Blender 2.67 RC1 and DVD Training Blender for 3D Printing Released. April 28, 2013 Open-source 3D creation suite Blender has released the first Release Candidate of Blender 2.67.
Major improvements are the inclusion of FreeStyle, subsurface scattering for Cycles, optimizations in the motion tracker and the new 3D printing toolkit. The new 3D printing toolkit is a collection of useful tools including statistics, error checking, cleanup and export, to make it easier to export models for 3D printing. Statistics: The volume of the mesh and the combined area of all faces are calculated.
Checks: models are checked for common errors such as self-intersections, distorted faces, or walls and sharp area that are too thin to be printed, or steeply overhanging to print safely. example of intersecting meshes Twisted faces often distort Example mesh with thin areas Example of overhanging faces that exceed 45 degrees. Printcraft latest version released, teaming up with Makerbot. April 28, 2013 Printcraft is the world's first 3D printing multi-player Minecraft server that lets Minecraft players convert their Minecraft creations into stl for 3D printing.
"Printcraft started as a project with my children. " said Printcraft's creator Paul Harter. I have a share in a Thing-O-Matic 3D printer and they wanted to build things to print on it, but most CAD applications are quite hard to learn at eleven or eight years old. However they are both adept at Minecraft. So I wrote a script to create printable 3D models from within Minecraft. This week Harter has released his latest version of his Minecraft server with the added ability to capture your creations and turn them into STL files for 3D printing. First you need to open Minecraft and login to a Printcraft server, eu1.printcraft.org or us1.printcraft.org. 3D printed delta robot.
April 9, 2013 Vegas-based Sarah Petkus, a maker and graphic designer, have made a wide variety of outlets ranging from mask making to electronics/robotics.
Jeden Sarah's new "delta-bot" is named Jeden, after the Polish word for 'one'. Jeden is based on a previous version, but instead of sourcing each part from local stores, Sarah has figured out how to make 3D models of the parts she needs and 3D printed them out on a Replicator 2 3D printer. "I'm printing my robots like a more civilized maker. New 3D scanner creates high-resolution 3D images from a kilometer away. April 5, 2013 Skylar Tibbits, an architect, designer and computer scientist presented a new concept in February 2013: 4D printing.
This emerging technology will allow us to print objects that then reshape themselves or self-assemble over time. Just imagine, a printed cube that folds before your eyes, or a printed pipe able to sense the need to expand or contract. (Images credit: sjet.us) Can we create objects that assemble themselves -- that zip together like a strand of DNA or that have the ability for transformation embedded into them? Watch the video Skylar Tibbits: The emergence of "4D printing" on TED 2013: Tibbits teaches design studios at MIT's Department of Architecture and co-teaches the seminar "How to Make (Almost) Anything" at MIT's Media Lab. In 2007, Tibbits and Marc Fornes co-curated Scriptedbypurpose, the first exhibition focused exclusively on scripted processes within design. Here are some very cool projects from Tibbits and his teams. 5 ways a 3D printer will save your life. Mar.21, 2013 | By Anne van der Meij 3D printing is an awesome technique which provides you easy everyday appliances.
Furniture, jewelry, and shoes already are common applications in 3D printing. 3D printing is developing rapidly and the possibilities grow each day. Currently 3D printing is also revolutionizing the medical world and soon 3D printers will be able to save your life. 3D printing cells Imagine yourself taking living cells and using them as your ink to print. Cell printer: 3D printer that prints human embryonic stem cells. Human embryonic stem cells developed by the cell printer. Blood vessels 3D Printing artificial blood vessels may take cell printing to the next level. Open source V-Slot linear framing system fully funded on Kickstarter. Mar.23, 2013 Makers constantly come up with new projects to push the 3D printing technology forwards.
