What desktop device enables a jewelry designer to manufacture one of a kind designer earstuds and pendants from a CAD file? What device helps the Smithsonian Museum to make hifidelity copies of sculptures to be lent to other museums? How can a highfidelity prototype of a complex mechanical component be created quickly? How can the creative ideas of an architect or designer be converted quickly, accurately and cheaply into a 3D model? What machine can print out human organs such as a blood vessel or a tooth?
The answer to all these questions is the 3D printer.
The answer to all these questions is the 3D printer.
A technology that is only gradually becoming popular in the twentyfirst century, 3D printers have attracted the attention of industries such as mechanical and aeronautical engineering, product designers, architects, and toy manufacturersas well as individuals such as jewelry designers, hobbyists and teachers.
The Printing Process
The basic process of 3D printing starts with the creation of the 3D object using an appropriate 3D modeling softwareeither traditional CAD/CAM packages such as Pro/E, Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor, or newgeneration mesh modeling software such as Blender, 3D Studio, Google Sketchup or TinkerCAD. In addition, some of the printers have their own bundled software or preferred software (for example, the RepRap community prefers the Open Source software, “Art of Illusion”). Due to the way 3D models are handled internally, CAD software is usually preferred over meshmodelling software, although this distinction is now blurring.
These software makes it possible to create and finetune 3D surfaces and objects using a variety of techniques, and ‘paint’ the objects with color and texture as required. While some of these software can do much more (for example, most mesh modelling software can also set up lights & cameras, and render animated scenes), for 3D printing, the creation of the mesh is usually sufficient. As a final step in the design phase, the model may need to be converted into the ‘native’ file format of the printer used.
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