We’re open during the holidays!
Can’t resist designing during the holidays? No problem. We’ll be there to give you the 3D printing support you need.
For the first time, we’re not closed during the holidays. And to give you something extra: the creative minds among you who place an order between the 24th of December 2012 and the 6th of January 2013 will get a free Rygo pendant, designed by Bathsheba Grossman in alumide (while stocks last).
Only the Priority Service won’t be available on 24-25 & 31 December and January 1st.
Have fun designing!
MeshUp: Mashup for meshes
For those of you who ever wondered how to save the world from polygons, we may have found the answer at the recent 3D Printshow in London: MeshUp. Developed by a Norwegian company called Uformia, MeshUp wants to create the missing link between advanced 3D modeling features and easy modification by non-experienced 3D modelers.
“MeshUp is the first real volume modeler for meshes. We want to make life easier for 3D printing and for creators. At Uformia we envision a very different experience for users, where without effort, a creator can be sure that their models are always ready for 3D printing.”
At the 3D Printshow, Uformia offered free face scans. They could be used to effortlessly model and personalize a variety of template objects that are watertight and ready to print. For example, ‘Tor Kipper’, a coffee cup with real face scan data that we printed for Uformia in glossy white ceramics.
Features
- Mesh mixing: Create new objects by remixing any number of meshes and
Tired of boring birth cards? Use 3D printing!
Roman Plaghki, a product developer at Materialise, had one hell of an idea to surprise his sister with the most original birthcards ever: a card with the face of her baby in 3D.
What do you do when your pregnant sister asks you to design a birthcard for her future baby? Roman Plaghki wanted to use all his skills so started thinking about combining 3D printing with regular printing. “After some hard thinking work I finally came up with an idea. I asked my sister to send me an ultrasound where you could see the face of the baby when it was 5 to 6 months old. I uploaded the design up in Mimics and after some designing I finally got the face right to send it to the printer.”
OVEN
He printed 5 faces in polyamide to use it as a mold for his birth cards. “I put the faces under a thin sheet of polystyrene in the (kitchen) oven and used the technique of vacuum forming to create the 3D design. After hours of work I finally got 120 faces for the birth cards.”
We must say: it looks gr
Get creative with i.materialise and Tinkercad
At the 3D Printshow in London past weekend, i.materialise hosted a workshop together with Tinkercad, the easy to use 3D design web app. First, Tinkercad’s Technical Artist Pekka showed a packed workshop room how to design a saw shaped alligator wrench. Second, I showcased all possible 3D printing materials and finishes, and more importantly how to get your designs 3D printed through i.materialise.
For those of you who didn’t get their hands dirty during the hands-on workshop, we have some good news. Pekka has made the contents of the workshop available on Tinkercad as a ‘Lesson’. A lesson shows you step-by-step how to create your own handy little tool from scratch!
Or if you’re already in love with this cool gadget, you can just buy it in our gallery.
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3D printing in Titanium, still going strong
At little less than two years ago, i.materialise introduced 3D printing in Titanium. The high-end technology enabling this – DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) – is still one of the world’s most advanced manufacturing technologies. (more…)
Newsflash: High detailed stainless steel (HS) has entered the building!
It’s all in the details. With high detailed stainless steel (HS), you can go wild with your designs. We tested the materials for a few weeks now and it looks pretty stunning. You can situate the material between silver and titanium. It’s pretty much as strong as titanium, but more shiny and mostly less expensive. Towards silver it’s less shiny but stronger. So if you’re looking for alternatives with a very high detailed standard: this could be the one!
For weeks we were (and are) excited to finally tell you the news and give you, as a designer, more -detailed- options. Wim, even did a test on rust: he put a high detailed stainless steel design in a bath with salt and no marks of rust are visible. We can’t wait to discover what you’ll design with this material!
We’re still waiting to put HS on our material page: we will let you try, play and test the material until the end of the year and see whether the material is worth to have its own place on our material page. We
Wonderboy Guto Requena makes 3D printed chairs with the sounds of the city
“The digital culture changes our relationship with design and the way we build our cities,” Guto Requena said in Freundevonfreunden.com, an online interview magazine. When it comes to designing the Brazilian architect pushes the envelope. He recorded the typical citysounds of São Paulo and let it determinate the design.
As a little child Guto Requena always dreamed about architecture. Then finally, when he started studying architecture he became more and more interested in digitalism and technology. At this moment he is one of the most innovatist architects of Brazil and with his studio Estudio Guto Requena he tries to push the projects he really wants to do.
FUTURE
Requena believes the digital future can make people closer and he tries to experiment with all kinds of design. One of his latest collections is called Nóize, which is inspired by three iconic Brazilian chair designs: Oscar by Sergio Rodrigues, the São Paulo by Carlos Motta and the Giraffe by Lina Bo Bardi, Marc
3D printing in Silver, now better than ever!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but at least here in Belgium, summer seems to have been cancelled. But – as they say – every cloud has a silver lining, and all the rain does make it easier to sit inside on the computer designing beautiful objects to bring to life in…well…silver! And, as of today, 3D Printing in silver with i.materialise is better than ever… with instant online prices ( + lower prices for silver) and the widest range of finishes yet!
Can’t wait to see how much your design will cost? (Spoiler Alert: it will cost less than ever thanks to a new price for silver)
No problem! As of today, for silver models up to 3cm3, i.materialise will now provide you with an instant price for your design. And, what can you print within a build envelope of 3cm3? The average ring, necklace pendant, or small bracelet will easily fit in that space. And, with a new price for silver and the same high quality, we are confident that you will like the price you see. Of course, you can still
3D Print with us through Autodesk’s 123D
Today we’re proud to announce that Autodesk added i.materialise as a 3D printing production partner. This means that you can from now on also use this great piece of software to 3D print your designs with us. Autodesk is the world’s leading 3D software developer with a long list of successful software packages such as Maya, 3Ds Max, AutoCAD, and many more. So it comes as no surprise that their free 123D software package is filled with tons of awesome features.
123D looks fantastic and is easy to use. For a first time user of this software, I could immediately see the link between the object on the screen and the user interface. It all just worked in such a smooth and intuitive way. Within a couple of minutes I was already creating complex shapes simply by extruding and transforming the surfaces of my model. Yes, I will admit that it does help to have a background in some of the Autodesk solutions, but it is absolutely not a requirement to get started! There are plenty of tutorials a
3D Printing a Very Full Caterpillar
At the end of March we organized a 3D printing design challenge with the world famous online educative platform Digital Tutors. The objective was to create your interpretation of any children’s’ storybook character, that is, it had to be an original design and not based on an existing illustration.
The Very Full Caterpillar by Digital Tutors community member timeRemapper was one of these designs that had made it to the Top 3 and would eventually get 3D printed. Below you’ll find an image of the 3D render followed by pictures of the actual 3D print.
You can find the work-in-progress of the Very Hungry Catterpillar by timeRemapper on his website at this link. The model was 3D printed in multicolor. We are currently also still awaiting the files to 3D print the remaining two entries which you can see below. As soon as we receive these, we’ll make sure to post the results on our blog as well. For now you can enjoy the 3D renders.
Are design challenges your
