“I would say for now, the machines that you can purchase are really for hobbyists, DIY enthusiasts, people who are really captivated by this idea and want to play with it. So even building something small can take hours.
“You do need a little bit of patience if you`re going to print with a 3D printer, because what happens is you`re feeding a roll of plastic or some other material, and it extrudes that material, layer by layer, to build your object,” says Mangis. Once you`ve downloaded the blueprint and set up the printer with a roll of plastic, you`re good to go. This can save you quite a bit of money, and gives you the opportunity to experiment with colors that you cant get from 3DSystems. You`ll find ready-to-download designs for everything from roses to garden toads. It turns out that you can use generic filament (like ours) instead of having to use official 3DSystems cartridges. You can go to thingyverse or and look for thousands of designs right there,” says Carol Mangis. For 3D Systems this continues their content-to-print plans, laying a clear path from ideation to creation.
There`s a lot of free designs, right on the Web. Cubify Sculpt won’t give you the capabilities of higher end software like ZBrush or modo, but at 129, it’s a good intro software for producing 3D geometry on the fly.
“If you don`t know how to do that, it`s OK. 'You feed them a blueprint that you`ve designed, and out comes a three-dimensional object.'īut what if you don`t know how to design a blueprint on the computer? One of the first upgrade features that I asked for when I first opened Cubify Sculpt was the ability to manipulate the clay in the fashion of a Potters Wheel. On YouTube, you can see people using 3D printers to make all kinds of stuff, from drink coasters to figurines of Star Wars characters.Ĭonsumer Reports just tested out 3D printers from MakerBot, 3DSystems, and Solidoodle.