I dont want to be to critical, so I will be cryptic and not mention the machines or companies I am thinking of. Just advice. I am very suspicious of manufacturing machinery that is trying to fit in with retail kitchen appliances but would look fragile in a commercial kitchen. things were paid for in the design process that I do not need, and things were ignored that I value. I think compromises for aesthetic appeal in a machine that is supposed to manufacture other objects that are then viewed closely is rediculous.
Cantilevered X/Y axis upper frame, seen it live it’s hideous shaking gave me nightmares. WTF?
@Daniel_Carter
As far as printers, I am not the most experienced to give advice on what expensive 3d printer is best for this architecture firms needs. Sorry for the weird response, it’s in reference to machines recommended that I find have strange statements in marketing or I have seen and thought old and out of date in design. I just dont want to have the name of the company then trigger a notice on google to them when posted, that then brings responses and arguments and general ‘future is so creepy’ type of issues.
If it were me, for an architecture firm, I would get a printer that comes with a service plan and tech support or think long and hard about becoming their ‘printer guy’. FDM is mostly about the extrusion control and the knowledge of filament settings in slicing software, for a business a limited set of filament to use and a somewhat limited and linear slicing setup is probably best. Unless they have someone that is going to take ownership of the machine and really get to know it, constraints on the process to ensure it is working at the pace of the rest of the business are good.
With no idea the size of the firm or the expectations of models, marketing masterpieces of entire buildings versus engineering developmental models, it’s hard to imagine the printer.
I am not sure what the firm needs as far as model size and surface detail, those would be good things to establish. References such as an example of an architectural model the firm wants the equivalent of would be of great help for anyone giving advice.
Architectural models that I viewed at school shows from the architecture department at my university made use of mostly laser cut materials not 3d printed parts. I would think 3d printed parts would add an enormous amount of detail to a good architectural model but materials cut in the same fashion actual structures are made just look better in architectural models. I have never seen a print of a building that did not look like a print of a building, I have seen student models that looked just amazing with multiple materials and a sense of majesty that a 3d print of the entire thing is just never going to have.
maybe a good architecture student intern a laser cutter and a $600 Simple Metal is actually what they need.
What size prints? I’d say the Simple Pro could be a good fit. Upload model, slicing in cloud is automatic, send to printer and hit print. If you wanna try it, send me a model and I’ll print it to show you what you can expect. I’ll offer a full refund if the first two months leaves you with regrets
Brook@printrbot…
Ultimate 2+ is what you want in a professional setting. Big prints, guaranteed print quality, dedicated community. Not sure why you’re insisting on an enclosure. Please don’t fill the world with more ABS.
@Jonas_G Your BEST bet is to pick the most difficult architectural project design’s your company have and will produce going into the companies future and vision for actual client need’s and get a “prototype” made from each of the Top 5-10 3D printer’s and see which one comes the closest to what your company prefers and expects based on scale model and lay them out side by side as a display showcase in the middle of your conference table and allow your team to be able to walk around and look over from all angles to judge for themselves which comes the closest to their expectations and from there you can get down to the “detail’s” on paper on who these 3D printer companies are behind each protoypes, the cost of owning one including all the needed materials, hardware/software dependability, dedicated product support system should you encounter any issues, the time it took the machine to crank out the complicated design, shelf life, user friendliness and learning curve. That way there is no guess work, unexpected surprises on the final product results, and waste on your companies resources.
We do have the Plus Pro model coming up for sale this week. It has an enclosure and is high temp so it prints Ultem. You won’t find anything in this price range that does that I don’t think. I’d be happy to print and ship you a test model if you want to see what it can do
Brook
Thank you all for your inputs!
Since we want just to test the water right now, a commercial 3D printer should work for the moment. If our employees use the printer, we can always upgrade to a bigger and better printer.
Thanks again for your help.
Printrbot.com in business since 2011, making affordable desktop printers. Our Simple Pro is the best seller and easy to use. The upcoming Plus Pro is larger but targets professionals not put off by the need to run free desktop software to prepare the model for printing. I’ll take some pictures and post them.
Specs include 10”x10”x12” enclosed build volume, sd card or usb printing, basic lcd screen w click dial, high powered heatbed, autoleveling, any filament -even high temp up to 450C, high flow 90 Watt hotend, and all metal construction (aluminum and steel).
Brook
CEO/founder http://Printrbot.com
Our aim is to print some models like this https://www.instagram.com/3d.frames/
But our first step will be those situations models which I sent to Brook.
