3D printing in 4 simple steps: Shapeways

[cadj0ckey]

We use the term 3D Printing to cover a range of processes available at Shapeways from plastics to stainless steel, ceramics, sterling silver and full color. This saves us have a mouthful of words most people do not understand. Technical details are still available on the materials pages at the Shapeways site.

[nvrmined1]

That's not 3d printing, that's fused deposition modeling. 3d printing is done in a container of powder that is fused together with a laser or uv light, and doesn't require a support structure

[dpowerfool]

A little better resolution for this video would be great :) Other than that it's really nice :)

[ttttkk2]

can the output object use as a final product or a prototype?

[foldagerdkplus]

Well. On the site it says that coloured sandstone might lose colour if wet. But when removing support material you put the item into liquid right? Will this mean desaturated colours?

[koak88]

some cool stuff, but what music is this?

[kljsadfhklj]

What CAM software is that?

[Evanblive91]

I want meez a hatchet...chop me some wood.

[MrChrisawesomeness]

How large can the object that is printed be?

[Shapeways]

@MrChrisawesomeness it depends on the material you choose, but the most common material (white strong and flexible/nylon) can be printed up to 70x38x58cm

[balap267009]

Can we make gold jewellery in 3d printer

[Shapeways]

@balap267009 we can gold plate 3D printed stainless steel but we do not yet offer solid gold. We do however offer sterling silver.

[orfljim]

What if i wanted to do my dog I love her?

[bowtoyourmaster]

@orfljim Well that's just disturbing

[johnnyLikeVideo]

Are the shapes always hollow or do you create solids as well?

[Shapeways]

@johnnyLikeVideo if you design it hollow, we will print it hollow, if you design it solid, we will print it solid.

With hollow items you need to have a suitable wall thickness for the material you specify, along with an escape hole so we can remove the excess materials.

[samhoggy]

what actually happens when the printer head passes over?

[BrokenBjartur]

What if I wish to print blades or other kinds of weaponry?

[Shapeways]

@BrokenBjartur sorry, we do not 3d print weapons, anything else is fine

[ReverendX9834]

Is this some kind of alien technology?

[CubingGymnast]

What file formats are excepted? (STL?)

[Tikvanaya]

Blender!!!!

[LOLWutAnonymous]

With what resolution can you print for each scale? 40cmx40cmx40cm@1mm? @100µm? @10µm?

[vividvectors]

interesting, more user friendly huh, I'll chekc it out

[kidel3]

Is the program "bender"?

[Tikvanaya]

@kidel3 the program is blender.

[kidel3]

@Tikvanaya I thought that too, been using it before, know it very good, but it looks more like it says bender.

[kidel3]

Awesome! Why pay houndreds of thousands of dollars or thousands of dollars (depends on what type of 3D printer) when you just can buy from a company! How easy isn't that?! I could have bought like 10 3D printers (not going to happend) and start sell designs too. It is an amazing idea!

[RichYan33]

This may be the least informative video I've ever seen.

[ITTV]

@RichYan33 Not to worry. Check out the video interview above (video response) where Dave Graveline from IntoTomorrow(dot)com interviews the CEO of Shapeway. Let me know what you think.

[Hito2]

I kinda sucks you have to have a 3D model maker of some sorts leaving this buseness a bit closed to most ppl sure yo u can buy a premade thing or some sort of text objeckt like a candal holder saying I love you about a 100 times till it makes a silinder but thats about the only customesing you can do if you don't have your own 3D genarating program like 3Dmax and most genarating programs take a good comuter

[c0rkn0t]

you don't need a cumpter that good for simple things. these cubes they are making a really easy. and for the software they are using blender at the begining which is open scource which means it is free. now you just need to be quiet skilled

[Hito2]

bender dosint work on my PC but anim8or dose I have some models almost ready but I still think thay shuold atleast tell about some free software

[nautsch]

If you want a 3D model, then you need some kind of 3d Software. How do you think it works. Thinking 3d and .. POOF!: model. ??

[Hito2]

I know you misinturpert what I'm saying

they shuld make a program on there site were you can bild 3D objets or at least point you in the diretion of anim8or or blender or milkshape ect I had to find those my self from there I sugjest anim8or or milkshape for beginers blender is hard and video tutorials are farly lame to get startid with

[LatestUFOSightings]

Now that's what I call fuckin' 21st century, baby! And it's only 09!

[paperdude1000]

@LatestUFOSightings 09 IS the 21st century, DUMMY!!

[mariusvanrhijn]

@paperdude1000 Yeah i think he meant that it's still early. We still have about 90 more years of 21st century left.

