Meet the designer: Da Capo
Da Capo is a unique Dublin-based workshop providing bespoke commissioned jewelry, creative objects and limited editions. They also make use of 3D printing to create their final products and are featured on our blog today to tell their story and experiences. Let’s have a look at what they have to say… (more…)
It’s a Sinter Summer
Remember when we did that laser sintering pricing trial back in April? We said it would be for a limited time only and we also said that we would evaluate it afterwards. Well now we can confirm that the evaluating part is over and we’re ready to offer you our official laser sintering prices here and now! In simple words… laser sintering will cost you 0.1 euro/cm3!
Let’s take a look at how it all works…
- All designs that fit within a bounding box of 125cm3 and have a maximum dimension of 200mm will from now on be sold at 12,5 euros a piece
- If your design fits within a bounding box of 27cm3 (for example 3x3x3cm) and has a maximum dimension of 100mm, you’ll only pay 5 euros per copy of that same design (for example you’ll pay 32,5 euros for 5 copies as 12,5+5+5+5 = 32,5)
- For copies of any other design that still fits within the 125cm3 and have a maximum dimension of 200mm, you will pay 10 euros per copy (for example you’ll pay 52,5 euros for 5 copies as 12,5+10+10+10+10 = 52
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
Featured Friday – Showing your 3D printed designs
Here are a few of your nice designs to kick off the weekend!
PEPITA Collection by Dario Scapitta
3D printed in sterling silver
Seyo 001 (graffiti art) by Simon Potter
3D printed in polyamide
Virtual Florist Vitrine by Mario Minale
3D printed in polyamide
Garada 7, a replica of one of the most mystical and rare toys from Japan by Mike de Coninck
3D printed in paintable resin
Non Singular Knot – Math Art by Dizingof
3D printed in stainless steel
A very full caterpillar by Steve Patterson, winner of the Digital Tutors challenge
3D printed in multicolor
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
3DTin’s Challenge Designs brought to Life
At the beginning of May 3DTin launched a design challenge on their platform where we would end up 3D printing the top 3 designs. The challenge ran from the beginning of May until the end of that month and was followed by a voting process. After some debating and reviewing we (collectively with 3DTin) came up with our winning three.
We congratulate 3DTin community members Germán, Stealth the third and Akin and would like to thank all 3DTin participants for their entries.
All designs were 3D printed in multicolor and made in 3DTin. If you like 3D printing challenges, we currently still have the Metal Accessories Challenge running at i.materialise that runs until the end of July. You can of course also make use of 3DTin’s easy-to-use software package to participate in this challenge. Just export your file as an STL and submit it to our challenge page.
You can also use 3DTin to create awesome designs that you can 3D print and showcase or even sell in our gallery. F
Presenting the Top 3 of the Bead Design Challenge
When we announced Metal Month at the beginning of June, we also included a wonderful design challenge where you had to design your own personalized bead in silver. It was the Bead Design Challenge. It became quite a popular challenge with a total of 27 entries from different designers around the world. As the challenge concluded on the 30th of June, our team got together to go through all the entries and choose our top 3 that will be 3D printed.
After some debating and vote counting the following three made it to the top.
Pocket Rockets & Love Bombs by Eva Tucek
Hoss Bunny Head by Francisco Galan Manzo
OX8 by Luigi Vaghi
We congratulate our winning three and thank everyone for participating. The top 3 will get their design 3D printed and send to them by the end of this month. And because we know all participants love their designs, they’ll all receive a discount of 15% (to be used on their design entry) sent to their email addresses shortly. This gives you the opportu
Featured Friday – Showing your 3D printed designs
Because we’re continuously seeing more and more nice designs being printed, we just have to feature them on our blog. A warm welcome to ‘Featured Friday’ where we’ll post some of your designs that caught our attention. A great start to get noticed, is to begin uploading your design(s) to the gallery with some nice photos. Enjoy the following designs and have a wonderful weekend!
Biomimicry shoe by Marieka Ratsma, in cooperation with Kostika Spaho
Photography Thomas van Schaik
3D printed in polyamide by i.materialise
Beautiful Japanese tea ring by Flavio Bellantuono
3D printed in sterling silver
Reflection by Cynthia Aldershof
3D printed in polyamide
Ohio Electric interurban freight trailer by Volkmar Meier3D printed in prime gray
Pirate Mouse and Dragon Treasure Wedding Cake Topper by Marty Hon
3D printed in polyamide
Aislin by Yarrid Henrard
3D printed in prime gray
Fiona gift box set by Mark Bloomfield
3D printed in polyami
A look back at yesterday’s meetup
Yesterday we held our summer meetup at the Materialise headquarters. As with the previous meetup, we saw an international community visiting our facilities filled with curiosity about 3D printing and about what happens behind the walls of this company. We also combined this event with the announcement of the winner of the wires challenge we organized with Mookum. To present this award we had Gert Gijbels from Mookum attend our meetup where he also gave an interesting view behind the creative platfom that is Mookum. And of course, as the final cherry on top we provided our attendees with a quick look into the customizable capabilities of our friends at Digital Forming.
The group got an introduction to 3D printing and i.materialise in the form of a presentation. This was then followed by the traditional guided tour of our facilities and of course a get to know each other moment at the end of the event. But before we got to the great socializing bit, there was the presentation of M
3D Printing Toys & Figurines: Recreating Lost Action Figures
Today we have an intriguing blog post by special guest writer Mike de Coninck, a Belgian visual effects supervisor. He’s with us today to share the story of his long journey that ended up bringing his lifetime dream toy to life with the use of 3D printing. It’s a story that shows true dedication and an unquestionable passion for realizing a lifelong dream. (more…)
