Less than glowing…and yet, I don’t disagree with her.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/search-3d-printer-and-the-headlines-and-hype-84224101044.html
Entertaining and well researched, unusual with today’s media! Becky hits the nail on the head, why buy a $3000 printer to fix a $9 coffee pot? Mass production will always be cheaper than custom, 3D printing will not change that.
What is not happening? Gluing or printing?
Try rhino 3d. It’s free if you have a Mac. And yes, 3d modeling has a steep learning curve.
@SketchUp is free, and super easy to use. I use it all the time to build parts that I print on my Up Plus 2. You can even open STL files (with the free plugin). I use it all the time, check my profile. The problem with her article is that she didnt make the time to learn one of the free tools.
SketchUP was never designed to be a CAD tool, and is really bad at it. It often generates models that need repair before they can be printed. I really suggest avoiding sketchup and starting with a real CAD application. Like Rhino or FreeCAD, 123D Design . There are a few more free ones.
People are used to technology they can pick up and use straight away. The path of tech is that no one has to learn anything to be productive - the computer does it for you. Sad to see society lose practical skills, but I don’t see that trend reversing.
It may turn the corner with a ‘killer-app’ like discovery. Either something that drastically changes the cost or capability. People are or are-not spatially oriented, but will need to be a way for someone who isn’t good with 3 dimensions to receive an undeniable value out of this.
This article sums it up pretty well… a 3D printer is a highly advanced power tool not an appliance. I find it weird that 3D printing gets touted/advertised like its an Amazon Kindle. As if there is a vast library of everything you would find in a store and the printer instantly gives you the ability to make them.
I agree that cad is hard for most, but not all. I don’t place my bets on the idea that everyone needs to learn cad though.
Imagine that 1.) cad will get easier and more accessible, 2.) designs that have true utility will get more and more common, 3.) designers will become available for custom work at never before seen low prices, and 4.) the hype will subside and the public will have realistic expectations about a very complex tool that has real value and can perform tasks never before possible.
Judging what 3d printers and it’s evolving ecosystem will someday do based on current technology is, in my opinion, extremely short sighted.
The responsible thing for current 3d printing companies to do now, at present, is to do a good job setting expectations on their current printers and the current state of the surrounding ecosystem.
Printrbot, like MakerBot and others, is in a very early stage of its overall life. 3d printing is hard and cad is harder. The ecosystem is young and in a somewhat chaotic state of land-grabbing, fractured confusion. At worst, the ecosystem is littered with scarcity-ridden greed, fear and opportunistic capitalism. Mind, you there are bright spots of altruism and user-focussed openness. DRM is all but absent but needed for artists and designers to show up in droves with their valuable time, innovation and ideas to get paid for their work.
Will there be a 3d printer in every home? I say YES! It’s just a matter of when? And who-- what company will survive to straddle the valley of discontent brought on by the hype and plant their brand as a flag on the desks and kitchen counters of the world?!
I have always considered price to be the first barrier to entry, but value (price / size / resolution) has prevailed in my final conclusion. Printrbot has always been focussed on value, but having that, arguably, in hand, now has turned to focus on ease of use.
Ease of use is a relative term, to be sure, but a complex and expensive problem that involves software, cad and a palatable ecosystem that spans designed models, value-proposition, availability of designers, geo-centered location of available printers for hire and material cost. Few have the resources to tackle such a problem. In the end, it may turn out to be a patchwork quilt of independent services offering ad hoc specialties tied together with open APIs resulting in a good-enough tool chain.
Living with the current state of the art 3d printers that cost as little as $349(kit) or $599 for our assembled consumer-ready(??) Simple model is not without pain. Supporting thousands of customers with our printers gives me a uniquely clear view of where we are in this newly available industry. This technology is not yet ready for every home, but we all are quickly responding to the needs at hand to make it so. Early-adopters beware… We aren’t there yet, but we are closer than we have ever been, closer than last year, closer than last month.
I, for one, will not rest until a printer is in every home… And the day when we all take for granted the struggles it took to get us all there.
Brook
Printrbot CEO/Founder
That’s a helluva response, @Brook_Drumm ! Having an affordable well supported device like the Simple has already removed the barrier to entry for so many people, myself included So, a big “THANKS” to you and your team!
But even if the tech gets good enough for general home use it might not be enough to overcome habit. For example, I own a large format professional inkjet printer and my wife still takes a USB drive to Walgreen’s! YARGH!
(veering off on an interesting tangent) But will the Printer in every home (and a chicken in every pot!) resemble what the Enthusiast has now? What will the $99 printer with $15 filament cartridges (containing .10 kg of filament) bring to the table that grabs the great unwashed masses and compels them to pull out their cards?
Something tells me it won’t be on demand shower-curtains hooks.
Print custom, on demand, One Direction band members with your name on their backs?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Print On Demand Shredder Playset? (Comes with printer, an SD card, and a pre-measured chunk of plastic)
Keep in mind, the Christmas season is no stranger to $500 Arcade consoles, $399 Laptops, and $200 door-buster LCD televisions. These are comfortable price ranges for carefully simplified printers, if the demand can be manufactured. I also wouldn’t rule out the ‘botched licensing deal’ whereby a sealed up, guaranteed $600 in revenue by selling the device for $100, then making the money on the back end becomes the new hacker darling when it’s discovered it’s ‘just’ an M3d with some stickers and a plate over the SD cardslot.
But will that printer still be oozing plastic in a single color? I’m not so sure. Seems to me multi-color will be a necessity before the fast majority gets involved. Otherwise that 1D band member you printed will look an awful lot like a Green Plastic Army Man…then again, there may be a market for Green Plastic Army Men with the faces of your friends printed on them.
Which, now that I think about it, is kind of disturbing.
A cheap 3d printer is for everyone!