This week in 3D printing: 29th of January – 4th of February 2011
January 30th. 3DTin is on Makezine. 3DTin is basically “lego like” 3D modeling tool in the browser whose designs can be exported for 3D printing. Also, if you”ve heard of Minecraft you should take to this. By limiting us to making things in blocks 3DTin does limit what we can make with the tool. But, because of this limitation we are able to create things. 3DTin and its brethrenwill be very sucessful. How do I know? Because the Makerbot put out this lengthy and wonderful article out and a a few days later had a follow up with more tips.  I”ll show you some test 3D prints of 3DTin things as soon as I get to it.
Feb. 2nd. Iris van Herpen”s 3D printed fashion collection is featured on FastCo and many news and fashion blogs worldwide.
Feb. 3rd. NeoMetrix to Display 3D Scanning & 3D Printing Solutions at MD&M Show in Orlando, FL. If that sounds like a press release it is because it is. I quote, “a  great opportunity to introduce the benefits of 3D scanning and
The 6 Geekiest 3D Prints Ever
At Materialise we’re an unabashedly geeky company. We have more engineers than non-engineers and you’re more likely to run into a medical researcher, PhD, cryptographer, software devloper or a structural engineer than a marketing person during lunch (last time I checked we had 6 marketing people out of a 1000 employees). So when Materialise employees use i.materialise we exepct some geeky 3D prints. We combed through them all and came up with what we believe to be the 6 geekiest 3D prints of all time.
6. The Sinusoid Lamp. by Volodymr Chabanenko (a copy is currently serving as my desk lamp at the office!). “I suppose that a figure generated by mathematical equations looks better than something I would be able to design myself. I am just better at mathematics than at 3d modeling. I spent a few days using wxMaxima to look for the set of equations. I finally found that an ordinary sinusoid being stranded to a cylindrical shape looks pretty good.”
5. The Greeble Effect by Urs
Colleen Jordan”s Wearable Planter necklaces, wear a plant wherever you go
Colleen Jordan has made some lovely Wearable Planter necklaces. The necklaces are 3D printed and then finished by hand. A small plant or cutting is then added and you can have your very own portable garden to take with you wherever you go. Colleen sells her necklaces on Etsy. They are $55 and you can add $15 for international shipping and $5 for shipping in the US.
One designer with a great idea using 3D printing and a sales platform like Etsy to create a beautiful thing and sell it worldwide. It is a great idea and you should think about doing that too. Â
via Greenmuze.
Who is (y)our Business Process Manager?
My name is Wim Verstraeten. Consider me a battle scarred veteran in the field of the online ordering of 3d printed models. I date back from the era where Materialise was the only firm to have an online 3D printing service with its NextDay service which was started in 1997. I’m talking about the time when only the happy few had a mobile phone and Amazon and eBay had existed for almost 4 years.
I started in 1999, when I walked into the Materialise office to offer my services. I was intrigued by Magics Communicator, a free online collaboration tool for 3d models. At that time online video meetings were not free and broadband usage was expensive. Magics Communicator helped people to discuss and visualize their project, allowing them to instantly see the operations of their communication partner on the 3D model.
It was that tool that I upgraded to interact with the renewed NextDay Service internet website. Later on I converted the NextDay service to what we now know as OnSit
Skynet is Here: 3D Printing Robots
I have this little hobby, and I call it Skynet search. I basically look around the internets for signs of an emerging Skynet. What? Have I ever said anything negative about your hobbies? Gardening? Or collecting stamps? Can your hobby save humanity? Well today is a big day in Skynet search because I’ve just heard about RoboEarth. RoboEarth allows robots to build on and learn from the experiences of other robots. The project aims to be a internet for robots. Currently every robotics project has to ”teach” their robot to navigate in the real world. By collecting and centralizing information on objects, navigation and recognizing objects Robo Earth does this for everyone. Potentially each robot connected to the network will instantly be as capable of navigating our world as the network is. This also frees up a lot of robotics researchers time so they can concentrate on making the robots better.
Scientists and researchers from the Technical University of Eindhoven, Philips & the univ
Iris van Herpen’s new 3D printed Escapism couture collection for .MGX
Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen has just shown her Escapism couture collection during the haute couture week in Paris Spring Summer 2011. This is her second 3D printed fashion collection after Spring/Summer”s Crystallization. The collection is a collaboration between Iris van Herpen and architect Daniel Wildrig with our label .MGX by Materialise. The hats are designed and made by Stephen Jones. The shoes were made by Rem Koolhaas” United Nude. “Escapism is about the addiction of constantly escaping reality by digital entertainment, something that nowadays is a big part of everyone’s world.” We loved that our company could be a part of creating something so beautiful and feel that the collection is stunning.
Luckily, we’re not the only ones. The collection was very well recieved with fashion critic Philippe Pourhashemi saying of it, “I got emotional watching her show and felt transported to a different world. Her women looked like beautiful insects or seductive crea
i.materialise on Karrewiet
Karrewiet is a Belgian children”s television show and i.materialise and our mother company Materialise were featured on the January 28th edition of the show. The segment is very short but you can see an intrpid kid reporter interview Miranda and get her drawing turned into a 3D print. You also see some fleeting images of the i.materialise and .MGX offices (and a shot of the kid reporter sitting on the KOL/MAC Root chair.Â
The best thing though is that the intrepid kid reporter is none other than Hanne. Her father is Wim, i.materialise”s head of production. You can watch the video here in Dutch, the episode is the 28th of January and the 3D printing segment starts at 3:40.
This week in 3D printing: 22nd to 28th of January 2011
January 24th. Takae a Fab@Home 3D printer some gifted chefs and what do you get? 3D printed mexican food on CNN Money.
January 25th. Our 3D printing a better paperclip project ends up on FastCoDesign & PSFK.
January 25th. A complete 3D printable Settlers of Cata game on Thingiverse sparks off a debate on twitter on copyright & copywrong.
January 26th. The Pixar blog shows off a lovely Zcorp 3D print of Lotso.
January 27th. We add stainless steel 3D printing to our line up.
January 28th. Oscar van Deventer, puzzle savant & allround nice guy, makes one of the worlds largest and most complicated twisty puzzles using 3D printing and PopSci salutes him!Â
Have a nice weekend! Did I miss something? Tell me in the comments.
Time Lapse video of a Makerbot Thing O Matic build
OK, so its 26 minutes long. But, I think its amazing. Just watch it for a bit and skip around and see this time lapse video of Scribblej (probably not his real name) building his own Makerbot Thing O Matic.
Via Wiki.Makerbot.com
3D Printing in Steel is now Possible!
Today we launch Stainless Steel 3D printing. This will allow designers to 3D print in steel and give them more freedom to design beautiful things. This is especially true because 3D printed steel comes in 7 different finishes. These finishes allow you to get your steampunk on and 3D print wonderfully old looking new things.
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