{"id":695,"date":"2010-12-23T09:58:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T09:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/695-have-yourself-a-merry-little-3d-printing-definition.html"},"modified":"2014-07-03T17:07:44","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T17:07:44","slug":"have-yourself-a-merry-little-3d-printing-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/have-yourself-a-merry-little-3d-printing-definition","title":{"rendered":"Have Yourself a Merry Little 3D Printing Definition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You may be finding yourself this holiday trying to explain 3D printing to your 80 year old grandmother who only knows a mouse as a critter the cat chases. To us that use the latest technology on an everyday basis it may seem like a no brainer, but the truth is that though 3D printing is not an extremely new technology it&#8217;s still practically a newborn to the public and retail realms.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/3D_printing\">Wikipedia<\/a> &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/3D_printing\">3D printing<\/a> is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material.&#8221; That is a pretty solid explanation, but not really one that flows conversationally.<\/p>\n<p>You can always bring out the YouTube videos that show 3D printing in action. On my own website I embedded the following video, which is from the Museum of Modern Art&#8217;s YouTube channel:<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/_shI-rixzZk?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><embed width=\"480\" height=\"385\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/_shI-rixzZk?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nBut of course one other great option is to show them the video Shapeways made showing the steps involved:<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/TQoTro9WfbQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><embed width=\"480\" height=\"385\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/TQoTro9WfbQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>At the end of this blog I encourage everyone to add on what you think is the best way to explain 3D printing to newbies.<\/p>\n<p>Even though it&#8217;s not completely accurate to all materials Shapeways prints; I tend to explain it the following way, though not nearly so elegantly: &#8220;In a similar way to how 2D printing onto paper puts down one thin layer of ink, 3D printing puts down multiple layers<br \/>\nof a material until it becomes a three dimensional object.&#8221; I usually make silly hand gestures to accompany this explanation that involve air chopping in a horizontal orientation while saying &#8220;layer by layer,&#8221; but that&#8217;s optional.<\/p>\n<p>There are many varied ways to explain what 3D printing is, and it&#8217;s always nice when our hobby and \/ or business is understood by those close to us, you may even get some commissions out of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may be finding yourself this holiday trying to explain 3D printing to your 80 year old grandmother who only&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[481,478],"tags":[482,477],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shapeways","category-community","tag-6-inspiration","tag-1-whats-hot"],"thumbnail":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - 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