3D printing & piracy. 3D printing The Settlers of Catan
Roughly an hour ago a tweet emerged stating “3D printing board game piracy is already a thing“. The tweet was pointed towards a thing on Thingiverse called 3D games pieces by Sublime. Â The game pieces, if printed out would constitute a complete version of the very popular Settlers of Catan boardgame.
Now everyone with a 3D printer can take this game, 3D print it and have it without paying anything to the designer. The information has spread vast and wide across the internet, possibly forever. And this is before the blogs get a hold of it!  Â
Through Thingiverse and Twitter the idea of a 3D printed Catan now exists. As long as the file is there somewhere on the internet, people can 3D print Catan. So, you will not only not have to pay Klaus Teuber, the creator of Catan, money for his game this one time. You will never have to give him any money any more for infinite copies of Catan. If the design of the copy is good enough, then potentially no one will ever have to giv
3D Food printing on CNN money
You should really read this great story by the people over at Cooking Issues about how they used a FAB@Home 3D printer to 3D print massa for CNN Money. It is nice to contrast Cooking Issues” take versus the CNN Money article. See the video below also to see how 3D printing makes Mexican Food.
Using 3D printing to build a better paperclip, the Infinite Clip
We wanted to make something beautiful and fun for Thingiverse. You know how people have tried to build a better mouse trap? We”re trying to build a better paperclip, using 3D printing. The paperclip is a scion of mass production, patented in 1867. We tried to reimagine this evergreen of manufacturing and would be curious to know what you think. Â
The cool thing about the Infinite Clip is that not only can it clip paper but it can also attach to lots of things in lots of different ways. It can serve as a hook and clip onto things in four different directions. The clip is flexible and can be used to hold small things as well as thick things.
You could adapt the design if you want to. By changing the thickness of the design you can make it stronger depending on the tasks at hand.  Need a clip to hang up some clothes? Change the design to make it close much tighter. Need a bigger clip? Just scale and print another.Â
We”ve test 3D printed
Who is (y)our director?
Hello,
My name is Miranda Bastijns and because I am the oldest of the i.materialise team, already have some grey hair, and don’t know how to design in 3D, the others call me boss.
I am also a dedicated fan of 3D printed objects, which is no wonder after having spent the last 13 years of my career at Europe’s largest 3D printing company.
As general marketing manager for Materialise, I have lived through the evolution from technical and medical applications of additive manufacturing, to the 3D printing of consumer goods. I have seen 3D printed dashboards, surgical drill guides, and washing machine parts pass by and now I get to see the creations of individuals as well.
I have seen many wonderful objects emerging from our 3D printers and it has been a source of frustration not being able to make them myself. Now, with i.materialise there is a super team behind me, able to develop all kind of tools that can help me, and others like me, turn our creativity into tangibl
This week in 3D printing: 15th to the 21st of January 2011
January 17th. Fresh Fiber and Freedom of Creation turn to Kicksarter to try to fund an iPad customization tool.
January 18th. i.materialise launches titanium 3D printing for you, me and everyone else, a world first.
January 18th. Stratasys and HP announce that their cooperation will be extended and that sales of the Designjet 3D HP branded Stratasys 3D printers have “exceeded their original forecasts.”
January 19th. We discover that gold 3D printing is now possible.
January 20th. Amit Zoran”s Flute continues its rise to popularity, hitting the New Scientist website.
As always do remind me if I left something out! Have a nice weekend.
DMLS: 3D Printing in Titanium Possible with i.materialise
Direct Metal Laser Sintering – or DMLS for short – is a game changer when to comes to direct 3D printing of metals. We’re proud to announce that as of today everyone can use our online 3D printing service for printing your design in titanium – yes, 3D printed titanium! Read on to learn more about DMLS printers, the DMLS technology, and our DMLS titanium. (more…)
The generative Mars Lamp, our first ceiling lamp!
Students Pieter-Jan Debuyst and Laurens Dekeyser got a class assignment to use Java to build a generative lamp through parametric design.  The students handled the assignment with aplomb and won the i.materialise contest that we were doing together with their University, the  Catholic University of Leuven.
We”re so taken by the first year Civil Engineering & Architecture student”s design that we”re offering it for sale starting today. This marks the introduction of our first 3D printed ceiling lamp.Â
The Mars Lamp costs 299 Euro ( that is $400 incl. ceiling mounting structure and transformer, excl. VAT and shipping). The lamp measures 15x15x13.8 cm (5.9×5.9×5.4 inch) and is 3D printed in polyamide. Â Please send an email to contact@i.materialise.com if you wish to order this design.
We think its lovely, what do you think of the Mars Lamp?
This week in 3D printing 8th to the 14th of January 2011
January 8th. Makerbot is crowned best of CES by David Ewalt of Forbes.
January 10th. Dr. Adrian Boyer of the RepRap project writes about Hod Lipson”s Factory @ Home report for the White House. You should take the time to read it here.
January 10th. Fabbaloo reports on Andrew Monti”s idea for “Books that print” using QR codes.
January 11th. Fab Camp Liverpool is a go, it is a weekend “aimed at raising awareness of the revolution in digital fabrication.” Visitors will be able to 3D print and learn about it and other manufacturing technologies at the event.
January 11th. MIT student Charles Z. Guan makes a Make-A-Bot, a Fused Filament Fabrication machine based on RepRap and Makerbot.
January 11th. The Times features 3D printing in an article “Lost your car key? Never mind, print another with new 3-D printer.”
January 12th. An open source guitar is 3D printed using Blender and an open innovation company called Zoybar. This is an example of network
Open source guitar 3D printed using Blender
Kevin Holmes of The Creators Project writes about an open source guitar that was made using Blender, Zoybar and 3D printing. The guitar, called the Tor was designed by the Norwegian SD Baard. Zoybar is an “open R&D” project where research is being carried out into musical instruments. There people can download the files and order the parts they need to create their own musical instruments while Zoybar (and anyone who cares to join) does the research into new designs and parts. Then a 3D printing company then manufactures the body for the guitar. Zoybar  is a great model for an innovative business and I would expect to see this emulated in many other fields as time goes by. We”re not sure about the price though, Kevin quotes $175 but the kits we saw on Zoybar were much more expensive than that. A while back someone 3D printed a flute, now a guitar. How long until you can 3D print your entire band?
Via Digg.
Who is (y)our Website Manager?
I’m Franky, a 30 years old and I’m the website manager of i.materialise. I wireframe, do some graphical design, occasionally write requirements for our developers, find interesting topics to blog about, take photos of all the nice things you design, make videos…and more. I love to talk about 3D printing, it’s fascinating and everyone deserves to know it exists.
Before joining Materialise, I worked as an editor for a video post-production company in Brussels. After a few years of TV shows, commercials and music videos, I decided to make a career switch. Thus I traded video editing for the exciting world of 3D printing. I barely knew what it was, but it sounded like the coolest thing in the world. Actually, it still does.
I consider myself not an expert at something but someone who knows a little bit about everything. I have college degrees in online journalism, multimedia and audiovisual communication.
When I’m not at work, I’m probably in the gym doing strength and c
