Shapeways Blog - Software

Shapeways interviews design duo Nervous System

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:56:00 +0000

Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg form the Boston based design duo Nervous System. The inspiring creative duo are currently one of the front runners in computational, algorithmic and generative design. With MIT degrees in Architecture, Mathematics and biology between them their outlook on design and forms was bound to be different. And it is, from releasing the tools they've made to create their designs for free to being inspired by ice formations, leaves and radiolarians, their exciting new design is squarely rooted in technology as well as the natural world. You can visit their website here and their Shapeways Shop is here.

Joris Peels: how did the two of you meet?

Jessica Rosenkrantz: We both were undergraduates at MIT and we met because we lived in the same dorm.

Joris Peels: Are the two of you 'designers'?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: Yes.

Jessica Rosenkrantz: I like the word designer because it's so difficult to pin down...what we do is actually pretty strange and it would be hard to categorize it as anything except maybe design. On the one had, we're making (primarily) jewelry and doing in a serious way where we're selling to stores all over the world and through our own website in enough volume to support both of us. On the other hand, I really view it as an intellectual project about using generative design to create all unique consumer products.

Joris Peels: How do a Biology, Architecture and Mathematics degree help you in your design work? Do those backgrounds still inspire you?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: Not much at all. Except for the occasional need to do hours of tedious work. I cannot say I put much stake in institutional education. I do use calculus once and a while, but that does not really come from my math degree either since I took calculus in high school.

The things that inspired us to pursue those fields still inspire us today. We both have active interests in science and research. Jessica has textbooks she reads on the molecular biology and books on slime molds, microbiology, etc. I often look for interesting papers on topics of simulation of natural phenomenon. That is not exactly math, but math was never my primary interest.

Joris Peels: Explain generative design to us...

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: Generative design (or computational design, algorithmic design, etc) is not all that well defined. Most basically you could say it is writing computer programs that make designs. A more nuanced explanation would be that you design a process for creation instead of a finished product. That process can then be used to generate an infinite variety of designs. Sometimes it can involve interactivity, either with a user or some source of information, sometimes it just works on its own.

Joris Peels: Why choose generative design?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: It is not really a choice for me. It is just what I do. I did not start out wanting to be a designer and then chose the medium of generative design. I started out experimenting with programs, and then decided to make products.

Jessica Rosenkrantz: I never really considered being a designer....up until I decided to go to grad school I guess. Originally I was studying Biology, but while at MIT I was exposed to the sort of things they were working on at the Media Lab and I took a class with John Maeda just to check it out. I got pretty excited about the possibilities of generative art and I felt like it was something that I (someone with no traditional artistic ability whatsoever) could use to create some interesting artworks. Eventually that developed into me getting a second major in Architecture where I was further exposed to a lot of interesting generative work. Anyways, basically what I'm saying is I probably would have never have gotten involved in design period if it weren't for the possibility of doing generative work.

Joris Peels: Do you think you'll always use generative? Always develop families of products?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: No. We already have a couple products that are not generative. We are interested in process, but it does not always have to be a generative design process. It could be a construction or manufacturing process that is interesting. A system does not have to be computational in nature. Though we will most likely always use computational tools to aid our designs even if they are not "generative".

Joris Peels: Are you designers in the sense that you develop products? Or are you perhaps interaction designers because you develop software that makes products?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: I do not consider myself an interaction designer. Interaction is not the main focus of our work. It is a necessary component, but creation is our ultimate goal. Our programs are primarily developed for our own use, so I would not say we are designing an interaction to be consumed.

Joris Peels: Are you going to get into co-creation?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: Yes that is something that we would like to be more involved in. We do already have some co-creation systems at n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com . We have two applets online where people can use programs we created to design their own pieces. We also have versions of the code for our 3D printed pieces that could be used to generate and price those, but we haven't had a chance to put that system online yet.

Joris Peels: What type of software do you guys write?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: We primarily use Processing which is a derivative of Java that is geared towards designers. Each line of products we make has an interactive program (or suite of programs) that we use to generate all the pieces. We also do scripting in various 3D modeling programs, though we do not use that for production work, we use it mostly for sketching.

