Service

3DVIX: Economical 3D Print Services

We’re looking at a new 3D print service, 3DVIX. Yes, we know there are already many existing 3D print services, but 3DVIX hopes to do things a little differently. 

Skyforge Launches

Element Robot has launched the Skyforge 3D printing service with a new crowdfunding campaign. 

3D Hubs Hits a Milestone

Crowdsourced 3D printing network 3D Hubs achieved a major milestone this week by accepting their 5,000th location. But there’s more to it than mere numbers.

Buy a 3D Printed Stadium

There’s quite a few 3D print services out there today and it’s hard for services to distinguish themselves. One strategy is to specialize and that’s what ZVerse does. They specialize in Sports. 

Want a Job in 3D Printing?

It’s a field that’s exploding and you’d think there would be jobs available for enthusiasts. But how do you find them? We found a solution: Makrjobs.

Published
Categorized as Service Tagged

Jewelry with Jweel

We’re checking out a new jewelry generator called “Jweel”. It looks like one of the best we’ve seen so far.

uformit Changing?

Oh oh. The uformit site is closed, but it seems like it could be for a good reason.

Secured 3D Prints?

A new service could provide a secure solution for for securely 3D printing. But what does that mean? 

Bhold’s Boutique 3D Prints

3D printers may permit the creation of almost any object, but what object? The key to success is now good design, such as we found in Bhold’s collection. 

Klone World

At CES we encountered Klone World in the 3D Systems’ booth. Klone World is a service that provides the increasingly popular ability to implant your 3D face on a figurine. Klone World offers a number of different figurine scenarios and poses, different than those offered by 3D Systems’ 3DMe service.    Amazingly, the service works… Continue reading Klone World

London’s Science Museum Goes Online with 3D Printing

The London Science Museum, whom we visited recently, is displaying a huge collection of 3D printed objects in their “3D Printing The Future” exhibit. That massive collection is apparently not sufficient for them, as they’ve launched a new Tumblr blog for folks to post pictures of their best 3D prints.    And what a set… Continue reading London’s Science Museum Goes Online with 3D Printing

Project Shapeshifter: How To Torture Objects

Autodesk certainly has delivered very interesting free 3D software available recently – and another that might join the suite might be “Project Shapeshifter”. It’s a web-based service that can be used to develop 3D models.    The service is terribly easy to use: start with a template and simply shift the sliders (as seen in… Continue reading Project Shapeshifter: How To Torture Objects

The Stilnest Option

We had a chat with the nice folks from Stilnest, who operate an online 3D print store. Many such shops have recently emerged, so many that it’s getting difficult to distinguish them.    So what does Stilnest do?    They practice what we might call, “extreme curation”. Where other shops go for quantity, Stilnest focuses… Continue reading The Stilnest Option

Published
Categorized as Service Tagged

123D Offers More 3D Content

One of the best introductory 3D toolsets you can use is Autodesk’s 123D Suite, particularly the 123D Design tool. But when you’re designing something, it’s often very helpful to begin your design with an existing model that you can modify.    123D does this by providing a library of thousands of starter models you can… Continue reading 123D Offers More 3D Content

Shapeways Announces Programmable Models

3D printing service Shapeways has released “ShapeJS”, a programming environment that can generate 3D models using Javascript programs.    In other words, if you know how to use Javascript, one of the most popular tools for creating dynamic web pages, you’ll be able to produce 3D models simply by describing them with code, including complex… Continue reading Shapeways Announces Programmable Models

Have You Joined 3D Hubs?

There are several initiatives seeking to link 3D print owners with 3D print buyers, but as time passes only a few are going to succeed. One of them is likely to be 3D Hubs, currently the leader in number of participants.    The idea is pretty straightforward: if you have an idle 3D printer, sign… Continue reading Have You Joined 3D Hubs?

Let’sMakeStuff

Yet another 3D print making-sharing-selling site has launched, Let’sMakeStuff.    The site provides an ability for designers to sign up and submit 3D models for sale on the site, and for consumers to browse the site and select 3D models for purchase. The service also will 3D print items on request.    It’s a basic… Continue reading Let’sMakeStuff

Published
Categorized as Service Tagged

Skip the Draft; Cubify Gets You Into the NBA Now

Cubify announced another terrific addition to their “3DMe” service, which puts your face on different 3D printed figurines. The awkwardly named but legally correct “3DMe™ Sports featuring NBA® app!” accepts as input a couple of facial images and applies them to a selection of basketball figurine poses.    The NBA part comes in when you… Continue reading Skip the Draft; Cubify Gets You Into the NBA Now

Shapeways Reduces Ceramics Cost

3D print service Shapeways has reduced the cost of ceramic materials to “be more consistent with how we price the rest of our materials – by volume of material used instead of surface area.”   It’s a methodology switch, really. Instead of charging by surface area (which we suspect they began with as the ceramic… Continue reading Shapeways Reduces Ceramics Cost

How to Easily Create 3D Models from 2D Images: Embossify

A new service provides an incredibly simple way to convert any 2D JPG image into a printable 3D model. Embossify accepts a JPG and quickly converts the file into a 3D mesh by using the contrasting colors as “height indicators”. You can see how it converted our logo into a simple 3D model above.   … Continue reading How to Easily Create 3D Models from 2D Images: Embossify

3D Hubs Offers Community 3D Printing

3D Hubs joins several other startups attempting to crowdsource inexpensive 3D printing. The idea is that idle home or business 3D printers could be put to work producing objects for requestors in local or distant areas. 3D Hubs provides a “hub” where you can find participants offering such services.    The process is straightforward, according… Continue reading 3D Hubs Offers Community 3D Printing

