Shapeways Blog

Got Milk? 3D Printing meets Advertising Agency

blog@shapeways.com (Paul Salisbury) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:13:00 +0000

Creative advertising agency Teehan+Lax have created quite a buzz with a concept for a milk jug that can alert you when it is running low on milk. This is similar to smart-fridge and internet-of-things concepts we've seen before, however, the product itself may not be very practical for real world use.

More interesting is how the agency realized the concept by using 3D Printing. Previously, concept product images and video were likely to be rendered and would never come close to being made due to the manufacturing costs. Now, with a 3D Printer in the agency, the creative team were able to print a working example of the concept and use it in real world cases.

The result is a much more believable presentation of the concept, and I expect we will see similar uses of 3D Printing by creative teams as awareness of 3D Printing continues to grow.

_{via The Verge & Teehan+Lax Labs}

How to 3D Print a Tilt Shift Adapter for your Camera (VIDEO)

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:07:44 +0000

How to make a 3D printable tilt-shift lens adapter for your camera.

More info on Instructables.

3D Modeling Stitch Mesh: The Future of Fabric and Fashion?

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:35:20 +0000

Cem Yuksel and his colleagues at Cornell have developed a way of producing Stitch Meshes for 3D Modeling Knitted Clothing with Yarn-level Detail. The top row of images is photographs of actual fabric while the bottom is the 3D modeled fabric.. An amazing level of detail that would look phenomenal if it were to be 3D printed in some kind of flexible, elastic like material....

Check out the video below to see how it works.

via Solidsmack

3D Printing: Personalized Production for the Mass Market with MIT/Stanford VLAB

blog@shapeways.com (Carine) — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:03:00 +0000

This past April, our CEO Peter Weijmarshausen sat on a panel at MIT/Stanford VLAB about the future of 3D printing. They discussed the future of the industry and the impact 3D printing will have on entrepreneurs, design, and personalized production.

Watch Pete chat along with leaders from 3D Systems, Autodesk, and London College of Fashion, and MAKE Magazine:

Friday Finds: 3D Printed Awesomeness from the Shapeways Community

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:34:00 +0000

Get ready for the weekend with some 3D printed inspiration from the Shapeways community starting with the much anticipated Raspberry Pi case by MarcoA.

ChrisDaMan rocked it with his FIRST EVER RING Design... nice work.

Introducing the puzzling The Low Poly Escher Lizard by mygadgetlife.

The espresso cup "vitruv" using circle and quadrate as handle as leonardo da vinci used it in the vitruv man design.

Amazing 3D Printed Atlas from Portal 2 (video)

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:39:15 +0000

This is one of the most amazingly detail 3D Printed projects we have seen so far on Shapeways.. Atlas from Portal 2 by PsychoBob... WOW.

Take a good look at PsychoBob's blog that has a great step by step of how he made the the model using 3D printed parts from Shapeways.

Intro to Parametric Design & 3D-Printed Jewelry

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:33:40 +0000

As part of Shapeways School through Skillshare Kevin Wei is teaching a 3 day course entitled Intro to Parametric Design & 3D Printed Jewelry.

Together we will create an extraordinarily meaningful and beautiful small object using parametric design and 3D-printing. We will begin with a simple piece of jewelry (Day 1), end with an advanced object of your choosing (Day 2), and then reconvene to share our real designs and receive invaluable feedback from some of NYC's most creative designers (Day 3).

You will learn how a multitude of discrete things - a ring, a necklace, a bracelet; a desk, a shelf, a chair; and even a building structure - can be realized through the use of a single parametric definition. Furthermore, you will explore the behavior of your design through the modulation of its different characteristics, a process that some designers refer to as search, so that you might discover something new beyond what you had first imagined. With help from this workshop, the tools of Rhino, Grasshopper, and Shapeways will become easy and fun to use.

This 3-day workshop is intended for new users of Rhino and Grasshopper. Intermediate knowledge of any other 3D modelling software is highly recommended, but not required. No 3D-printing experience necessary. No coding experience necessary.

Continue reading "Intro to Parametric Design & 3D-Printed Jewelry"

Tips from Shopowners: How to make your product go viral

blog@shapeways.com (Natalia) — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:33:00 +0000

In a series aimed at helping shop owners, we're going to be sharing some tips from the community about marketing your products.