Joris Peels: You will actually release the source code of the applications? So how will you make money then?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: The source code for most of our applications is online already and the rest will be eventually once they are cleaned up. We have not had any and I do not anticipate any problems by having our work open source. We probably have more legal protection to our designs that most other designers. As a rule most designs get ripped off, and there is not really any protection. We can at least say that no one can use our software for commercial purposes.

Also, the intersection of people we want to steal experimental design products, and people who want to mess around with code tends to be pretty small.

Joris Peels: What other tools do you use to create?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: We use Rhinoceros to sketch our ideas sometimes. That is mostly it for computer tools. We also use tools like pliers, hammers, wire cutters, etc to finish pieces. We built a CNC router which we have used to prototype some furniture.

Joris Peels: You seem to create a lot of accessories and jewelery, is this the goal or will you branch out into other things?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: Jewelry was something we started out making primarily by accident. The great thing about it is that the scale is very manageable (cost and space wise) and allows a lot of freedom with form. We also have made some furniture and are working on some housewares and lighting as well. Ultimately, we hope to design at an architectural scale, but we like to be able to control all the aspects of our projects. As we accumulate resources and experience, we're trying to take on larger and more complex projects.

Joris Peels: How did you guys get started as designers?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: Our business stemmed from work we were doing for Jessica's graduate architecture projects. It turns out the scale of architectural models is very similar to the scale of jewelry. One day Jessica decided a piece of her model looked like it could be a bracelet. It became our first piece of our jewelry line, the Radiolaria bracelet.

Joris Peels: How did you 'sell' and market yourselves?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: When we first started, we posted our pieces on etsy on a bit of a whim. We also posted pictures to some flickr pools. It got picked up by some blogs and just took off on its own. We did not push it or even the concept behind it. A little while later, we decided to take it more seriously by opening our own website and participating in craft and design shows. We've been lucky to be featured in a host of physical and digital publications ranging from Metropolis Magazine to the Washington Post and Gizmodo and even an flight travel magazine. We've been quite lucky with that considering that neither of us enjoys marketing and publicity and hence we don't work on those aspects of the business.

Blogs do a lot of our marketing for us. Otherwise, the only marketing we do is participating in shows. The shows are primarily selling events but you also meet press there.

Joris Peels: Do you have any advice for people getting started as designers?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: Just make stuff. Do not stop at prototypes. There are enough manufacturing processes out there that do not require a lot of overhead, you can find ways of making affordable, small runs and get products out there on your own. Also, there can be a fine line between conceptual and gimmicky. The worth of what you design is ultimately what you make not your ideas.

Joris Peels: Why use 3D printing?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: Everything we do is tied to the computer, design and manufacturing. Every manufacturing process we use is computer controlled. It makes for an easy work flow and gives us a lot of flexibility. The quality and price of 3D printing has gotten to the point it is suitable for products a lot of people can afford, so it was a natural choice.

Joris Peels: How do you use Shapeways?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: As a manufacturer. There are not many manufacturers out there that can match the ease and usability of Shapeways. I am not sure how necessary or appropriate it is for manufacturers to also act as a market place. There are other places on the web that do it much better. And when I'm looking to buy something my first thought is not that I want a product made by a specific service.

Joris Peels: Any feedback, what do we need to improve about Shapeways?

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg: The main thing I could ask for is for Shapeways to be in the US. Otherwise, just keep adding new materials and staying on top of new technology.

Jessica Rosenkrantz: And please bring back the vapor smoothed ABS! (the White Glaze material)

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Mesh Medic: automatic 3D printing file repair

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:08:00 +0000

We usually make incremental continual improvements to Shapeways. Mesh Medic represents something much more revolutionary. Mesh Medic is an automated 3D printing file repair system that will deal with many issues people have when trying to design for 3D printing. From now on when you upload files to Shapeways Mesh Medic will be there to help you. He will repair holes, invert your inverted normals so they're normal, repair manifolds and generally make life a lot easier for you.

While Mesh Medic will not work for everyone and not work all the time, this is the most significant improvement to Shapeways so far. Please tell us what you think give us feedback on how to improve Mesh Medic on the Forum. It has never been easier for a designer to take a design that is your head and get it made into a physical object than today and every day after today. You can try Mesh Medic out right now by uploading your STL, x3D or Collada file here.

