Author Archives: Duann

About Duann

Shapeways Designer Evangelist

Shapeways Launches SVX, a Voxel Based File Format for 3D Printing

Posted by in 3D Modeling, 3D Printing, 3D Printing Materials, Apps, Design Apps, Shapeways • •

Shapeways has created a new SVX format for transmitting voxel data for 3D printing. After much research we found no existing format that satisfied our requirements. Our primary design priorities are simple definition, ease of implementation, and extensibility. There are plenty of things you could dislike about the STL format, but it’s brevity and simple implementation are not one of them.

svx_large

A voxel is a 3D dimensional pixel. Most 3D printers work internally with voxel like representations. Your 3D model is sliced into 2D image slices, each pixel represents a dot of material that the printer builds your object with. Voxel formats allow direct control over those dots. One promise of 3D printing is that complexity is free. Sadly with STL files we’ve had the disconnect that more complexity equals more triangles equals larger files. Above a certain limit you just can’t use triangles to specify the details you want in a 3D printed model. Whether that information be material allocation, density, RGB color both internal and external or a custom id that could be used for another variable, not yet available in the 3D printers on the market.

Another area that is interesting for voxel usage is in making printable objects. A mesh for 3D printing needs to meet certain mathematical properties. It is easier to write voxel software that meets these demands. This makes the barrier to entry much lower for writing creators and its especially easy to include 2D imagery into your designs. See ShapeJS for some examples. One area that is typically tricky is turning voxels into triangles. We’ve worked hard to provide some nice routines for much high quality conversion to triangles when necessary. When you upload a voxel model to Shapeways you’ll be leveraging that work, just concentrate on making the voxels right and we’ll handle the triangles if needed.

You can view the new format specification at: SVX Format. We’ve added support for voxel uploads at Shapeways so you can start sending full resolution voxel files now!

Join Shapeways at the Designers of Things Conference and Meetup in San Francisco

Posted by in 3D Printing, Events, meetup, SuperFanArt • •

Come and talk 3D Printing, Design and Groundbreaking I.P. in San Francisco September 23rd to 24th 2014.

Screen Shot 2014-09-19 at 3.31.16 PM

The Designers of Things conference is focused on Wearable Tech, 3D Printing and the Internet of Things, yes all of the cool things together at last.  Natalia Kasnodebska and Duann Scott from Shapeways will be presenting on Tuesday, September 23 | 4:00pm-4:30pm FANS + OPEN IP = INTERNET OF REALLY COOL THINGS (yes, we are so excited we used caps), discussing SuperFanArt, the groundbreaking I.P. initiative between Hasbro and Shapeways that enables designers and artists to create and sell 3D printed products based on Hasbro owned I.P.

Also join us on Wednesday the 24th to the Designers of 3D Printed Things Meetup at a mystery location in San Francisco.  It will be awesome, we will have 3D printed objects, bring along your 3D prints so you can show off your design skills and ask questions of Shapeways 3D printing experts.

Maker The Movie: A Documentary on the Maker Movement

Posted by in 3D Printing, Inspiration, Interview, Video • •

“Maker” is a feature-length documentary on the Maker Movement and its impact on society, culture and economy in the U.S.

Screen Shot 2014-09-17 at 11.29.02 AM

The ‘Maker Movement’, sometimes called the ‘Third Industrial Revolution,’ subverts traditional manufacturing by building on innovative concepts such as open source, local manufacturing, crowd funding, and digital fabrication. Breaking the hobbyist movement stereotype, ‘Maker’ delves deep into this ecosystem of design and manufacturing in the Internet era. The film explores the ideas, tools, and personalities that are driving the Maker Movement – and returns with a timely snapshot of one of the transforming influences of the current age.

The documentary is a series of interviews with leading thinkers in the maker movement, their motivations and the future as they see it evolving.  You can request a screening for your local area, school, hacker space or find a screening that is already happening in your area.  Also screening from September 26th on Netflix is the Print the Legend movie, following the growth of Formlabs and Makerbot as they raced to bring 3D printers to peoples homes.

You can check out the trailer for the Maker Documentary now.

The Tribot – 3D Printer, CNC Milling and Injection Molding All in One Machine

Posted by in 3D Printer • •

It squirts, it cuts, it dices.  The Tribot by Luminar is trying to be the ultimate machine to take your idea from prototype to product using all the super powers required for each step in the manufacturing process.

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The Tribot will retail at $9,950 in early 2015 but Kickstarter backers can back the progress for $7,700 with 8 units going pre-kickstarter (that’s a new thing) for only $5,000. While this may not be the finest resolution 3D printer on the market, the largest CNC milling bed or the type of injection molding rig capable of churning out tens of thousands of injection molded parts with multiple part molds and shut off faces, the ability to make a small run of a simple part in your workshop is something that desktop 3D printers cannot yet achieve.