Finally! Verified For 3D Printing

MakerBot’s 3D model service, Thingiverse, has announced a very important new feature: Verified Prints. It’s a certification program that attempts to indicate which 3D models on Thingiverse actually have a chance of being successfully 3D printed.    We’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time, as one of the major complaints with… Continue reading Finally! Verified For 3D Printing

The Bld3r Repository

We bumped into another printable 3D model repository: Bld3r. The site operates as a kind of meta-layer over top of other repositories, but brings it all together in a single interface. The idea is to reduce or even eliminate any difficulties typically caused by a repository’s terms of use. You can store your models in… Continue reading The Bld3r Repository

The Mysterious 4XYZ

A new service popped up purporting to offer radically new furniture through the use of additive manufacturing, known to many through its more common name, 3D printing. The 4AXYZ service says:    WE UNDERSTAND THE FUTURE OF DIMENSIONS ODDM (“oddem”) offers disruptive opportunities to the world of creativity.  4 AXYZ is here to harness Additive… Continue reading The Mysterious 4XYZ

Published
Categorized as Service Tagged

Cubify’s Bloody Halloween

Cubify has added a new app to generate 3D models just in time for Halloween: 3DMe Horror!    Previously Cubify has offered to place your own head on top of far nicer bodies such as Star Trek characters, but now you can obtain a 3D printed, full color figurine of yourself as a Zombie, or… Continue reading Cubify’s Bloody Halloween

Fabulonia to Protect 3D Designs

Startup Fabulonia has a new concept that could provide significant protection to designers fearful of losing control of their works.    As we understand it, Fabulonia will operate as a repository of 3D models submitted by (hopefully famous and notable) 3D designers. Consumers will be able to search, select and purchase a “print” from the… Continue reading Fabulonia to Protect 3D Designs

3D Systems Launches 3D Anatomical Service

3D printing giant 3D Systems announced the launch of their new Bespoke Modeling service. It’s a 3D model repository and sharing service, much like others that have emerged in recent years, but there’s a big difference here: this repository is focused on the medical industry.    Why the medical industry? Because there’s an increasing amount… Continue reading 3D Systems Launches 3D Anatomical Service

3DTin’s New Owners

One of the very few browser-based 3D modeling tools has changed hands. 3DTin has been acquired by Montreal-based 3D startup Lagoa.    Lagoa focuses on solving the problem of 3D requiring high-end computing power, which typically isn’t available on the increasingly frequent ultra-portable laptops. People love the portability, but 3D just doesn’t work so well… Continue reading 3DTin’s New Owners

Meshmixer Joins 123D

Autodesk announced that Meshmixer, a tool for easily manipulating 3D meshes, has been added to their 123D suite of 3D modeling applications.    Meshmixer has been around for quite a while and is frequently used by hobbyists and others to fix and mix 3D models. It provides an easy ability to combine multiple meshes to… Continue reading Meshmixer Joins 123D

Leopoly!

Leopoly is another web-based 3D sculpting tool that can create 3D printable objects.    What makes Leopoly unique? We think it is quite easy to use; almost anyone could rapidly create interesting 3D objects with no prior use of the tool. It’s basically self-explanatory: the controls are all within a command wheel composed of easy… Continue reading Leopoly!

Published
Categorized as Service Tagged

DEFCAD Morphs into a Search Engine

You might remember DEFCAD? It was a site dedicated to hosting “controversial” 3D models that underwent some difficulties when the US Government seized their inventory of 3D printable weapon models. We thought that might be the end for DEFCAD.    Apparently not. A visit to DEFCAD shows they’ve changed the site into a meta-search engine… Continue reading DEFCAD Morphs into a Search Engine

Need to 3D Print a Striped Hyena Skull?

To be truthful, we haven’t had the impulse to 3D print a Striped Hyena Skull. At least so far this week. But in case you do, we’ve found a repository that holds detailed 3D models of numerous biological items, mainly 3D scanned skulls.    Digimorph, part of the National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative, is… Continue reading Need to 3D Print a Striped Hyena Skull?

i.Materialise Keeps Their Rubber

Earlier this year 3D print service i.Materialise announced the temporary availability of an experimental flexible 3D print material. Now they say this material will be available permanently.    The material is indeed flexible and permits 3D printing of a new class of objects leveraging the legendary rubber-like property.   But there’s one fascinating catch. According… Continue reading i.Materialise Keeps Their Rubber

Captured Dimensions Captures Your Dimensions

A new, sophisticated and highly specialized 3D print service has launched: Captured Dimensions. This 3D print service focuses on producing full-color 3D figurines based on human and similar subjects.    The crown jewel of Captured Dimensions is this incredible 3D scanning setup, involving dozens of high-res cameras. The subject merely sits in the center of… Continue reading Captured Dimensions Captures Your Dimensions

Sculpteo’s New Materials

Last week Sculpteo announced the availability of two new materials for their 3D print service: Sterling Silver and Wax.   It’s an arms race between 3D print services; each adds new materials and features to keep up with or gain a lead on the others. The most frequent battlefield is materials. This announcement is just… Continue reading Sculpteo’s New Materials

Patent Issued for Digital Manufacturing

After years of process, US patent number 8,515,826 has been issued to Bryan Norman of KraftWurx fame. While there are billions of patents appearing, many of which are related to 3D printing, this one bears mentioning. Here’s the abstract of the patent:    Methods and systems for designing and producing a three-dimensional object selection of… Continue reading Patent Issued for Digital Manufacturing

New Ventures Focus on 3D Printing

We’ve seen multiple examples of companies starting up that make use of 3D printing for a specific purpose, be it artificial legs, figurines or automotive items. But now we’re seeing design firms emerge that are dedicated solely to 3D printed designs.    One such firm is Innovation Factory of Chicago, who can design, prototype, fund… Continue reading New Ventures Focus on 3D Printing