A project called V-Slot developed by OpenBuilds is now launched on Kickstarter aiming to provide an efficient and inexpensive system to help makers design and build their projects. V-Slot is a smart linear framing system, it is a high quality extruded aluminum profile building block that has an extremely smooth linear v groove rail on all 4 sides. Because of its modular nature it allows you to make unlimited connections for your projects. World's Largest 3D Printing Store to open in London in April. Mar.26, 2013 After Solidoodle's announcement of opening 3D printing stores in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, a UK company, iMakr announced this morning that it will open world's largest 3D printing store in central London in April 2013.
The new store is located in Farringdon, the heart of the designer district of London and near to Silicon Roundabout. 3D Industri.es launches 3D search engine for industrial parts. Mar.27, 2013.
Michigan Tech releases open-source 3D-printable optics designs. Mar.28, 2013 Using open source software and 3D printers an American researcher has saved thousands of dollars by making everything from his lab equipment to his safety razor.
Last month, together with his team, Joshua Pearce, an associate professor of materials science and engineering and electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Tech, created their own waste plastic extruder that can shred and extrude milk jugs into a long, spaghetti-like string of plastic. (Michelson interferometer) Open-source hardware and software make it possible to drive down the cost of doing experimental science and expand access to everyone. Designing perfect cup for dunking cookies with help of 3D printer. April 2, 2013 We all love dunking cookies, but when there's not enough milk left in the glass you just have to drop it in the milk and fish it out with a fork (in most of the case).
Sam Feller from Awkward Engineer Creations wants to solve this problem. He designed "the most perfectly shaped cup for dunking a cookie in milk" - High milk displacement cookie dunker. Based on the Archimedes principle, the cookie dunker collects milk in a narrow groove where you can dunk the cookie. It has a stable base and a wide month for easy dunking at low milk levels. The cookie dunker has been engineered to give you the most dunkage for any given volume of milk.
Working with local companies the team is able to manage the sourcing, production, assembly, packaging, storage locally within one hour drive. The final product is made of high quality, BPA free, food grade plastics that can be safely cleaned in a dishwasher.
Refinado 3D. Impresoras. Extrusor. Play-Doh: Your kid's first 3D printer. April 1, 2013. 3D printing parts with overhangs using new dissolvable support material. Feb.28, 2013 ABS and PLA filaments have been used in 3D printing community for quite a long time. Some people have been testing other types of filaments, such as Laywood, Nylon or HIPS filament. HIPS stands for High Impact Polystyrene and is one of the most produced polymers worldwide. Materialise launches highly flexible and durable material for 3D Printing. Mar.15, 2013 Materialise, the Belgian-based 3D printing service company, announces today the official launch of a new, highly flexible and durable material for 3D Printing: TPU 92A-1. TPU 92A-1 is specially developed for designers and engineers who are looking for a flexible 3D Printing material that is durable enough to withstand the wear and tear of an end-use product. (TPU 92A-1 lightweight cube showing flexible properties) One of the most notable client of this material was Dutch fashion designer and guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, Iris van Herpen, who is known for pushing the boundaries of 3D Printing in the world of high fashion.
In January this year, TPU 92A-1 made its debut on the catwalk during Iris van Herpen's Voltage Haute Couture show during Paris Fashion Week. DIYRockets partners with Sunglass to launch 3D-printed rocket engine design competition. Mar.9, 2013 Open source commercial space company DIYROCKETS and 3D-modeling software company Sunglass have announced the world's first open source competition to create 3D printed rocket engines, through collaborative design.
The open source rocket engines will serve the growing market for small payload delivery into low earth orbit and ultimately, become part of a propulsion system and vehicle to carry nano-satellites into space. The is the first of many competitions that the two companies have planned to making space design open and collaborative. Utilizing Sunglass's cloud-based platform to visualize, collaborate, manage versions and exchange feedback on each design with team members and the public from anywhere on the globe, the contest aims to dramatically drive down design costs, while creating innovative technology for all types of space hardware and parts, ranging from space propulsion to space medical sensors. Making clothes at home with your 3D clothing printer. Mar.15, 2013 How we live by 2050? Industrial designer Joshua Harris has created a concept that in the future, we could use a clothing printer to manufacture our clothes at home.