I was struck by a comment that I heard this week about the need for grand vision with new technology. The analogy was made between the Wright Flyer and today’s modern jets. 100+ years ago if you would have told people that the flimsy plane that struggled to carry one man a few hundred feet would someday be transformed into something to carry hundreds halfway across the world they would have called you a dreamer. Sometimes I read an article about a whole plane being printed or printed human organs and my knee jerk is, “there’s no way that’s practical and/or possible anytime soon”, but maybe I just am lacking a bit of audacious vision. Continue reading →

Microsoft announced today on its official blog that the Windows 8.1 Update will have built-in support for 3D printing!  According to the entry, “Remember when we said there’d be a PC on every desktop? How about this — a factory on every desktop!” Continue reading →

So we’ll file this one under something I thought readers of a 3D printing blog would find interesting.  Many years ago at a trade show in Las Vegas I stumbled upon a both for a company called Innocentive.  Their concept was simple, but it blew me away.  Companies (or sometimes individuals) would post real world science challenges and offer rewards to the individuals who could help solve them. Continue reading →

Image courtesy of Naypong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I was reading a great article called “Materialise HeartPrint 3D Printing Service” about how medical scans are being used to make 3D models and then 3D prints of a patient’s heart.  I remember my orthodontist making a model of my teeth, but this is totally different. Continue reading →

So you have yourself a new 3D printer or laser scanner, but what now?  Maybe like make your own CAD files or maybe you’d like somebody else to do all that work?  Perhaps you’re working on a video game, computer graphic or animation and are looking for some stock graphics? Continue reading →

If you haven’t heard about KickStarter.com yet, you probably will soon.  Kickstarter is a “crowd sourcing” website that lets individuals fund projects from films to albums to electronic devices in exchange for rewards graduating based upon the level of funding. Continue reading →

Imagine going into a Home Depot, but instead of being the size of a football field it’s half that.  Why?  Because the lumber and floral section remain, but the hardware section has been reduced to a few touch screen kiosks attached to 3D printers.   Continue reading →

3D Printing and scanning is coming to medicine in a big way.  It’s started off with the now common printing of hearing aids that fit perfectly into the ear canal (90% are now made this way) or making of perfect dental implants.  Now it’s common to see advertisements related to 3D scanning and images for breast implants to be able to create super accurate before and after images.   Continue reading →