I recently received a mail from Alex Mamalyha, web community manager for i.materialise, announcing the launch of a new service fromMaterialise NV.i.materialise is a rapid manufacturing service aimed at designers, and the beta sitegives a good idea of the way the service will work. Obviously there are many web-based rapid manufacturing services these days, and the announcement of a new one is a fairly regular occurrence which I usually just ignore. But given the extent to which Materialise have supported and encouraged designers’ use of RM technologies through their.MGXinitiative, I thought this was one service that deserved further investigation. More at i.Materialise
Founded by Stephen Wolfram in 1987 Wolfram Research is one of the world’s most respected software companies—as well as a powerhouse of scientific and technical innovation. As pioneers in computational science and the computational paradigm, we have pursued a long-term vision to develop the science, technology, and tools to make computation an ever-more-potent force in today’s and tomorrow’s world.
At the center is Mathematica: our ever-advancing core product that launched modern technical computing and has now become the world’s most powerful global computation system. With millions of dedicated users throughout the technical and educational communities, Mathematica represents a unique blend of major research breakthroughs, outstanding user-oriented design, and world-class software engineering.
Another interesting 3D print service based in Rome Ital is called SOLIDO. While they deliver only to Europe, they do indicate they have competitive pricing and offer a full range of services, including Rapid Prototyping, Testing (Functional and Ergonomic), 3D Modeling, 83 micron 3D prints, mechanical analyses, postproduction and more.
The build chamber size (200 x 250 x 200 mm) suggests they might be using a ZCorp 310 or 450 3D printer. In any case, you’ll need to send them your .STL to get an estimate or a print.
Aaron Koblin laat door middel van de videoclip Bicycle Built for Two Thousand een visuele interpretatie van de data zien. Hij gebruikte daarvoor de song Daisy Bell uit 1892. Eerder maakte hij de videoclip bij Radiohead’s House of Cards en projecten als Ten Thousand Cents, een 100 dollar biljet getekend door duizenden deelnemers, en het eveneens via Mechanical Turrk gemaakte Sheep Market met duizenden naar links kijkende schapen. Crowdsourcing op zijn best.
Shapeways provides users a set of toolkits that allows them to create 3D objects without any CAD or programming skills. The compagny has introduced their so called Photoshaper, a service that allows anyone to turn digital photographs into 3D printed objects.
Users can logon to Shapeways, upload any photo and order their creations directly. Now you not only can see your girl friend in your wallet when you are on a business trip, but touch her in 3D. With Photoshaper Shapeways redefines online consumerism with direct access to individually customized products that were never available before.
Based on the contrast of the picture (light and dark) the Shapeways Photoshaper automatically creates a depth-layered 3D object that can be printed by Shapeways with the latest in 3D printing technology. The 3D photo will be produced and delivered globally within 10 days and costs between 40-50 USD, including shipping. For best results use a 1.5 megapixel or better picture. The size of the 3D photo is 13 cm to 9 cm, landscape and portrait.
PediaPress.com is an online service that lets you create customized books from wiki content. Simply add any articles you like into a Collection, and then click to order them as a paperback book. Covers, a table of contents, a detailed index and a list of figures are generated automatically, and the books are printed and shipped within 2–15 business days. Combine the advantages of up-to-date and in-depth knowledge with the convenience of printed books. Books are typeset and printed on demand based on your personal selection. You get your unique book and support the Wikimedia Foundation. Discover books created by other users in catalog. Contribute and share yours, too!
Studio Ludens is experimenting with a 3D shape generator that responds to voice. Here is a quick and dirty test. We are using vvvv to prototype this.
It looks like a Christmas Tree, but perhaps that has to do with the time of the year and the kind of sound, I think. So the next experience is to find out how to whisper or shout a beautifull figure. Or how to print poetry, a song or personal emotions. Technically speaking this is the first step in voice-controlled design.
Thingiverse is a place to share digital designs with the world. Some kind of Flickr for things. Just as computing shifted away from the mainframe into the personal computer, digital fabrication will share the same path. Infact, it is already happening: laser cutters, cnc machines, 3D printers, and even automated paper cutters are all getting cheaper by the day. These machines are useful for a huge variety of things, but you need to supply them with a digital design in order to get anything useful out of them.
The next part of our (Ponoko’s) evolution we’re launching a new innovation that we’ve named Designmake Prime - an online subscription service to design, make and market your product ideas like never before.
With Prime, we see a world where you can subscribe at a fixed monthly rate to make (and market) the creations of your dreams. It gives users a range of new services not offered by our original Designmake Free service. More
As mass customization and configurators are becoming common currency worldwide, our configurator database is evolving rapidly. With the number of entries now exceeding 40,000 and still growing, cyLEDGE decided to make it available to everyone. As this resource continues to expand, we’ll always have an open ear for your suggestions.
Confuguration database is the world’s biggest configurator database, featuring over 500 web-based configurators. The full version of the database covers 85 attributes per configurator, of which some are available online. Scientific users are granted free access to the offline database (42,500 entries) upon request.
Creating a 3D printing file from a Google SketchUp file has never been easy. Today a new class of 3D printing technology has slashed the time and expense it takes to create a physical model. Our friends at CADspan just released a plugin that allows for the generation of solid, 3D printable files directly from a Google SketchUp model. This software re-creates a model by “shrink-wrapping” it with one continuous mesh. The result is a single object, in STL file format, that is completely solid and ready-to-print.
Now you can create custom 3D models of your favorite places. Through the magic of 3D printing, personalized replicas of vacation spots, journeys and natural wonders are just a few clicks away.
LandPrints are three-dimensional models of the Earth’s surface. They’re 4-6 inches wide and made of a porcelain-like material. 3D printing turns three-dimensional computer images into three-dimensional objects.
Photomake, developed by Ponoko, allows a 2D sketch to be used as the design drawing for a product, which Ponoko manufactures by laser cutting a material of your choice. The 2D sketch has to be photographed or scanned, then uploaded to the Ponoko website, where software will interpret the design and create a final design.
Essentially the software vectorises a bitmap image, but anthropomorphising the process allows it to be thought of as the software deciding what the drawing really means. This is similar to what happens when one designer looks at another designer’s sketches, and it can be amazing how designers, who have been trained to speak the same language, can read each others drawings, whereas a non-designer will miss much of the information, or else place too much importance on a non-essential detail. It seems that unless non-designers are expected to become proficient in either sketching, or some kind of 3D modelling, the only way for them to satisfactorily communicate their design intent will be the development of software which is able to interpret their wishes. This software may have to guide them, and it may insist they are not able to do certain things, but it’s job will be to do what Photomake does, except with three dimensional designs.
Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store run by skinny Corp of Chicago, Illinois, since 2000. Co-founders Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart started the company with 1,000 Dollar in seed money after entering an Internet t-shirt design contest.
Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote. A small percentage of submitted designs are selected for printing and sold through an online store. Creators of the winning designs receive a prize of cash and store credit.
Spoonflower is a Fresh out of Beta startup that allows users to upload designs for fabric and have it printed on demand. This allows fashion designers to get short runs of a custom print, quilters to make their work less crazy, and artisans of all sorts to be free from the gauche patterns available at most fabric stores.