Today's tip is from Joaquin, the creator of the Seed of Yggdrasil

"Seeing the lack of a broad selection of decorative, full color objects in Shapeways, I decided to try out a design of my own and see what it would look like in color. I modeled and 3d-painted The Seed of Yggdrasil using Maya, in about two days of work. It turned out fantastic, the colors were really vibrant, making it stand out. It was also quite cheap since color printing is much cheaper than a lot of other materials. Once I had printed and photographed it, it was time to share it with the world."

The first step is to tell your friends, using your own social networks like G+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and your own blog if you have one. Beyond your own social networks, telling blogs and magazines is the way to spread the word to a wider audience. Check this top 100 list of blogs as a starting point:

Think about which blogs would be interested in your product, and send them a short email tailored to their audience. Save them some time by writing it in the way they would write an article, make it short and to the point and include clear images. Try to make your text interesting, tell a story with it and explain what you created and why its cool. I'd recommend linking to a single object instead of to your whole Shapeways store. The point here is to find someone with a bigger reach than just you.

Joaquin's master tip for advanced users: Use a cat as the background for your pictures.

Last month we featured another great product that went viral using a totally different route, the Twin Rail Mobius. Making a video of your product, particularly if it has moving parts or components, helps to bring it to life. Posting it on youtube exposes it to a whole new community of viewers, you can link your youtube video back to your shop, and embed it directly into your product page.

Bloggers are hungry for content, and we know our Shapeways community is responsible for making a LOT of cool stuff, so feed the bloggers! Send them punchy submissions and see what happens...your design might be the next nyan cat!

Disney World Offers Star Wars Fans 'Carbon Freeze Me' 3D Printed Figurines

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:49:00 +0000

Like a scene straight out of Cory Doctorow's Makers, Disney World is offering visitors to be 3D scanned and 3D printed in a Hans Solo style figurine as part of their Star Wars Weekends..

The cost of the first figurine will be $99.95 plus tax and shipping. Additional figurines (featuring the same face) can be ordered for $74.95 each plus tax and shipping. This new experience was created especially for Disney Parks, and is part of their D-Tech Me line that uses technology to take Disney to the world of personalization.

The experience will officially open on May 18 with the launch of Star Wars Weekends

via 3ders.org and Disney

A Beautiful New Palette of Colors for Your Ceramic 3D Printing at Shapeways

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:03:00 +0000

Now your designs can be 3D printed in a range of beautiful ceramic glazes with our new pastel palette of colors along with satin black finish to join our existing black and white gloss ceramic finishes.

The new ceramic palette includes Avocado Green, Pastel Yellow, Eggshell Blue and Satin Black we will also be introducing Satin White as soon as we are 100% happy with finish.

The design rules are the same as the existing ceramic materials and glazes requiring a minimum 3mm wall thickness to your designs but there will be changes in the pricing of 3D Printed Ceramics to reflect the cost of the glazes as we end the promotional pricing on the gloss black glaze.

Gloss White will be priced at $0.18 per cm2 of surface area

Gloss Black will be priced at $0.19 per cm2 of surface area

Satin Black will be priced at $0.19 per cm2 of surface area

Colored Glazes will be priced at $0.20 per cm2 of surface area.

Continue reading "A Beautiful New Palette of Colors for Your Ceramic 3D Printing at Shapeways"

The Future of Production: May 15: Thema Cafe, Amersfoort

blog@shapeways.com (Bart) — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:38:41 +0000

Our community manager Bart will be hosting a talk on the future of production at the Thema Cafe in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. He will briefly touch on the technology behind 3D printing and then move on to demonstrate the current quality of the materials, and the impact that Shapeways has on designers and consumers. Of course there will be plenty of objects to see!

The talk will be in Dutch and starts at 16.00. The event is free of charge. If you'd like to join us, please RSVP at the Thema Cafe

Shapeways at MakerFaire and Meetup in the Bay Area!

blog@shapeways.com (Natalia) — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:02:00 +0000

We're coming to the West Coast next weekend! Shapeways will be spreading the 3D printed love at MakerFaire Bay Area May 19th and 20th and hosting a meetup as well.

MakerFaire will sprawl the grounds at the San Mateo Event Center and you can find Shapeways in the Expo Hall. Swing by, say hello and check out some of the cool 3D printed products that we will have on display from the Shapeways community.

