Looking back at the 3D Printing Event in Eindhoven
Yesterday I visited the one-day 3D Printing Event that ran as part of the Dutch Design Week (22-30 Oct) in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. I was there to catch a glimpse of what others were doing with 3D printing and how it was being used by the public at home.
The event attracted companies like Ultimaker, A1 Technologies and Origo amongst many others to showcase their latest ideas and products to the public. 3D printing at home was set as the main theme of the event and the adequate printing machines were there to showcase their quality and possibilities.
Clearly present was the Dutch based company Ultimaker who managed to impress with their fast and qualitative kit 3D printers. They are great contributors to the spreading of 3D printing at home in which they might help to stimulate that much-needed price drop that thousands of hungry home designers are waiting for. Whatever your opinion on the price of an affordable 3D printer may be, one thing is sure… they are definitely a compan
Tips & Tricks for working with Polyamide
Polyamide is one of the most popular materials amongst our designers due to its creative flexibility. It gives them the creative freedom they often seek at an affordable price. We already provide basic information about this material on our website but because we love our designers, we decided to share the four most useful tips from our past experiences.
Tip 1: How to hollow out your designs
Even though it isn’t a requirement to hollow out your 3D prints, it is often advised in many cases. This can be useful to avoid deformations and discolorations during the printing process. There are two options you can follow… You can either keep the polyamide powder inside the hollow structure or you can design a strategically placed hole (two is even better) for the powder to escape once your work is 3D printed.
Also don’t forget that Polyamide isn’t really made for designing big flat plains the size of an A4 page because the chance of deformation is quite big. Even if you hollow out
Impressions from 3D printed .MGX designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
Our creative sister division MGX has recently exhibited some amazing 3D printed works of art at the V&A in London. This attracted thousands of culture-hungry attendees which resulted in a 20-day extension of the original exhibition dates. As with all exhibitions, the show must end some day and for .MGX that day was the 15th of October of 2011. However, that doesn’t mean that we didn’t think about all those of you who couldn’t make it to view the exhibition.
Especially for you, we have decided to share our impressions on this blog. May it inspire you to be our next great designer to showcase at such a lovely venue.
Escapism Tunic by Iris van Herpen ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London
SOLID C1 Chair & SOLID T1 table by Patrick Jouin ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Trunk by Peter Marigold ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Fractal- T by Platform Studio & Matthias Bär ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The One_Shot.MGX by Patrick Jouin ©Victoria and Albert Muse
Belgian Radio 1 show “Peeters & Pichal” organizes a new design challenge with i.materialise
You know that feeling in the mornings when you’re still in between worlds with a coffee in hand while getting ready to start your day? Computer is ready, radio is on, you sit down and once again you can’t find a single spot on your work invested desk for that coffee mug! Don’t you just wish that there was some way to extend your desk and create some extra space for that mug? Well if you live in Belgium and listen to the Peeters & Pichal show on Radio 1, keep on reading cuss here’s your opportunity to solve such a problem!
Many people often have great ideas to solve simple issues like the one above, but it doesn’t often happen that they can turn them into reality. This is where we come in and provide the listeners of the Peeters & Pichal show the opportunity of a lifetime.
An example for the challenge
The objective is simple… create an awesome 3D design that makes your life a bit easier, submit it between the 18th of October and the 1st of November and whoever brings in the be
WIRED 2011 through the eyes of our buddy Sid
As I write this, our dear colleague Sid is having the time of his life at the WIRED 2011 Conference in London. It’s a two-day conference that celebrates ideas, innovations and the people reshaping our world. Therefore it’s no surprise that Materialise would feel quite at home at such an event. As excited as Sid was, he decided to give us a quick glimpse into what WIRED 2011 has to offer.
A little message from our colleague Sid:
“I just moved a ball hovering in mid-air … With my MIND! Now how cool is that? It is a technology based on using brainwaves to enhance the interactions with our environment. The thing is… this is just one out the many mind-blowing topics that I”m exposed to here at Wired 2011. From nanotechnology to talking robots to Scandinavian skiing slopes on top of a waste factory … As crazy as you can imagine it, here you meet people that actually do these things.”
“And 3D printing…? People here love it. The Materialise Bloom lamp (designed by Patrick J
The power of 3D printing at the push of a button in Google SketchUp
Google SketchUp is used by thousands of people around the world to create and share wonderful 3D designs, so it comes as no surprise that i.materialise introduced a 3D printing plugin to provide you with that extra level of awesomeness. Not only can you translate your creative ideas into virtual 3D models, but you can now actually get them 3D printed at i.materialise by simply clicking a button within the program! That’s 3D printing made easy for you.
But as we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words so we’ve decided to swamp you with them in the following video.
Try the plugin here!
i.materialise brings 3D printing to museum of contemporary art
For those of you who fancy a portion of grand culture and art with a side order of the lovely city of Antwerp, we’ve got great news for you. The Antwerp based museum M HKA and i.materialise have joined hands to bring you a glimpse of the 3D printing experience. Not only will you be given an introduction to the world of 3D printing during this event, but you’ll also be able to enjoy exquisite exhibitions like the one of grand artist Jef Geys who believes that 3D printing is the next step in concepts surrounding art and production.
We found Jef Geys’ question, “What makes an artwork real and what is it that gives it its uniqueness?” quite interesting in relation to 3D printing. Take Martin Douven for example, whose work is being showcased at the M HKA thanks to Jef Geys. Martin Douven was a self-taught artist who taught his children to create and replicate famous paintings applying the “painter’s chain” method. It was a method by which paintings were created in some kind of assem
Hurray! Prime Gray is back to stay!
Conclusions of the trial period
The trial period showed that prime gray was mostly used for:
- miniatures – for its detail,
- figures – for the looks and detail,
- jewelry and art – for its introduction price
- but also functional models – to test its functionality
We got very positive reactions. People were getting impatient that the decision took so long time. Your mails have made the decision balance tip over to the ‘Yeas’ side. So now, Prime Gray has earned a permanent spot in our Periodic Table of Materials as the elemen
Jewelry design workshop: too many applicants – great fun – wonderful results
Last June, we posted an invitation to participate in a special contemporary jewelry design workshop with Karen Wuytens, lecturer in Jewelry Design, and famous hat designer Elvis Pompilio http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/i-materialise-3d-printed-jewelry-workshop-by-karen-wuytens. The workshop took place in early September at the .MGX flagship store in Brussels.
Unfortunately, we had to limit the amount of participants to 10, meaning that many applicants were unable to join in on the fun. However, the lucky 10 participants were not complaining about the cozy atmosphere as they spent 2 days at the .MGX flagship store, where they received an intro to 3D printing from i.materialise. Karen Wuytens shared how to design a piece of jewelry, starting from a basic shape. Fabien Franzen taught the participants how to make their design in the software MOI3, which is very well suited to jewelry design. And finally, Elvis Pompilio was on hand to impart some expert design advice.
One week
Introducing the New Community Manager
My dearest community,
Today I am proud to announce that I have the honor to be your new community manager. My name is David Arroyo and I have a professional background in 3D content creation for the entertainment and movie industry alongside a very useful customer service and sales background. Just like my colleagues have done this before me, I will continue to provide you with the latest and most interesting topics within the 3D printing world on a regular basis and will also be there to have interesting two-way conversations with our community.
So to get the ball rolling, I’ll quickly introduce myself by giving you a look into who I am and the things I love. First of all, I love the creative world of art and culture in all of its forms. Having an artistic background myself, I find it a pleasure to look at other creative individuals and their work. As an artist at heart, I obviously also do my share of art creation and I have worked as a 3D artist on video game and movie project
