatars from the Minetoys Shapeways Shop including Le Boblennon officiel !, xXNuageZombieXx, Manamaxxx and many, many more.

Custom jewelry design at your finger tips with iRing3D by Paracloud and Shapeways 3D Printing.

iRing3D is an app for iPad by Paracloud, allowing everyone to design and fabricate rings. You don't need to have any 3D CAD skills to design your own ring. Simply sketch the ring design with your fingertip, control the size and shape, and upload directly to Shapeways to 3D print in your choice of materials.

Are you ready to join the Robot Nation?  

This seriously fun site uses WebGL to assemble and customize your own robot ready for 3D printing. This is one of the easiest systems I have played with so far that makes it fun to create your own model, absolutely perfect for kids, addictive.. Go and play...

There are so many software options now to 3D model for 3D printing we would like to know which CAD packages you use?

Let us know so we can consider what tools we can provide to make 3D printing with Shapeways easier for you. 

Last time we asked on Facebook the most popular were 3D Studio Max, Maya, ZBrush and Blender with 36 different applications being used..

So what do you use? 

Father of the RepRap and nearly all things DIY 3D printing has managed to bypass the tyranny of the triangle to 3D print directly from OpenSCAD's CSG representation without using an STL file in the workflow.

What does this mean?

Printing directly from CSG is much more robust than using the flakey (literally) STL file format.  A CSG file can be wrong - we can all make mistakes - but, unlike STL, it always represents an unambiguous solid.
It should also be faster (5%)........  Finally, it should allow us easily to do fancy things like filling solids with scalar and vector fields representing build parameters, so you can have an object that is flexible (and/or green) at one end and rigid (and/or blue) at the other.

Visit the RepRap Wiki for instructions on how to use this process on your RepRap.

Perhaps this will actually pave the way to better communicate multiple materials to Objet 3D printers which currently require multiple STL files to create multiple material parts?  

Thank you Adrian

If you are in or around New York City here is your chance to show your skills live on stage in a 20 minute head to head contest at the first of the Cut&Paste events to be held this year. This qualifier for the global championships will be held on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - 6:00PM - 10:00PM Soho House 29-35 Ninth Avenue but you need to apply to compete by Friday, October 14, 2011..(yes, tomorrow)

Cut&Paste is THE Digital Design Tournament, a live action battle in 2D, 3D and Motion design facing off the best of the best across twelve cities worldwide. Once again the finalists from all international events will converge in New York to conclude the tour with the Global Championship, where one winner in each field will be crowned the victor. This is a design battle royale to launch designers into the spotlight and offer the audience the unique experience of sharing the creative process. This year’s tour will extend beyond the stage with audience meet and greets and the Cut&Paste: Show&Tell series, presenting an insightful how-to with some of the brightest minds in the design community.

For those outside of NYC the deadline to apply for Cut&Paste in the following cities is:

12th City To Be Announced - December 9, 2011

If you don't have the 3D chops to enter you can still head on over to the event and see the New York 2D, 3D and Motion Graphics masters go head to head. Tickets at Eventbrite.

Igloo.org are about to launch The Igloo configurator, a web-based platform that enables design professionals to reach a global audience of engaged consumers. With 3D printing? I hear you gasp in anticipation, it looks like with a few case studies on their site that hint at the potential including a pendant lamp, bowl and shoe configurator (his and hers).

This tutorial is for those with a bit of HTML prowess and want to use the Shapeways Shopping Cart to sell your 3D prints from your own external shop.  Plugging into the Shapeways API it offer levels of customization and complexity not possible with the Shapeways Widget.

Take a look at the tutorial, experiment with your own website, share your examples and let us know if this is something you would like integrated into your Shapeways Shop to sell your own 3D printed designs?

3D Print your Star Fleet

Dolf Veenvliet aka macouno of Enotforms fame has been working on some fun tools to generate 3D forms for the 3D Cad illiterate.  Under the ShapeWright moniker Dolf has produced a random space ship generator entitled ShipWright that generates unique configurations of space ships ready for 3D printing with Shapeways... Yeah, awesome.. You can also have a personalized Space Ship generated by your name, or whatever text you enter into the build system... Yeah, super awesome. ShipWright is another awesome project that uses the Shapeways API to upload 3D files to Shapeways, if you have a project to generate 3D forms take a look at the API documentation to see how you can send the files to Shapeways for 3D printing too.

The original version generated space ships based on the nicknames of all Blender 3D coders The code is based on the entoforms scripts... which you can find here: http://www.entoforms.com

You can download the base blend from: http://www.blendswap.com/3D-models/vehicles/shipwright-06/

You can download the scripts from: http://code.google.com/p/entoforms/

Create your own silver ring on your Android device and 3D Print it with Shapeways!

kelecrea is developed for the Android platform by Shapeways community member Lajos Kelemen that lets you add text as engraving or embossing to 3D models. Currently you can modify a choice of rings, pendants, nameplates, coins, brooches and hairpins.  You can already see some of the designs generated in his shop gallery.

Check out the video of the app in action then download it from the Android market.

It is applications like kelecrea, ShapeMe, Endless Forms, 3DTin and Tinkercad that will really bring 3D printing to the masses.  

Awesome work Lajos 

Cruiser Charisma by Jonas Loh is........

The dream of self-sufficiency and sustainability has become true. Everyone is now able to produce goods, to communicate with anyone without being charged or tracked and to fulfill their basic needs without forgoing modern conveniences.

The project is based on two main opposing inspirations; research trips to learn about intentional communities like the Amish, who neglect technological progress, and an extrapolation of current scientific research which embraces technological alteration of nature. The outcome of the project is a fantastical caravan, a nomadic module of illusionary freedom, which explores our belief in technological progress. This enabler questions our human desires for comfort and prosperity and illustrates the dream of total autarchy and the possibility of a different social, political and economical system.

The utopian idea of a different society on a micro scale is reinterpreted and brought in a contemporary context where existing and near future technologies as synthetic biology, genetic engineering, bio-printing and new form of production methods are made public to every individual rather than being owned, administrated and distributed by venture capitalists and politicians.

The model was build in Modo and Toxiclibs for the synthetic garden.
3d Fabrication in Alumide. Each part of the caravan can be downloaded at shapeways

Found via Wired, Nice.