For Rhino users it will take away an extra step in checking and converting their models and everyone else shouldbenefit significantly also by having their workflow from file to 3D printed item reduced. Please do always check the uploaded model in the 3D view on Shapeways to make sure that the automatic repair filters didn't repair something they should not have. Mesh Medic currently does work for VRML files but not for the color VRML files with textures and we will enable this as soon as we can.

A free STL viewer for your Iphone by Netfabb

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:40:00 +0000

So lets say you're on the move and get a tweet from a friend that they've just added something to Thingyverse. Or someone tells you that this one spur gear right for your project can be downloaded from the Shapeways 3D parts database, only you're walking around. What do you do? Well from now on you can download the Netfabb STL viewer on your Iphone. It is free. You can point it at a URL and it will download the STL and let you see it while you are out and about. Using the Iphone's touch pad you can spin and rotate your models while looking at them from all sides. You can pinch to zoom in and I think its generally more intuitive to use than a PC STL viewer. Check out the video of this fun free tool below or download it on the App Store.

Shapeways interviews Bruce Sterling

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:19:00 +0000

Bruce Sterling is a noted sci fi author, futurologist & speaker. As well as being an award winning author and one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement he is an early and constant booster of Augmented Reality technology and coined the word Spime. Spimes are pieces of technology that know where they are and can reveal their entire history to you. He is also behind a project that hopes to document dead media, founded a green design movement, loves Bollywood movies, is a hacker in the original sense and you really should read his Wired blog Beyond the Beyond.

Joris Peels: I was wondering if at one point you would be interested in doing an interview about 3D printing/the future?

Bruce Sterling: Well, man, all I can tell you is that I'm hanging out at a monster science event with labs-on-a-chip and 3d biofactories.

Joris Peels: Sounds good, are there any jet packs?

Bruce Sterling: Only for the microbes.

Continue reading "Shapeways interviews Bruce Sterling"

laser cutting bioplastics

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:27:00 +0000

This video is awesome. You can make your own bioplastic. Starch, glycerine, vinegar and water. 7 parts water, 1 vinegar, .5 glycerine and 1.5 parts starch. You heat the mixture up while stirring. You can then flatten it and it will turn into a sheet of bioplastic. You can even add your own colors to it. The sheet can then be laser cut. You can make plastic and then laser cut it. Wow? I've been watching this video for 20 minutes now over and over again. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend? More than a little fascinated. Thank you Lasern!

Shapeways interviews Andrew Plumb aka Clothbot

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:29:00 +0000

Shapeways Community Member Andrew Plumb is also known as Clothbot. He is doing some pretty amazing things with wearable electronics, integrating fabrics and robotics, with his Makerbot and on Shapeways. You can check out his site here or follow him on twitter here.

Joris Peels: What is a clothbot?

Andrew Plumb: Short answer: A cyborg teddy bear! (Cue the Akira nightmares.) Longer answer: A robot needs to play well with its surroundings. In a household or office space that means bumping into things and people, surviving frequent encounters with fluidic space, etc. The real world is messy. I could spend my time waterproofing a standard tin-can robot, hammering out dents, adding proximity sensors and patching holes in the walls, or I could take a different approach. Clothbot is about robotic or cybernetic elements integrated comfortably into our surroundings and on our person. Making conventional printed circuit boards (PCB) is messy, requires toxic materials to fabricate, and the end product is quite rigid. When your "board" is a piece of cloth and electrical conductor is thread, you don't even need molten solder to connect elements into a useful piece of active circuitry. Power up the computerized embroidery machine (I don't have one yet) and you have a tool to build flexible, multilayered designs in no time!

Joris Peels: Tell us about your wearable disk buttons design.

Andrew Plumb: In the beginning, Bre Pettis needed a button so he makerbotted one. I asked myself, how do you make a great idea like Makerbot-printable clothing buttons better? Why, make them Lego Compatible! To encourage others to explore the mashup potential I made the design source available under a simple Creative Commons - By license.

