3D Modeling and Printing for All

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mass production end 3DS dassault systèmes systemes 3D printing catia solidworks delmia enovia simulia 3Dvia draftsight CAD CAM PLM product lifecycle management 2.0 lifelike experience systems engineering

As you know I’m pretty much all the time on Twitter and I found a very interesting tweet the other day I wanted to share with you (it’s from @_victorien):

“Will 3D Printing End Mass Manufacturing? http://on.mash.to/h9MPzc”

I was actually surprised to see how far people could look when facing an idea. Ending mass manufacturing? Where does 3D printing take us?

Personally, I couldn’t help noticing that everyone is focusing on the cost of 3D printers… but does it matter when people can’t design their own 3D models? Because if they can’t, it’s not different from mass market production from a consumer’s point of view: they buy something they did not create, that others will have as well. In other words it won’t be unique.

So your dear blogger (hmm… me!) went across the Web to check out what was going on, if there was a solution. And to be honest I was disappointed! When you learn about that kind of big news (3D printing), you expect results (printing in 3D right away).

And when you live in the present, you expect these results to be open: available for everyone to share, modify and create.

What’s the point of having a personal printer if you can’t use it? (i.e. you don’t have a software to control it)

But guess what? We’re on it! 🙂

Making it easier and for everybody, that’s the goal. So 3Dvia people published a book (in French at the moment) to provide users with an official guide to 3Dvia Studio. If you prefer English, you also have loads of resources on the 3Dvia website:

3Dvia logo 3DS dassault systèmes systems catia solidworks delmia enovia simulia CAD CAM PLM product lifecycle management lifelike experience systems engineering

  • Project examples with the source code available (here)
  • Tutorials (here)
  • Official documents to get started with the software (here)

Of course, this is only the beginning: there’s not only 3Dvia Studio to turn to something available to neophytes and it’s a long-term effort to educate people to this whole new approach to product consuming but it’s definitely worth it!

I was talking with people on Twitter and they told me it would take less than 5 years to see 3D printing started commercially speaking. It feels like a short time to me… What do you think?

[polldaddy poll=5043541]

Cheers,

Rémi

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