The Tribot is not being launched by the usual geek/hipster trio that has become the default demographic for launching 3D printers on Kickstarter, the Tribot is being developed by a group of old school engineers and business types with years of experience with machines for making things.

What would you make with the 3DP, CNC and Injection molding combo?

A Day of 3D Printing and Politics in Washington D.C.

Posted by in 3D Printing, Events, Shapeways, SuperFanArt • •

On Wednesday September 17th 2014, politicians, lawyers and 3D printing experts will converge on Washington to discuss the intellectual property challenges facing the 3D printing ecosystem as it matures, and enters mainstream culture.

3D Printing Politics Shapeways

Speakers will include

  • Bill Foster Congressman, 11th Congressional District of Illinois,
  • Rep. Tim Ryan Chair of the Congressional Makers Caucus,
  • Vikrum Aiyer Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Under Secretary for IP, U.S. Department of Commerce
  • Andras Forgacs Co-Founder & CEO, Modern Meadow, Inc
  • Mark Hatch CEO & Co-Founder, TechShop
  • Michael Weinberg VP, Public Knowledge
  • and even Duann Scott Designer Evangelist, Shapeways

Topics will range from the Economic Impact of the Obama Leadership, to the intellectual property challenges & the changes to culture driven by bottom-up, peer-to-peer, democratized manufacturing.

If there is anything you personally think needs to be addressed, please comment on the blog and I will see if I can integrate it into the discussion at my panel, The Growing Global 3DP IP Market & How Much is at Stake.

HOW TO: Create a Rubber Prototype Using a 3D Printed Mold in 14 Easy Steps

Posted by in 3D Printing, How To, Industrial design, Tutorials • •

Will Harris at Design That Matters has posted a fun tutorial on HOW TO: Create a Rubber Prototype Using a 3D Printed Mold that is a step by step process that is easy to follow and looks like the kind of fun that will have you pouring liquid rubber into 3D printed molds for months.

how to 3D print a rubber mold

You can flex your industrial design skills in software such as Solidworks or Inventor which both have great tools to help you boolean and split a mold from your designed part.  Will also includes practical design tips such as including registration pins and escape vents into your mold to ensure bubbles do not form and you can add extra material to your 3D printed mold if required.  (or you can mix colors and/or materials if you want to get a little more experimental).

The best materials for 3D printed molds are usually polished Nylon or Acrylic if you want to do smaller, higher detail molds from your 3D prints.  Some people also spray the molds with silicone as a mold release to ensure you do not end up simply gluing your mold together with the filler material.

Why stop at rubber, you can use your 3D printed molds for many materials, soap, crayons, wax, ice, jello, or even, mature cheddar cheese.

NOTE: 3D Printed materials may not be food safe, mature cheddar cheese molded from 3D prints are for decorative use only.

Your Next Tattoo Made with a 3D Printer

Posted by in 3D Printer, Art, DIY, Video • •

What better use of the computer controlled x y motors of a 3D printer than to give yourself a tattoo.  Tattooing straight lines and perfect circles are super hard so the enigmatic crew of Appropriate Audiences have solved that problem by attaching a tattoo machine to their 3D printer to give the perfect circle tattoo (not the band logo).

3d print a tattoo

This should be listed under ‘do not try this at home’ as many territories have different laws on who and how to you can get tattooed.  To follow their process so you can see exactly how not to try this at home, Pierre Emm and friends have shared their how (not) to on Instructables.

Designer For Hire: Scott Denton

Posted by in 3D Modeling, 3D Printing, Designer for Hire • •

If you are looking for a 3D artist to bring your ideas to reality with 3D printing, look no further than 3D modeler and all around 3D super star Scott Denton.  Scott has worked in the 3D modeling and animation industry for so many years he has a beard, that is also in 3D (at the time of writing). Contact Scott if you have an idea you would like to explore with 3D printing at Shapeways.

Name: Scott Denton

Shapeways User Name: Likesyrup

Shapeways Shop: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/Likesyrup

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 Bio:

I am currently a Freelance Modeler/Generalist living in Brooklyn, NY. I hail from Nashville, TN and studied 3D animation at Full Sail University graduating with an Associates of Science in Computer Animation. I have worked in this industry now for 9 years and continue to learn from everyone I work with as well as developing skills to make me more valuable to current and new clients alike. I really enjoy working with new teams of creative people and having a fun time in the process.

My current passions are modeling in Zbrush and i’ve been doing a lot with 3d printing. I look forward to where 3d printing is going to take us in the future.