Now, a Makerbot is great for printing out fabricated objects (I call them fabjects) near the size of a cupcake, hence the product name Cupcake CNC. However, as the design dimensions approach the 0.5mm diameter aperture of the extruder nozzle, the resulting fabjects get rough. My MakerBot prototype gave me enough confidence in the soundness of my basic design to place that first order with Shapeways.

Getting back to the clothbot idea, I could have used press-fasteners to add, remove and reposition parts but they tend to be bulky and short each other out if you don't back them with something more rigid. I could have used more conventional PCB sockets, which would work but would look out-of-place in every-day wear. Turning a button into a socket or touch-sensor hides the function until it's needed pretty well and allows for more whimsy in the design without resorting to spinning bow ties.

Joris Peels: Tell us about your soft circuits.

Andrew Plumb: I've dabbled with soft circuits (like those Mouna's electroniccrafts.org page) on and off for years but it's only in the last year that I've really focused on pulling it all together. Ideas are easy; implementation takes discipline.

Joris Peels: Why are you so fascinated by organic things & technology?

Andrew Plumb: On one hand, technology is what I do for work and play. I'm an electrical engineer by trade, helping my co-workers design integrated circuits (ICs). On the other hand, natural organisms adapt to their surroundings by way of simple pressures of competition, cooperation and environment. Organic technologies are those that integrate well into our tech-augmented lives. Sharp edges are confrontational; edgeless surfaces rock and roll with the flow. Sometimes you need confrontation - try trimming your nails without sharp edges - but for the most part you want comfort at your finger-tips and on your person.

You've been involved with wearables for a long time...whats a wearable?

To me, wearables computing, electronics, mechatronics are about mind- and body-enhancing technologies that meet us half-way between automating our tedious routines and amplifying our life experiences. It's a bit of a paradox really, a blend of those technologies that disappear into the background (taking pictures, recording sounds for future review, GPS coordinates, simple biometrics) and those that immerse you in a fully augmented reality (hands-free headsets, head-mount optics filtering and amplifying your vision, reactive clothing, exoskeletal robotics, real-time translation). Striking the right balance at the right time is a challenge.

What is the dream of wearables?

I'm not sure... I've amassed quite a collection of head-mount displays, data gloves, embedded computers and chording keyboards over the years chasing dreams, but I have integrated very few of them into my every-day activities. I don't like being anchored to a desk, but there are times when I find myself spread across two or three monitors deeply immersed in data for hours. The simple augmented reality apps that are starting to appear on iPhone and similar platforms offer hints at what's possible, but it still feels like peaking through keyholes. Virtual Reality (VR) systems from fifteen years ago felt more immersive because your hands were free and head directly tracked. Over the years I've drifted to a more general pervasive, ambient computing approach. ...Ask me again in another five years. :-)

How do you like your Makerbot?

Loving it! I had been tracking Fab@Home and RepRap projects for a while but the barriers to entry (sourcing materials, tools and availability of my time) were such that I didn't jump into them right from the start. When MakerBot Industries appeared with all the pieces in a convenient kit form, I pounced and landed up with MakerBot Number Nine (see http://clothbot.com/wiki/MakerBotNumberNine) from the first batch. It's been particularly fun being involved in bootstrapping the community from the beginning. As each new batch has come online the former-newbies have been pitching in answers to the more common FAQs and taking on wiki editing roles, leaving those of us early-batchers with more time to take deep dives into the larger set of reprap development activities. In the larger ecosystem of rapid prototyping technologies, I think of my Cupcake as a "bone maker". It's great for prototyping ideas and making the scaffolding around which to wrap skins with more finish. Being able to take a design from drawing to prototype in less than a day is awesome! When the raw material costs are so low though, being able to tweak and reprint a design ad infinitum can be a bit of a curse. It takes time to learn when good is good enough. Using Shapeways has helped impose some discipline on my own design process.

What is Shapeways doing right? What are we doing wrong?

The Right? Simply put, the breadth of fabrication technologies you carry. You provide us individuals with access to manufacturing processes normally reserved for large institutions and people with deep pockets. I'm really looking forward to seeing how my first stainless steel extruder nozzle experiment turns out! The Wrong/Needs Improvement? Just the usual list of technical gripes: - I can't preview my store front and individual items as a visitor (anonymous or logged in) would see it. - Get licensing hooks (CC, GPL, etc) in place; I know you're working on it. - I haven't quite figured out how the star rating is supposed to work from the seller's side. For example, one of my Clover Connectors has been rated 3/5 but I haven't even received my own sample print to check against. Are they rating the design based on the rendering or because they got their fabricated version faster than mine?

