An Update on 3D Printing

The 3D printers that can bring CAD designs to life have seen some tremendous advancement in not only the technology that is being used, but the actual ways in which 3D printers can improve business processes and results. There has been a great deal of evolution in the products and their use, and I’ll focus on the three of them that I think have the most short term impact.

If you have other issues or aspects that you think should be on this list, by all means add a comment to this blog. There’s so much going on, and so many new ideas, that a list of only three is bound to miss some that you find compelling. Read full article »

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword – The New 3D Drawing Pen

One of the great things about the technology industry is that there are literally thousands of start-up companies that are conceiving and building very cool new products. One of these has just announced their contribution to this trend the 3D Pen, called the “3Doodler”. Basically, what you now have is a “pen” that lets you draw, with a plastic compound, a full three dimensional item.

It is worth noting that the level of precision that this pen provides is not that high, so the idea of actually drawing a gear or any other high precision item isn’t here yet. However, this brand new device opens up some really interesting new capabilities and will likely create some new CAD market dynamics. Read full article »

Outlook for 3D Printing

The impact of 3D printing on the CAD professional has been incredibly profound. The ability to actually create a physical manifestation of a design at very low cost, relatively quickly, and with strong quality is shortening the design cycle and giving designers a level of feedback that was never before possible. As we look into 2013, there are some very interesting trends starting to emerge. Read full article »

3D Scanning & CAD – Changes Are Coming

In this blog we’ve talked about the importance of the new 3D printers in changing the game for CAD designers and professionals.  A complimentary product is the 3D scanner.  And much like 3D printers, there is a lot of “new news” in this space.  This blog will look at some of the key trends for 2013.

There are lots of different aspects of the market that are changing, and most of them are common in markets that are reaching their “growth” phase.  The big changes that are coming resolve a number of the critical usage issues that simplify the use of 3D scanners in everyday CAD work. Read full article »

3D Printing Changes the Game

In the “old” days, the gap between design completion and the actual delivery of a physical product was often measured in months, took a large amount of costly resources, and was often the point at which otherwise useful designs would never get to see the light of day.  The cost of prototyping was so prohibitive, that it actually killed good ideas.

That thinking is now as old school as computing via terminal to a mainframe!  3D printers have literally changed the game for prototype delivery, delivery of “one-off” designs, and for “self-production.” I know that’s a whole lot of quotation marks, but we’re dealing with a lot of very new concepts and capabilities that are dramatically changing the final output of what CAD professionals are delivering.  Read full article »