Staples doing 3D Printing In Store

[conrail98]

Holy crap

http://www.wired.com/design/2012/11/staples-goes-3-d/

Phil

[Scottl]

In a few years, we will all have everything we want available to print 3D.  This is change is accelerating and going really mainstream.

[central.vermont]

Just think of the buildings you could make! 

Jon

[Zox]

The Iris printers employ an innovative method to generate objects, using reams of paper that are cut and printed while being stacked and glued together.

Some of us are already doing 3-D printing with stacked paper...for sufficiently small values of 3-D. 

[Chris333]

I'll get excited when someone post a photo of something in N scale scale that looks like it was injection molded...

[peteski]

Sure, affordable  and widely available 3D printing will be the cat's meow but you all seem to forget that in order to print a 3D object, you'll have to design and draw it first. That is the hard part. Or do most modelers already know how to use a 3D modeling software and I'm the one behind times? 

[up1950s]

Well I got those Shapeways auto-frame loads and the individual auto frames float in the shipping frame . So each frame can be removed as a separate auto frame with the partial disassembly or destruction of the shipping frame they are encased in . I never saw injected molded plastic be so fine , consistent , and clean . I am beginning to think that one will never be the other , but both have advantages and drawbacks .

[DKS]

Sure, affordable  and widely available 3D printing will be the cat's meow but you all seem to forget that in order to print a 3D object, you'll have to design and draw it first. That is the hard part. Or do most modelers already know how to use a 3D modeling software and I'm the one behind times?

No, I think you are right. 3D designing is really quite the challenge; exponentially more difficult than any 2D task. That said, as the number of modelers skilled in this art increases, there will likely be those who devote themselves to the wants of others--for a price, naturally.

[Scottl]

I think that will create a super cottage industry to serve the 3D design needs of modellers.

[up1950s]

I think that will create a super cottage industry to serve the 3D design needs of modellers.

It will make you rich ,  famous , appreciated , and tie up all your modeling time . 

[Lemosteam]

Chris333, I'm afraid that will NEVER happen.  Until someone invents a 3D printer that can FLOW material to fill in the surface striations, they will always be there.

Striations will always be a large as the smallest pixellation that the printer can create- in this case it is the thickness of the paper and glue, and the accuracy of the cutter.  In other cases it is the diameter of the material coming out of the head and the thickenss it can be appled, and yet in others it is the diameter of the laser and the thickness it hardens the fluid to.

Arcs and complex shapes can only be approximated to the corner of the pixel in the same way they are in CAD (although professional CAD software can approximate to seven metric decimal places):


The circular cross-section (black outline) through the cylindrical shape above is what CAD produces, the blocky green shape represents the accuracy of the 3D printer.  It's the RED that will ALWAYS be missing, until the 3D printer can match the accuracy of the CAD model.  The brader the arc the smoother the surface and why it works well with O scal and HO sacle, but as you know N Scale requires much smaller radii.  This inaccuracy is highly pronounced in N Scale and the reason why so many are holding off designing things in places like shapeways (including me).

If someone were to invent a 3D printer that can smoothly fill in the red areas to better approximate the shape, this will remain a product that is close but not quite good enough to compare to a polished-tool injection molded part.

Ponder this:  If you are standing 2 feet away from a wall and you move half of the previous distance away from the wall (1', 6", 3", 1.5", .75", .375", .1875", etc.), will you ever touch the wall?  This is what I see 3D printing doing until it reaches an acceptable level of quality for our scale.

Sorry for the dissertation and the quandry...

[Scottl]

I think "never" is a rather rash assumption.  This technology will progress quickly as it gains wide usage and the issues you raise will continue to diminish until they become largely non-issues.  I see the cup half full.

[Lemosteam]

Scottl,

OK so maybe the word never is too "harsh", but having been trained on 3D printers 20 years ago on a 2 million dollar machine using materials that required chemical jumpsuits and full face masks, I have not seen the tech improve all that much except to make the materials more safe and the machines more affordable.  I have yet to see a machine duplicate what I model in CAD each day, even for the simplest of parts.  The level of pixellation is exactly the same as it was then and the processes are identical to the early machines.

I did not mean to share what I did to discourage people, only so they know that it may take some time to be completely satisfied.  For those that already are, well have at it, I['m not taking issue with those who have done it nor those who are happy with it!

Just trying to explain how shapes are represented and why the striations may take some time to disappear.

[Scottl]

Not to take this down a path of being too argumentative, but I can't think of anything 20 years old in technological terms that compares to what is possible now.  I totally accept that the current printers have limitations, but this is a rapidly transforming industry that is on the verge of becoming mainstream.  Once this hapens, it will bring in money, R+D, and new ideas that will improve it and we will indirectly benefit from it.

All I have to think of is that $3000 colour laser printer we bought a decade ago:  it is now superceded for a tenth of the cost with better tech specs.  Or thin screen TVs, cell phones, satellite phones, etc....

[robert3985]

Sure, affordable  and widely available 3D printing will be the cat's meow but you all seem to forget that in order to print a 3D object, you'll have to design and draw it first. That is the hard part. Or do most modelers already know how to use a 3D modeling software and I'm the one behind times? 

I was a newbie at any 3D modeling software, but well versed with a couple of 2D CAD programs.  I drew up plan drawings in Cadrail for my little 3D project in N-scale, then...with measurements and 2D drawings in hand, drew it in Sketchup in about  7 hours on a lazy Saturday.  That included not knowing anything about, or ever having used Sketchup before, so I had to learn how to use the program along with my first drawing.  The online tutorials really made a big difference in my learning curve.

Since then, I have done drawings for several other small (size-wise) projects using Sketchup.  I am sure there are more powerful (and expensive) 3D programs out there that you have to pay for, and are a lot more complicated than Sketchup, but...it is working fine for me and my not-so-complex projects.

It also is saving me a crap-load of time having these little pieces produced by somebody else, rather than me having to sit down and make hundreds of them for my models and my layout.

That means...learning the software, doing the drawings, then emailing the files to my RP subcontractor and waiting a couple of weeks for the parts to show up...has increased my modeling time on other projects that cannot be done utilizing 3D Printing....such as building benchwork, painting, installing decoders, laying track, carving scenery...you get the picture...and has greatly reduced the time I need to complete other projects where I use my 3D printed parts.  It's definitely a win/win situation.

Because I am thinking of offering these to the N-scale market, I won't say what they are yet.  But, they were designed for MY use and enjoyment, and I am betting there are other modelers out there who would love to have these also, and who will pay a bit for parts that are way better detailed than injection molding can produce, and way cheaper than investment castings.  I might earn a little capitol to compensate me for paying my RP subcontractor and my time spent researching and drawing.  Also a win/win situation.