Do you know of a recyclable 3D printing material?

The only recyclable 3D printing materials I know of are in the abstract sense. As long as the printing process is reversible, it should be easy to recycle. For example, wax can be re-melted, glass can be ground up and re-fused, some metal alloys (e.g. electrical solder) can be reclaimed and reused. Even ABS could be melted and extruded back into RepRap/Makerbot compatible filament. The developments made by the Open3DP project are particularly fascinating to follow.

3D printed & Hand Painted Gnome or Action Figure

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:50:00 +0000

Sean Dabbs has come up with some fun Shapeways Co-Creators. "You as a Gnome" turns you into a gnome. You upload photographs of yourself or a loved one and these will be sculpted into a gnome by Sean. The 25 cm gnome starts at $209. The picture below is of a hand painted gnome and this would be more expensive.

You can also choose to be turned into an action figure. Upload pictures of your face, select your body type, choose the clothes you want to wear and Sean will turn you into an action figure!!

KesselsKramer uses 3D printing & stop motion for Klokhuis

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:05:00 +0000

Dutch creative agency KesselsKramer has used 3D printing & stop motion to create an opening an closing sequence for Dutch children's TV show Het Klokhuis. The apples used for the stop motion sequence were 3D printed by Shapeways. The apples were made using our White, Strong & Flexible material and were so happy to have played a small part in this great video! The video is directed by John Kelly and you can read more about the people that made the video here. Check out the videos below.

"Het Klokhuis" Opening titles from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

"Het Klokhuis" End titles from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Shapeways interviews Bre Pettis of Makerbot Industries

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:49:00 +0000

Shapeways interviews Bre Pettis (on the right), the Maker in Chief over at Makerbot Industries. Makerbot Industries makes an affordable desktop 3D printer and we and a lot of other people are very excited about them and their Cupcake CNC. We asked Bre about the future of Makerbot Industries and desktop 3D printing.

Joris Peels: What's a Makerbot?

Bre Pettis: A MakerBot is an affordable, open source 3D printer.

Joris Peels: And a Cupcake is a Makerbot?

Bre Pettis: Yes, the Cupcake is our flagship personal fabrication device! It makes things that are a little bigger than a cupcake!

Joris Peels: Who is the team behind Makerbot Industries?

Bre Pettis: Adam (Adam Mayer) has his head in the software, Zach has his hands on production, I'm making waves and we all start prototyping at 6pm when we stop answering emails, packing boxes and taking care of business.

What was the first thing you 3D printed?

A shot glass. Promptly filled with a deadly Scandinavian concoction.

Your favorite thing so far?

Everyday I wake up and check out what's new on Thingiverse and I'm never let down. Lately there has been a trend to make tools to do other things with a MakerBot like the MicroLathe. When folks are using the tools we design to make other tools to make other things it gets me excited. We make things that make things that people use to make things that make other things that make things. Try saying that 3 times fast.

Who came up with the idea for Makerbot Industries?

Zach (Smith aka Hoeken) had been obsessed with 3D printing for a while and infected us with the personal manufacturing bug. Making things that make things is fun so it's contagious.

How long did it take you guys to get the company going, to get the first bots out the door?

We started on Jan 17. Had the prototype done by Mar 17, and then had the first batch of MakerBots out the door on April 17th. There wasn't a lot of sleep in those months. We actually ate 2 cases of ramen in those months so we wouldn't have to go out and eat. That was a bad idea. Don't do that, it's not healthy.

What are the differences between a Cupcake and a RepRap (Open source 3D printer project)?

The main difference between a MakerBot Cupcake CNC and a Reprap is how much time it takes to make one. The Reprap project is an academic research project and it can take a few months to gather the materials and then put a reprap together and then a lot of experimentation to get it to print. The MakerBot CupCake CNC is a kit and can be printing things out after a weekend of assembly with a friend.

Are you really going to try to tackle 3D scanning too?

