3D Printing Machines, Materials, Tools & Techniques
3D Printing Machines, Materials, Tools & Techniques
Issue #12
I’m Vignesh Kaushik. I curate and write articles on Thank God It’s Computational to help architects, designers, and urban planners leverage cutting-edge technologies on AEC projects.
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3D Printers & Materials
This article is based on the latest trend report from 3D Hubs. Their rankings only include machines that have received more than 200 ratings, so newer machines take a while to appear.
Best Type of Plastic For Your 3D Prints
Choosing the right type of material to print a given object is becoming increasingly difficult as the 3D printing market sees the emergence of radically new materials. This article focuses on comparing the properties of main pure polymers so that users can make a quick decision about the best polymer to use for their application.
OctoPrint: Monitor and Control Your 3D Print Remotely
OctoPrint is the snappy web interface for your 3D printer that allows you to control and monitor all aspects of your printer and print jobs, right from your browser.
Tools for Meshing, Repairing & Slicing
Materialise: Prepare Your Models for 3D Printing
Created for artists, makers, product designers, engineers, prosumers, small businesses and anyone else who is looking to speed up the 3D printing preparation process while ensuring a high quality 3D print, Materialise Cloud is capable of a number of streamlined functions including file conversions, file optimization, file repair and file rebuilding via the Cloud.
MakePrintable: STL and 3D model Repair
This web service does exactly what it claims. It checks your STL files for any mistakes that might corrupt the print. MakePrintable gives you more control over the STL repair process than any other web services. You can choose a quality level (prototype, standard and high), hollow and repair the mesh and optimize the polygon count. It even allows you to merge multiple meshes into one.
Cura: The Best Slicing Software
Cura out performs any other 3d printing slicing software! It is very easy to use and allows you to manage the most important 3D print settings in a clear interface. Start in “Basic” mode for rapid onboarding and switch to over “Expert” mode when you need more precise control over the print quality settings.
3D Printing Services
3D Hubs: Online 3D Printing Services Near You
The idea behind 3D Hubs is simple. Give consumers access to a global network of individually run 3D printers to which they can easily send designs. The printers set their own price, listing themselves by resolution and material. 3D Hubs takes 15 percent of each transaction.
All3DP: Compare Your 3D Printing Costs Instantly
A lot of people don’t check their 3D printing costs which can differ up to 100%. All3DP brings the most popular online 3D printing services, Shapeways, i.materialise & Sculpteo in one place where you can compare 3D printing costs in real-time and place an order.