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Services Offered:

3d modeling, file repair, Rendering/lighting, Design

3D Modeling Specialties:

character, organic, from photo, from sketch, Jewelry,Toys,

3D Software Used:

Maya, Zbrush, Mudbox, 3dcoat, sketchup, Meshmixer, Sculptris, Modo, C4D, Photoshop

3 Examples of projects undertaken:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/13762255/Swell-Ring

https://www.behance.net/gallery/13920287/Louboutin-display-at-Saks-Fifth-Ave-NYC

https://www.behance.net/gallery/12164961/Zbrush-Accessories

Scott Denton 3D modeling Expert on Shapeways

Pricing Structure:

by the hour/by project but also may do percentage of sales if they want the file, profit sharing

You can see more of Scott’s work at www.likesyrup.com or Contact Scott if you have an idea you would like to explore with 3D printing at Shapeways.

 

This Is The Internet as 3D Printed Clay

Posted by in Art • •

If you have ever had trouble visualizing exactly what internet traffic may look like Vincent Brinkmann has the answer in the form of rough extruded clay looking a little like the ashtray I made for my (non-smoking) mother in 2nd grade.  

While this may be considered a form of 3D printing to communicate an idea, the resolution is so low and the abstraction from the data so great that the project’s statement that “EXtrace reflects the change from quality to quantity of modern communication as the printed sculpture itself don´t mirror the data input that they have been created with, but conserving this hidden data physically for centuries.”  makes me question whether the sculpture actually communicates anything.

the internet

EXtrace is an apparatus that 3D prints clay sculptures out of the appearing data amounts of the world’s biggest internet node. In contrast to ancient physical communication media, like clay tablets or books, today´s communication got faster to near real-time. Furthermore EXtrace reflects the change from quality to quantity of modern communication as the printed sculpture itself don´t mirror the data input that they have been created with, but conserving this hidden data physically for centuries. As an input EXtrace uses a 2 day chart of the upcoming data transfer that goes through the internet node De-Cix located in Frankfurt am Main. This rapid data flow easily breaks the 2500 Gigabit per second mark and stands for a widely connected, fast paced and ubiquitous network of today´s communication. This data input is transformed and remapped to a physical data visualized clay sculpture.

We have seen previous projects using Shapeways to 3D print data visualization and to communicate information with higher resolution and Unfold have been creating elegant extruded clay 3D prints for many years.

What do you think is the value of this project?

Full Color Plastic 3D Print Material Torture Test Video

Posted by in 3D Printing Materials, Ask An Engineer, Industrial design, Inspiration, Product, Shapeways, Video • •

We are testing Full Color Plastic 3D Printing at Shapeways and what better way to test than with material torture videos.  We 3D printed a few basic parts to test for strength, flexibility, water and fire resistance.

Take a look at the video above to see the material under all of the different torture tests (oh, I was gentle as I wanted to test some of the parts in real world applications).  Overall while the material is not as refined or durable as SLS Nylon, which is the benchmark to which I compare all 3D printed materials, you can still do interlocking parts AND it is in almost full color (CMY, no K).
Shapeways Full Color Plastic 3D Printing is Flexible ish

The material is not as strong as our popular Nylon SLS material but is definitely less brittle then Full Color Sandstone.  At 3mm thickness the material is relatively stiff with only a small amount of flexibility (depending on geometry) yet at 1.5mm thickness the parts flex quite easily, to the point where the material may fail after just a few cycles of bending.  At 1mm thickness of wires, the prints can be very easily broken with very little effort so I really recommend at least 2mm walls/wires unless you never, ever intend to  touch your 3D prints.

Shapeways Full Color Plastic 3D Printing is machinable

I also gave the material a quick grind with a Dremel which the full color plastic held up fairly well to.  If you have a printed part that fits on an existing component that is too tight, you could easily and reliably grind away excess material with a clean finish.  I imagine it would respond to sanding with similar success as the color is impregnated approximately 2mm into the surface of the 3D prints, you could smooth the parts without removing all the color as long as you are not too heavy handed.  I am still experimenting with the parts in a tumbler to see if we can automate the smoothing process.

Shapeways Full Color Plastic 3D Printing is Waterproof

I am quite excited that the full color plastic is entirely waterproof, after soaking for over 24 hours there is no bleeding of colors, no degradation of material strength, stiffness or any swelling.  I have not had a chance to really UV test the pigments but as far as moisture is concerned this could be used for outdoor applications.

Shapeways Full Color Plastic 3D Printing is flamable

Another concern may be exposure to heat, the material feels as though it will deform under high temperatures but it definitely catches fire easily and stays alight emitting a terrible smell. So please do not expose you full color plastic 3D prints to exposed flames.

If you have any other tests you would like me to do to our Full Color Plastic, please leave a comment in the blog.