Yes. Having a MakerBot 3D printer and MakerBot scanner is the washer/dryer combo of replication. Who doesn't want to print out portrait sculptures of their family and friends?

And what new materials will you introduce?

We just launched PLA, PolyLactic Acid, and it's flying off the shelves. It's clear and it's made from corn. It smells a bit like butter when you print with it. We're finishing up prototypes of the frostruder which is a syringe based extruder that can print with frosting and anything squishable like UV curable silicon. And clay! We're in the market for a kiln so we can fire our own MakerBotted tea set.

What is a typical Makerbot customer like?

A lot of our customers are time traveling antique hunters which brings up all sorts of shipping problems. Most people think that all MakerBot customers are seriously geeky, but the truth is that even though lots of designers and architects and engineers buy them, most of our customers are just clever people who are sick of waiting on other people for their jetpack.

Will everyone have a desktop 3D printer? If so when?

When the Altair came out, people criticized it and said there wasn't a need for more than 10 computers in the world. We're in that same kind of place with personal manufacturing that personal computing was back then. MakerBots will be an absolutely totally common thing to see on a desktop within 10 years.

Why is Thingiverse important?

We built Thingiverse because we needed a place to share our designs so we wouldn't lose them and so our friends could make what we had made and then modify those designs and make them better. The community is amazing and supportive, and it's also a lot of fun. There is no other place that you can share a design for a physical thing and people around the world will make their own copies within minutes (NB: mmm we might need to do some more work in promoting our 3D parts database). It's that kind of sharing magic that makes Thingiverse the closest thing to teleportation that we've got in this solar system.

What are the mayor challenges for you guys?

It can be hard to find time to eat and sleep. There is way too much stuff to do in this world right now. If you're bored in this day and age, you're doing it wrong. Turn off the TV, pick a ambition and start spending your free time working on it. Besides 3d printing, there are all sorts of open source collaborative hardware projects to work on.

A while back you had an experiment in crowd sourced manufacturing with having people produce parts for Makerbots for you. How did that work out? Will you be doing this more often?

We were the first company to ever do crowd sourced manufacturing and it worked out great. It was so cool to have MakerBots in the wild making parts for unbuilt MakerBots. We've got some ideas to do this again that we're going to announce later this year.

How important is your community to you? What do they do for the company?

The MakerBot community is awesome. Because we're open source and the community is so smart, we've seen a lot of participation in the research and development sector. For example, MakerBot Operator Tim Myrtle ripped the guts out of our temperature control code and replaced that section of code with some serious PID math which made the temperature of the nozzle much more stable. Because we're open source, our users know that the code and designs are theirs to hack on. They also know that if they improve their machine, they can share their improvement and everyone in the community benefits.

Can I download a Makerbot and print it out using Shapeways?

Go for it! There was talk a while back on the MakerBot Operator google group to replace all the lasercut parts with printable parts. Progress is being made and already there is a printable extruder!

Are Makerbots going to be able to self replicate?

One step at a time. Self replication is cool, but our first step is actually to get the machine so that it can be an autonomous manufacturing factory. I want to be able to go to sleep and wake up to a pile of MakerBotted things next to my MakerBot!

Why did you guys start Makerbot Industries?

We felt compelled. We decided to live the dream. We followed our hearts.

Shouldn't you guys be making the next YouTube or something (Bre used to work for Rocketboom, Etsy & MakeZine as their video producer)? Why 3D printing?

We love the internet, but web apps are very 90's. Personal Manufacturing the new black. We see the future and it's full of flying cars, replicators, and moon colonies. You can watch videos of the MakerBot Operators popping our collars from the moon colony on youtube when we get there.

You used to be a teacher, is that still kind of your job? To 'teach' 3D printing?

My mission in life is to be able to develop infrastructure that lets humans be creative. I feel that very tangibly inside my self. When I taught school that's what I did. When I made tutorial videos that's what I did. Adam, Zach and I are taking creative infrastructure to a new level by putting the tools of manufacturing into the hands of creative people. Everyday, even the long days packing boxes, we get excited about empowering people around to world create amazing things with our machines.