You'll also have a chance to meet Peter Weijmarshausen, our CEO; Carine, Mary, Natalia and Ben from the Shapeways team and our featured Shapie Christopher Miles (better known for his Ammnra Creations Shapeways shop)

Shapeways will also be hosting a joint meetup with TechShop on Friday May 18th at 8pm at Harry's Hofbrau. Bring your 3D prints to show and have a beer on us at 1297 Chess Drive, Foster City, CA 94404. RSVP via our Meetup page.

We hope to see you there!

3D Modeling, Sculpting, & Viewing Apps for your Smartphone..there will never again be a wasted minute of your day

blog@shapeways.com (Joshua Harker) — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:45:00 +0000

As much as I love digital sculpture and 3D modeling, I do like to to step outside for some fresh air now and again. So in the interest of avoiding growing my hair & beard down to the ground & using a pickle jar for a bathroom, I started looking for some apps that allow me to squeeze in some creative productivity while on the go, particularly during the everyday occasions of waiting & wasted time (i.e. while stuck on the train, plane, bus, post office, DMV, spending the night in jail. etc.) I do love my sketchbook but now I can actually do some rough sculpting & modeling while not parked in front of a computer... glorious!

I'm using an Android phone so here's my list of what I'm goofing with. What's even better is these are all free (by the way, I am not affiliated or otherwise getting any sweet kickbacks for mentioning these products).

My new favorite is TrueSculpt Virtual Sculpture by Fabrice Boyer (like a lite version of Sculptris or Zbrush). Offers symmetrical sculpting, polypainting, & OBJ export. Everything I would have asked for (had I been asked).
Sketcher 3D LITE is more of a box modeling type of app. Still working on figuring this one out. All the export functions are disabled unless you get the pro version. Also available for Apple devices.
Not modeling programs but still useful are Infinite Design & Infinite Painter by Sean Brakefield, & SketchBook Mobile Express by AutoDesk. There are scads of sketching apps but these offer a symmetry function which sets them apart.
There are many, many 3D viewers but I like the usability of Glovious Lite, STL View, & 3D Model Viewer. As expected, file sizes are limited but these can come in handy nonetheless.

Unfortunately I can't personally comment on the quality of these but here's some for Apple devices (these are not free). Apple has quite a few apps in this arena so have a look around, you might find something new. I'd love to get some users feedback about which ones work well for you.

Forger by Javier Edo. This one looks impressive.
123D Sculpt by Autodesk
Sculptmaster 3D by Volutopia
Physios Sculptor by Phyzios
iDough by CrateSoft
iSculptor by Lost Pencil
Also worth a mention is Relievos. Claims to convert photos into 3D reliefs.

Shapeways: Helping Robots Do Graffiti since 2011

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:39:00 +0000

The international Association for Robots in Architecture got their hands on a KUKA KR16-2 robot which of course means they had to program the robot to start spraying walls with the sort of style that would make the Graffiti Research Lab proud... But how do you get a robot to hold the spray gun? Enter Shapeways 3D printing.

The gripper was printed as a single piece with movable parts, using selective laser sintering - so to get a working gripper, they only had to add two servo motors, connected to an Arduino board. The main challenge was then to find a way to let the industrial robot communicate with the Arduino board, to close and open the gripper at the appropriate time. A similar Arduino-based strategy was used to operate a spraygun, the mounting piece was also 3D printed by Shapeways!

Check out the video of the robot in action....

Design for 3D Printing Class with Aaron Trocola May 9th NYC

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:41:09 +0000

The Design for 3D Printing Class by Aaron Trocola presents the foundations of 3D modeling and 3D printing, reviews some of the free tools you can use to get started, and then outlines some of the considerations you'll want to be exposed to as you advance. Sign up now and get a $10 discount thanks to Behance... Sweet.

Various free tools will be explained their strengths and weaknesses articulated: Sketchup, Sculptris, Wings3D, Blender, 123D, Meshlab. You may want to install any or all of these to start off with a packed digital toolbox.

Next will be a category based explanation of premium software in different categories:

-Animation suites like Maya/3DSMax

-Solid modelers ike Solidworks, Alibre, Rhino

-Sculpting programs like Zbrush, 3Dcoat

-Mesh fixing and conversion tools like Meshlab and NetFabb

Then dive in to the details of materials, file formats, wall-thickness, structural considerations and other aspects of designing for 3D printing.

With your ticket purchase you will get a variety of sample files to help you get started immediately, including Sketchup templates for the the latest iPhone, iPod Nano and Shuffle, so you can easily design an unlimited number of products around them.

If this class or time does not suit your needs, check out the Shapeways School on Skillshare for more options.