Shapeways 3D Printspiration
Welcome to the Future of Stuff.
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Shapeways API meet up
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@shapeways materials; physical + baseball-card-style, awesome. #3dprinting
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How Cool Is 3D Printing, by Shapeways
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http://nikkimouse19.tumblr.com
A Photograph taken on Brooklyn Bridge at sunset
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So grateful to be in the top 3 on hype m next to some of my favorite artists.. 🙏
20121117_LatticeLab-Day01_03 by studioMode on Flickr.
We have seen 3D Printed experiments in variable structures in concrete and the potential it has for creating intelligent structures for architecture. Netfabb have recently uploaded a really simple, interesting video of the capillary effects of 3D Printed structures.
There is massive unrealized potential with 3D Printing to make the materials function in much more intelligent ways than they are currently being used. There are two main factors that contribute to the current underuse of the materials and processes.
The first is the capacity of the human mind to understand the true potential of a new material. When we are given a new material we often use it in the same way, or as a direct replacement for an existing material. As we did with Bakelite to plastics and now with 3D Printing. As we begin to better understand the materials and processes we start to use them in more sophisticated ways until we make the most of their potential, using them for their unique material properties.
The second is the tools we use to design and fabricate the materials. From hand tools to power tools and now the 3D modeling tools, we are limited by the forms that the software will allow us to create. With tools within 3D modeling software like Grasshopper, Netfabb or those being developed and used by Nervous System we are starting to see the very tip of the iceberg of intelligent tools to design for digital fabrication.
We will start to see 3D printed forms being innovative not just in the external forms as we currently see in the Shapeways galleries but also in their internal structure. The structure of the materials will start to be optimized for strength, weight, porosity, flexibility, impact, abrasiveness, friction and many more factors through data input, not just manual crunching of CAD. We have seen it start to happen in the arts with form such as Joris Laarman’s Bone Chair and Bridge Table and in medicine with porous ceramic structures used to aid in bone grafts but it will eventually be a standard practice in design to enter requirements to define both material structure and form for digital fabrication.
Hopefully Netfabb’s simple video will act as inspiration for us all to start think of digital fabrication in this way.
Join us for Material Monday on Shapeways
Inform your designs with the AMAZING new 3D Printed materials samples we have in the Shapeways office and take a look at some of the post processing techniques we have been experimenting with in the Shapeways Labs NYC version 1.0
Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen at DLD12 in Munich presenting the Future of Stuff
Your Minecraft character as a key fob! This figurine has a hole in its head, so you can easily attach it to your key ring and have it always with you. Alternatively it can also serve as a small table decoration at your PC. It is steady enough to stand there shining with happiness of leaping out of a virtual world into a real one
Mineways is a free program that makes it easy to select a model from a Minecraft world map and render it and 3D print via Shapeways. (via Shapeways | blog: Mineways : 3D Print Your Minecraft Model)
Shapeways is featured in the September/October 2011 Australian Vogue Living, recognized as being a ‘trailblazing company’ giving the power to the people with high quality, low cost digital fabrication….
Adrian Bowyer, inventor of the RepRap - a 3D printer that can replicate itself talks more about his unique invention, its applications and what the future for personal manufacturing might look like.
Turn your 3D model into a full color 3D object! Shapeways Full Color printing service makes it possible. This video shows the production process, and a number of inspiring examples. See the gallery for more designs by our community: http://www.shapeways.com/gallery
Shapeways SLS nylon print, gave it two quick coats of clear auto polyurethane with a ‘touch up gun’ to gloss it off, two coats of red ‘base’ with an airbrush, and then 2 more coats of reasonably heavy clear to give it a final surface.
More info on Flickr
Jessica from Nervous System has given us a sneak peek of some new pieces 3D printed in stainless steel that are about to be released along with a new line of jewelry at the New York International Gift Fair from January 29, 2011.
26. January 2011 / 20:00 to 23:00 h
- Image via Wikipedia
3D design for digital fabrication / Workshop Series
Open Design City, Betahaus
Prinzessinnenstrasse 19–20, Berlin
Dates:
Workshop 1: 26 January 2011, 7 pm
Workshop 2: tbc
Workshop 3: tbc
Content:
It seems as though Shapeways Twisty Puzzle extraordinaire Oskar has recently turned his hand to that of a twisty cupid with more successful marriage proposals accepted via his Gift Cube.
You may remember the story of Matthew and Mindy and their twisty puzzle proposal? They were married on July 31st, 2010 and have re-enacted their Gift-Cube proposal on YouTube.
Since then there have been another two successful proposals via Oskar’s Gift Cube and another one soon to be presented. What will she say?
Congratulations to Oskar/Cupid, Michael and Andrea, Matthew and Mindy, Darryl and Michelle. You can get the full story on Twisty Puzzles.
Oh, and do watch the video….
Original article on Shapeways Blog
I’m Ben, the new product lead for the Shapeways web presence. In my first two weeks here, I’ve done a lot of startup-y things—setting up furniture and helping arrange the new office workspace, meeting new colleagues (and introducing some to the experience of working in New York City and the USA for the first time).
My core focus, however, has been taking website suggestions from our community and merging them with plans developed by our company’s leadership team to develop the Roadmap of our site growth over the next 6-month period. This is an intense task, and one that is really a lot of fun.
I’m also planning the implementation of tools to make both processes more efficient and more community-centric. Lots of people are familiar with idea collection systems like Dell IdeaStorm and Ubuntu Brainstorm, and I want to set up something like that for Shapeways as well. You’ll be hearing more about this in the next few months.
Our website is a solid workhorse right now, but I see room for improvement. We’ll be adding features and fixes at a steady pace, but with a renewed focus on web design and user experience, there are a lot of areas where we’ll add polish and enhance the ease-of-use for shop owners, designers and customers.
With our huge selection of products, it’s important to ensure people can find things they like. To address that, I’m working on ways to help visitors discover items of interest, and to personalize their experience when shopping on shapeways.com.
Finally, for would-be designers who want to learn about 3D modeling and get started creating and selling their own designs, our team is planning to highlight and expand the documentation and tutorials we provide on the site.
(We’ve even implemented a few changes to our website already—nothing big yet, but if you see little things that have been changed, that’s because of us!)
I’m looking forward to learning from and working with you, members of the Shapeways community!
-Ben