Atoms are the new bits, The New Industrial Revolution & comparative advantage

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:24:00 +0000

Atoms are the new bits

is an important article in Wired by Chris Anderson about the democratization of production. It will frame the discussion about the business that Shapeways is in. To sum it up, "In the age of democratized industry, every garage is a potential micro-factory, every citizen a potential micro-entrepreneur." An even shorter summation, "the long tail of things" is coming.

It is thought provoking and inspirational article and everyone should read it. In my opinion however it leaves out several crucial elements that will allow "atoms to become the new bits."

1. Atoms will become bits only if the right infrastructure evolves.

Small entrepreneurs have to be able to defend their IP. Markets will have to be found. Customization and easy 3D modeling software will have to be created. Services such as legal, customer service, accounting, etc. will have to evolve. Customization tools will have to work. Recommendation engines for people, things and products that do not exist will have to be found, etc.

2. No amount of technology will replace the division of labor.

3. No amount of (available) innovation will eliminate comparative advantage.

4. Absolute advantage will not magically vanish overnight.

5. The invisible hand will still call the shots

6. Cooperation is not only a word on Sesame Street.

The most successful web publisher is not necessarily the best coder, builder of websites, writer of web frameworks, marketeer, authors, editor etc. Indeed even if he could do all of those things working with others would seem to be an efficient thing to do. The best designer in the world should probably spend more time designing than putting stuff in boxes. The best designer in the world might suck at marketing. The best designer in the world might be too expensive.

By working together and using the platforms available to us and using the skills of others in concert we will be able to achieve personal production. Networks of micro-businesses will define the future of commerce.

The key factor for someone who has or wants their own micro-factory or who wants to be a micro-entrepreneur is to specialize. In the New Industrial Revolution the core question will still be, what is it that you can do better than others?

Image Creative Commons, Attribution

Shapeways now has versioning

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:09:00 +0000

This will be good news for all the modelers & designers on Shapeways. We have just released what is probably our most requested feature ever. We call it versioning and it will make your world a happier place.

If you look at one of your own models you can now see the "update model" button beneath it. If you click on that model you can upload a new file to replace the existing one. The new file will have the same URL as the previous one and all your comments, ratings, description etc. will be kept.

In this way incremental improvements to a model & design iterations can be kept with minimal hassle for the community member. Have fun trying it out. The line to help build a momument to Arno and his coder buddies starts to my right.

Stratasys and HP join forces to make 3D printers

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:41:00 +0000

Stratasys and HP are going to make and distribute 3D printers together. This is huge news. As you may know Stratasys is the company behind the Dimension & Fortus 3D printer brands and the Red Eye 3D printing service. Stratasys use the FDM process and we use their machines for our Grey Robust material. Some quotes from the press release: “We believe the time is right for 3D printing to become mainstream,” said Stratasys Chairman and CEO Scott Crump. “We also believe that HP’s unmatched sales and distribution capabilities and Stratasys FDM technology is the right combination to achieve broader 3D printer usage worldwide. HP has made a similar move in this market before, capturing a dominant position in large-format 2D printers. Together we hope to repeat this success with 3D printers.”

The large printer manufacturers have now dabbled in the "low end" of the market with Dimension FDM printers breaking the $20,000 mark at one point. This is the same price as the entry level Zcorp machine, the 310. Objet's Alaris is around 40,000 if I'm not mistaken. Now the Dimension U-Print starts at $12,000. 3D Systems, another 3D printer manufacturer, recently acquired the assets for Desktop Factory which was a start up that wanted to produce a $5000 3D printer.

Stratasys working with HP means that they will have a lot more muscle on the distribution side and will push prices lower. HP's savvy in doing the whole "giving you the printer" and charging an arm and a leg for the ink thing. It would be interesting if they tried this with 3D printers. This is a huge shake up in a market coming to grips with the idea of manufacturing for everyone.

The race to lower prices and desktop machines is of course even more interesting given that the open source Rep Rap printer (and its positively dirt cheap $750 Makerbot Cupcake CNC variant) are both doing very well. This means that as of now the major 3D printer manufacturers are locked in a battle for your desktop while at the same time trying to figure out how to compete with open source. Awesome!

Shapeways Community Tool Script for Blender & texture map tutorial

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:05:00 +0000

Eric Finley and Aaron Trocola rock! I am continually astounded by the helpfulness and kindness of the Shapeways community.

