Fabricate Yourself: Using the Microsoft Kinnect to 3D print yourself
One of the most exciting research initiatives in 3D printing is Interactive Fabrication. Rather than focus on 3D printing itself Interactive Fabrication focusess on the interface. The team consisting of Karl D.D. Willis, Cheng Xu & Kuan-Ju Wu and headed by Mark Gross develops software and tools that let people design, in the broadest sense of the word. Beautiful Modeler is a great previous example of this. And now Karl Willis has developed Fabricate Yourself.
With Fabricate Yourself people can strike poses in front of a Microsoft Kinect. They can then choose their favorite pose and it will be turned into an STL file and 3D printed. By using a widely available easy to use platform such as the Kinect and by limiting people’s input to actions anyone can do quickly their interface lets anyone 3D print. Basically the team has made 3D printing yourself as easy as posing for a photo. It is tools such as Fabricate Yourself that will bring 3D printing to the widest audience. The Fabrica
Naim Josefi”s Melonia shoe nominated for a Brit Insurance Design Award
Naim Josefi”s 3D printed Melonia shoe has been nominated for a Brit Insurance Design Award. This is one of the most prestigious awards in design and we are proud that this shoe was made by our company. We interviewed designer Naim Josefi to discover how the Melonia was made.
Why did you make your Melonia shoes? I designed the melonia shoe to show my view of the future, a better,made to measure, easier and more sustainable design with a touch of love.Â
With whom did you collaborate with on the project? I worked with Souzan Yusouf, studying at Konstfack University of art and craft , to become an Industrial designer.
How did you make them? I left my design sketch of the melonia shoe to Souzan, which she formed in the 3-d modelling software Rhino.Â
Are they currently for sale? Yes they are for sale, but I will when time is given produce the melonia shoe for stores.Â
Are they comfortable? They are relatively comfortable, but they are not made for a stroll in t
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
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
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…)
Carl visualizes his daughter”s heart problems
My daughter has a heart problem, the images of the heart and my research into her condition has been helped greatly by being able to visualise this file. It also helps her understand the problem. As a natural structure I also think the heart is quite beautiful.
— Carl Hitchens
Carl Hitchens is Materialise”s Software Manager for the UK and Ireland. His daughter Megan was 6 in 2008 when she was diagnosed with two congenital heart defects, a PDA Patent Ductus Arteriosus and a VSD ventricular septal defect. Initially Megan”s parents “explained with books and she knew the problems and what symptoms she should be aware of.” Carl though works with Materialise software that is used to scan and render parts of the human body. MRI scans of a patient for example are used as a basis for surgical planning using Materialise Mimics. He decided to show his daughter her heart problem by 3D printing a scan of the heart using i.materialise. Megan liked the model and it helped her und
The Year of 2010 in 3D Printing: An Overview
To my abject horror there was no “year in review” for 3D printing. I decided to right this wrong and produce this one. I’ve tried to be as unbiased and inclusive as possible. If I’ve missed something, feel free to point it out in the comments and I’ll add it. 2010 was a miraculous year in 3D printing. Thousands of people have bought and made RepRaps and Makerbots en tens of thousands use 3D printing services such as i.materialise to 3D print their own creations. (more…)
The Rhino & i.materialise 3D printing Design Challenge
Together with McNeel we would like to stimulate Rhino artists & designers worldwide to get the most out 3D printing. We both want to encourage stimulating, innovative and creative 3D printed products that are “Future Forms Today.”. That’s why we’re jointly announcing the Rhino & i.materialise 3D Printing Design Challenge and making over $1000 in prizes available to you.
What can you win?
- First place wins $500 in 3D printing & an i.materialise Appear lamp.
- Second place wins $300 in 3D printing.
- Third place wins $200 in 3D printing.
How will we judge the contest?
McNeel Europe & i.materialise team will jointly judge the contest. We will be looking at people who show the power of Rhino & 3D printing in their designs. We will be looking at designers and artists that can make “Future Forms Today.” We will consider the originality and presentation of the design. We will also take into account if you use maximize the power of 3D printing in your product. So is your pro
i.materialise buys a Makerbot!
Our software development team and most of our customer services team are in Kiev, Ukraine. Since we don”t have a production facility there they aren”t surrounded by 3D printers like the rest of us here in Belgium. To compensate the team bought and built a Makerbot. One of the main reasons for getting it was to show job applicants going through the interview process a 3D printer in action. Franky (our designer) took some pictures of the wonderful little device while he was over there. The team loves it and enjoyed building it very much.
The first thing the team 3D printed was the Materialise Ukraine logo.
Maksym, one of the builders reports that, “It took 3 evenings * 3 hours each * 5.5 people = 49.5 man hours to assemble the thing. The build went smoothly but they did have some issues,
- Initially it was difficult for plastic to stick to the platform:
- When the structure is flat and thick it starts to deform and peel off the platform
- Small details can cause plastic
5 Amazing full sized furniture pieces made with 3D printing
3D printing seems to be all over the media lately. I already mentioned it in my previous blog post ”FULL PRINT3D”, but everyone writing these articles seems to be showing only a glimpse of what the technology is capable of. So why not write a series of blog posts to show the versatility of 3D printing? That’s what I thought. I’d like to start with the subject of furniture because I believe 3D printing is taking furniture design to a whole other level. Just ask French designer Patrick Jouin, who actually created the first large scale scale furniture pieces through 3D printing technology together with. MGX. It’s no surprise Materialise’s big mammoth stereolithography 3D printers had something to do with it. Here are, in no particular order, 5 amazing furniture piece made with 3D printing.
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