You Have Until September 8th to Submit Your Designs for the Next Round of SuperFanArt

Posted by in 3D Modeling, Inspiration, Shapeways, Shop Owner, SuperFanArt • •

If you have 3D prints you would like to submit to be part of the Hasbro + Shapeways + You = SuperFanArt extravaganza, you have until September 8th 2014 to be part of the next round.

hasbro-blog-home

SuperFanArt is now accepting anyone to submit their 3D printed designs based on Hasbro owned IP including:

  • Dragonvale
  • Dungeons & Dragons
  • G.I. Joe
  • Monopoly
  • My Little Pony
  • Scrabble (to be sold in US and Canada only)
  • Transformers

Full details and instructions for both new designers, and existing designs can be found on the Shapeways SuperFanArt page.

Most importantly, when you submit your design, please be sure to include the tag SuperFanArt so that we can find and include your submission.  For inspiration, take a look at some of the submissions that we have received so far.

Karlie Kloss and her Epic 3D Printing Fashion Journey with Vogue

Posted by in 3D Printed, 3D Scan, Fashion, Inspiration, Shapeways, Video • •

Shapeways partnered with Vogue to send Karlie Kloss around the world, as a 3D print, from a 3D scan by Direct Dimensions.

The playful project to send Karlie Kloss around the world as a 3D print is another example of the fashion world recognizing the value of 3D printing, even if it is not to make a garment or an accessory.  With projects like the Dita Von Teese Gown and the Victoria’s Secret Angel Wings, we worked with designers to push the current 3D Printing materials to the absolute limits.  This project is a more lighthearted step in the direction of exploring how 3D scanning and 3D printing can be used to document a person, object or place, to then explore the form in 3 dimensions, to print as is, or to modify and/or enhance.

karlie kloss 3D print by Shapeways and Vogue

The american supermodel was 3D scanned in a number of classic outfits, and playful poses by Direct Dimensions’ 20 foot diameter booth with over 100 cameras firing simultaneously to capture the raw data to 3D print.  3D technicians then painstakingly prepared the 3D point clouds so that Shapeways could 3D print the 6 inch high figurines in our Full Color Sandstone material in our New York factory, you can see footage of the print process in the video below..

The 3D prints were then sent to exotic locations around the world to be photographed by fashion photographers in each locale, you may see a few on instagram with the hastag #whereskarlie.

Karlie Kloss’s 3D Print Shapeways Vogue Screen Shot 2014-09-03 at 2.49.02 PM Screen Shot 2014-09-03 at 2.48.34 PM Screen Shot 2014-09-03 at 2.48.19 PMFor more images of Karlie in the wild, check out the gallery on vouge.com along with the article on the project and a behind the scenes look at the 3D scanning process.

Ultra Slim Ring Box with Spinning Feature Showing Moving Parts in 3D Prints

Posted by in 3D Printed, Design, Inspiration • •

This Ultra Slim Ring Box by IncogNerdo Apparel is a perfect example of how you can introduce moving, articulated components to your 3D Prints.

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3d print slim ring box Shapeways

Normal ring boxes too bulky?
Having a hard time hiding your surprise engagement ring?
Then you could probably use this ring box!
This ring box is impressively slim and can easily fit in the fifth pocket of your jeans. The ring holder is also designed to spin the ring as much as 45 degrees as you open the ring box to beautifully showcase any and all gemstones.

The box is designed to be as innocuous as possible so that, should your ring box be found, it would be glossed over as nothing important. No more worries of stumbling upon your big surprise!

So subtle it is basically invisible, check out the video of the Slim Ring Box in action.

Full Color Plastic 3D Prints from the Shapeways Community

Posted by in 3D Printing, 3D Printing Materials, Community, Design, Shapeways • •

The first wave of full color plastic 3D prints are starting to appear on the Shapeways forums showing the level of color saturation, material strength and precision that you can expect with your full color 3D prints.

3D printed full color plastic flowers Shapeways

Barratomica seems to have the best results so far with his full color plastic flower rings showing a nice color palette and regular, organic forms.

Others are having less success with their full color plastic 3D prints including our very own Mitchell with his scale model trains.  The colors in his model are not as crisp with a sligthly faded look to them as Multihawk also found with his prints.

As you can see below his full color plastic 3D prints look quite faded with some white spots evident on the surface and colors bleeding.  This may be in part because of the relatively small size of Multihak’s mini figurines, it would be interesting to see the exact same models in full color sandstone to compare.

Multihawk also experienced some warping in the thin areas of his small model as did Lensman with his Icicle and Stalactite Pendants Models where the small tips of the pendants were warped.  These models are also relatively small with a total length of around 5cm and just over 1cm at the widest point.  From this we may be able to deduct that the parts may go through some thermal shock after the printing process that is introducing this warpage.  As we learn more about this machine and the post processing we may be able to reduce this warpage that some designers are experiencing.

Thank you to all that are sharing their results in the It Arrived forum on Shapeways, we really appreciate your feedback as the more you tell us the more we learn.  Keep them coming.