[gucker07]

21st century replicator:)

[code2works]

Amazing service!

I'm from italy and i need to do a few of prototypes...

I register now!

[msdiediedie]

I want a 4D printer! Then I could make a model that extends into the past...

[ItayROFL]

haha well it's not quite so

but yeah, could be nice

[Trif4]

This is way too cool. I didn't know that 3D printers existed!

[Choscura]

they've been around for a while now. there are a few basic types- the most common (if you want to call them printers) are CNC milling machines and routers, which can be used to cut wood, plastic, and metal. they work by starting with a big piece of material and reducing it. then there are printers like this that add material in a specific shape, such as sheets of paper, which it glues down and then trims.

these (CNC) machines are supposedly easy to build on your own, too.

[Trif4]

Yeah, it has been a while since I posted ;) I already dug up a lot of information, but thanks anyway!

[Laminusccrazzyy]

is there a place that prints in for you? like shops were you can print sheets of paper? Please reply asap if you know. thanks

[Laminusccrazzyy]

i didnt read the description forget it. Finally i found a site that does it!

[Shapeways]

As of yesterday, the private beta has ended - you no longer need to sign up to enter.

[janis2006]

btw when i wanna register i can't choose the Netherlands :S only Netherlands Antilles :S:S

[janis2006]

woeps nevermind..

[weijmarshausen]

Hi Janis,

you can choose the Netherlands, it is in the toplist! :-)

Peter

[janis2006]

what about shipping to Europe what's the shipping cost for it?

"We offer several materials" what are they and do you have picture how it looks like when it's final.

[ydy2008]

哇塞

[searob1]

Can you give credit to the DJ or musician who produced the music?

[Shapeways]

The music is 'Void Sensor' by Zero Page; credits are at the very end of the movie.

[mnipgailid]

Introducing the elephant in the room: What is someone orders a dildo? Please answer.

[Shapeways]

In principle we want to let the Shapeways designers be as free as they want to be. We do not want to censor you in any way.

So we will definitely allow you to print out your models.

The only issue that we have is that we by no means want to be seen as an adult site by NetNanny, other parental controls and internet filters. We also would not want to offend any one individiual. So just to be on the safe side we would ask you to make your models 'private'.

[DreadKnight666]

There should be a 'private' mode if it isn't implemented already.

[redbeast2]

@mnipgailid

lol it's an "elephant in the room" if people are actually wondering about it... I for one was not

[caesius99]

absolutely amazing!...I love Philips research!!!

[hogiewan]

How big of an object can you print?

[darkmasterchief]

oh no the horror!

goatse models.

[Shapeways]

We offer several materials; each is produced on a different printer with different size limits. Roughly, the maximum size is 40x40x40cm.

[ethanmcoy]

can the finished prints be painted? All the examples in your video seemed to only have one colour to them.

[TheHackMan77]

Might be a good idea to have a portion of your site where people can see a bit about you and some recent print outs or some that your most proud of without having to log in. I know that log in before you see much of anything can really distract some people.

[Shapeways]

Once we're out of beta it will be exactly like you describe it: we'll have a public homepage showing photographs of the most recently produced objects, an overview of recently uploaded designs and a list of community rated objects.

[mp3cdripper]

How are you going to handle the fact that some people don't want their product shown to anyone else? If I were making a prototype of something I wouldn't want it splashed around the web... I do really like the idea of being able to hire out for prototyping / 3d printing! Very cool.

[Shapeways]

You can mark your object as 'private' and then nobody else will be able to see it.

[DreadKnight666]

Cool.

[janis2006]

and what about philips will philips see the private projects and are they allowed to use idea/prototype for there own products?

[weijmarshausen]

Janis,

only the Shapeways team has access to see private models and will only do so to provide service.

The user decides how the models are used. We will not use them in any other way then produce them if they are ordered.

Peter

[RobotubeGames]

And they're deep fried! Delicious!

[profquatermass]

Your web site is truly awful. No pricing info or delivery area mentioned?

You do want people to use this right?

[Shapeways]

We know that there are many things that we can still improve on - that's why we're still in beta ;-) We'll look into those points, thanks!

[profquatermass]

You guys need to put the URL to your site in the upper info box....

[Shapeways]

Done! I can't believe we forgot that ;-)

[tsunokami]

coolest stuff EVER~~~!

[ericmanche]

Its crazy how old this process already looks. Give it five years and the rubber gloves will be off and the lions will be furred.

[TornadoStudios]

thats cool

[yveswint]

Cool stuff Peter....great to see that you managed to get things going so fast.