As you know we recently introduced color 3D printing. To upload and create a color 3D printed file you have to work with a texture map and the VRML file format. These are both unfamiliar to a lot of people. Aaron therefore spend a considerable amount of time making a clear and well illustrated tutorial explaining the texture mapping of VRML files. His tutorial shows you how you can use the free Google Sketchup tool combined with the free and open source tool Meshlab to easily make textures out of images. His example of a simple photo frame is clear and the tutorial is a huge help to our community. I would like to thank Aaron so so much. You can check out the tutorial which will help 3D modelers from noobs to ninjas deal with texture maps here. Besides writing super tutorials Aaron is Aeron203 on Shapeways and has some really well designed items in his Shop.

Just having one person such as Aaron do something so helpful would be amazing but over the past weekend we had two. Eric Finley made his Shapeways Tools Script for Blender. This script integrates and builds upon the work of another awesome member Loonsbury. Loonsbury's pricing script for Blender is now included in Eric's Tools. This means that community members have now made tools for Blender as well as for 3D Max in the form of Virtox's excellent pricing script.

Eric's Shapeways Tools for Blender include a completely automatic wall thickness check. You are not dreaming. The script even color codes your wall thicknesses so you can see where your problems lie and just how problematic the walls are, right within Blender! Please help Eric by giving him feedback for his awesome app. You can check out his great fantasy Shop here.

Shapeways Full color 3D printing

nospam@example.com (Joris Peels) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:22:00 +0000

The image above is an actual picture of Alien Grey by Jiovanie. It is 3D printed using our Full Color Sandstone material. This is our least expensive material and the pricing is $0.99 per Cubic Centimeter ($16.22 per cubic Inch + $ 1.50 start up costs per model, these prices include worldwide shipping).

You can check out the video here:

Several community members have been making some wonderful things over the past months to showcase Full Color 3D printing.

Upload an image and it will be made into these wonderful marbles that cost $10.

We turn any image into a color 3D printed depth map so you can see as well as touch your holiday snapshots for $29. Check them out here.

For Character modelers & animators this really means they can now take their avatar or their favorite character design and put it on their desktop. Designers can now come up with Co-creators that can be turned into any color, any pattern such as this Ipod accessory below. You just upload any image or pattern and the designer easily makes your object this color or pattern.

Expectation Management

The type of 3D printer we use for this process are Zcorp 650. We however are using a finishing technique that strengthens the 3D printed parts using rapid thermoset composites. Additionally we also use a one of a kind machine to resin infuse the models. This unique process makes the models much stronger and the colors much brighter, than was possible previously. We believe that people that have been exposed to Zcorp previously will be blown away with the results.

Having said that we do have to temper your enthusiasm somewhat. The resolution of the printer itself is low compared to the other processes we use. So the details and features will be less accurate. However, the color resolution is high so high detail in images is possible. The models are much stronger than traditional Zcorp processes but still fragile compared to the other things you can make with Shapeways.

We have more technical information here in the Design Rules for Full Color 3D printing here. The most crucial information is to realize that the wall thickness is 3mm and that fragile dainty models can not be made with this process. For a quick overview of the material you can check out our material page for Full Color Sandstone.

You can currently add color to your models by using a VRML file with texture map or by using x3D. You can find out how that works here.

Please tell us what you think and especially in the first weeks of this new material, let us know what needs to be improved.

Easy object composition with Meshmixer

nospam@example.com (Bart) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:09:08 +0000

Meshmixer is a very peculiar bit of software. It makes it very easy to combine existing objects, but it does so in a unique and intuitive way. This video explains it much better than I ever could;

What makes this amazing to me is how easy you can just 'drag' an object over another object, and it'll follow the shape wherever it can. The connections between the two objects are also quite smooth and natural.

It looks like Meshmixer is doing a good job at generating manifold objects - as long as you input manifold objects, that is. I ran a few tests and each design was printable by Shapeways. The current version only loads .OBJ files, so you may need a tool like MeshLab to convert your files.

Meshmixer is developed by Ryan Schmidt, a computer graphics researcher at the University of Toronto. It's a free, Windows-only download.