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Month: April 2011

Interview with Viridis3D President Will Shambley

Will Shambley is a true 3D printing pioneer. He spent eight years directing the 3D printing materials Research and Development effort at Zcorp, the full color 3D printing company. He is now at Viridis3D, a company that sells 3D printers and 3D printing materials used for casting metal and ceramics. He is Viridis3D’s CEO & President. We interviewed Will in order to find out more about Viridis3D and his significant expertise in the 3D printing industry.

Joris Peels: What is Viridis3D?

Will Shambley: Viridis3D, at it’s heart, is a materials development company that focuses on commercializing new solutions for the additive manufacturing community.  Our current primary focus is on making molds for metal casting, however we are dabbling in a range of refractory / ceramic applications.  We are developing products that we believe have unmet market demand, and we actively solicit projects from universities or individuals who have something unique to bring to market.

A Viridis3

The new 3D print lab

About 6 weeks ago we launched the first version of our new site. Since then we have been working very hard on our new and improved 3D print lab. We’ve been listening closely to your suggestions and we’re glad to say our website is still the easiest and fastest (no login required) way to check a price for your 3D models. While working on the new 3D print lab, we always had the idea in mind that uploading and ordering a 3D model should be as easy as customizing and buying a t-shirt online. I believe we’ve succeeded.

The 3D model workspace
The 3D model workspace is where you can upload your 3D model. Unlike the former 3D print lab, we now ask you if you created your model in mm or inches. This enables us to process your model in the correct dimensional units and prevents potential mix-ups.

Material selection
Instead of providing you with a dropdown list full of material names, we made a visual overview of the available materials. By doing so, you get an instant impress

.MGX at Salone: new lamps by Batsheba, Xavier Lust and Wertell Oberfell Platform

Our colleagues from .MGX attended Salone. They were at Euroluce and introduced 4 new 3D printed lamps. 2 lamps, the Quinn & the Gamete, were new versions of designs already in  the .MGX collection. The two other lamps are completely new.

First off we have the dodecahedron, Quinn floor lamp by 3D printing pioneer Bathsheba Grossman.

“Tree seeds blowing in the wind” was the inspiration for Xavier Lust”s Gamete lamp.

The Diatom by Wertel Oberfell Platform.

And a last surprise addition, the otherworldly Algue lamp by Xavier Lust. “Algue, an ornamental lamp, seems to ondulate following the streams and moving fluids that surround us… Algue is a lit evocation of the abyssal deapth of the oceans.”

Affordable Stainless Steel 3D prints, new pricing scheme

You can now check you Stainless Steel upload prices directly on our site. Stainless Steel was launched in January with the relatively simple pricing scheme based on volume of the model. Today you don’t need to get your calculator out anymore, just upload your design and you get your price automatically.

The pricing

Up to 5 cm3 model volume : 35$
For every extra cm3 above 5 cm3 till 40 cm3 : 8 $
For every extra cm3 above 40cm3 : 7.5$

Our pricing scheme is meant to encourage models of 5cm3 and larger because we want to encourage you to make bigger things. There is now also extra discount for compact models. The more material you have within the imaginary box around your model, the bigger your discount becomes for the same model volume. So the pricing scheme is the maximum price you will pay. To know the real (discounted) price, upload your design.

Here are 2 examples :

The dice of 20x20x20 mm, has a 7.1 cm3 model volume would cost 26.6 euro/ 37 dollar.

Our be

Hugo Arcier”s Mutation 1, 3D printed Ikea hack sculpture

We”re thrilled that we 3D printed Hugo Arcier”s Mutation 1. This is a limited edition sculpture consisting of 15 pieces. The work is meant to fit in an Ikea Expedit bookcase.

Hugo is a French artist who originally got started in doing special effect for feature films working for such directors as Roman Polanski and Francois Ozon. He began working in 3D animation and graphics and expanded into 3D printing. His work skirts both science and art and he is most interested in exploring new technologies to create new art. We asked Hugo some questions about his work.

Joris Peels: Was Mutation 1 meant to be an Ikea hack?

Hugo Arcier: Yes it was part of the idea from the beginning. I thought it was funny to have a luxury, and limited edition objet made for Ikea which is known for low prices and very big production. And I love the hacking culture. Nevertheless the object also works well alone as a sculpture.

Joris Peels: Why did you design this?

Hugo Arcier: My work is

3Dtin & Tinkercad, the answer to 3D printing”s prayers?

At i.materialise we”re working hard to lower the barriers to design. We want 3D printing and by extension manufacturing to be available to as many people as possible. We”d like to let you make whatever you want to make. This is why we”ve partnered with GrabCAD to turn your drawings into 3D prints with Sketch to 3D.

3D printers can already make many things, and even though the technology does need to be improved as well as become cheaper the one thing that is holding 3D printing back is the inability of the vast majority of people to design. The greatest benefit to 3D printing will occur when easy to use creation tools let anyone create. This will shift the demand curve for the entire industry upward and add millions of new potential users for the technology.

Luckily there are people working on solutions to turn your thoughts into products. A very easy to use 3D modeling tool is Jayesh Salvi”s free 3Dtin. 3Dtin is very simple and lets you save and share the designs you m

David Friedman”s Inventor Portraits

David Friedman”s Inventor Portraits are an intimate and engaging look at inventors. In the series of photographs and videos of inventor”s telling their own story. They show and explain their inventions ranging from the convertible pizza box to the digital camera. This is by far the most fun and inspiring thing I”ve seen in a while.

Steven Sasson is the inventor of the digital camera and this was the one I saw over on SwissMiss.  I didn”t know that Mr. Sasson had invented the digital camera and liked his congenial explanation of the process behind it and how the first digital camera worked (tape!).

I loved listening to Brent Farley explain his madcap ideas while I ogled his off the wall interior. Watch as he explains how marketing is his weakness.

Inventor Portrait: Brent Farley from David Friedman on Vimeo.

William Walsh, developed a pizza box that splits up into plates. “I bought 50 or 100 pizza boxes — the guy thought I was out of my mind — and an exacto knife, and a

.MGX introduces the Diatom lamp by WertelOberfell Platform at Salone

Designers WertelOberfell Platform will introduce their Diatom.MGX lamp at Salone in Milan next week. The duo previously created the Dragonfly.MGX lamp, Fractal.MGX table and the Module.MGX table.

Their new design for our .MGX colleagues is again insprired by nature and mathematical forms. The Diatom lamp is made in stereolitography and dyed. The lamp is beautiful in a very original way. Sometimes when I walked past it it reminded me of an alien artifact and in other light it looked perfectly at home in its surroundings. Its hard to explain just how different the Diatom looks when seen from different angles and in different light. You can see WertelOberfell Platform”s Diatom for yourself at .MGX”s stand at Euroluce, Pavilion 13, Stand G12 at Salone.

Meet the i.materialise Team: Volodymyr

Greetings,

My name is Vlad, and I’m that guy who is always replying on your e-mails something like “I have just checked your 3D model and…” :).

I really love to check your 3D models – each of them is really different and amazing. Each one requires unique approach that has to be applied in order to make it printable and to have a nice final look. I love this challenge and see it as a competition for me to win, for you.

I’ve been working in Customer Support for five years and when I saw that i.materialse was searching for a new employee that will be working with 3D models, designers and 3D printers– I was so impressed with that job and I was ready to start the next day! My first working day started in the Belgian Materialise Headquarters in the general planning department where I saw how projects were handled. Later on I was shown the production facility, got to speak with the production guys and did some finishing work together with them. That was a really fun and interestin