Month: March 2013

3D Printing Pen Lets You Doodle Objects Into Existence

3D Printing 3Doodler
Picture credit: the3doodler.com

Technology is always changing. That’s what makes it technology, after all. Still, when a brand new product is revealed, it can be exciting. The mind marvels at the possibilities this new item holds. That’s precisely what the newest item on the 3D printing market has done. It’s called the 3Doodler and while it’s not hitting store shelves anytime soon, it has certainly built a remarkable following.

The 3Doodler was created by WobbleWorks and was introduced to the world via a Kickstarter campaign. The product is exactly what it sounds like: a device that allows you to doodle in three-dimensional space. In the shape of a pen, the 3Doodler allows you to wave it in the air and create a model, in real-time, out of plastic.

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3D Scanning Allows for Real Time Model Making

Konica Minolta Vivid 9i guitar 3D ScanningIf you’re thinking about the possibilities of model making, you need to familiarize yourself with 3D scanning. This technology can make a wide variety of things possible that otherwise wouldn’t be. You can literally scan anything in the world and get a three-dimensional digital model as a result. It only takes minutes and it’s the perfect way to create digital models for a wide variety of purposes.

What can this technology accomplish? Just about anything. Here are a few examples.

You can scan in parts of a product to compare it to the manufacturer parts as described in a CAD model. You can reverse engineer items by scanning them in, making a digital model, then manufacturing them. You can scan buildings to create 3D models from them. You can even make CAD models of objects to make changes to designs or updates to products.

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3D Printing Can Be Used for Car Production

The production of vehicles has long been associated with the assembly-line factory. These factories utilized many different robots and machines to build and assemble different parts of the vehicles. However, all of this may change as 3D printing becomes more and more popular. You see, using three-dimensional printers can create lightweight car components on the … Read more

RapidForm XOR Uses 3D Scanning for Aerodynamic Design

RapidForm XOR Uses 3D Scanning-1When it comes to improving aerodynamic design, one of the choice methods has always been the use of a wind tunnel. However, designers can now utilize something brand-new to build aerodynamic aircraft digitally. By employing 3D scanning, designers can create aerodynamic designs for a variety of design devices. This technique is called computational fluid dynamics for CFD. It’s currently being used by the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. Their latest tests combine wind tunnels, field tests, and CFD for a more accurate and innovative approach.

Accuracy, as you can imagine, it is very important for success here, which is why they are using Rapidform XOR for their 3D scanning needs. The system allows the engineers to build on current designs and improve them using a CFD simulation and then building on top of that with the Rapidform XOR mesh data accumulated from the scanning process. It actually has something called a Mesh Buildup Wizard that allows you to create a water tight mesh in an instant by using several different scans that can be merged together. The results are high-quality, accurate, and highly useful.

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Eight ProJet 3500 3D Printers Announced

If you’re interested in 3D printing, you’ll be pleased to hear that 3D Systems has just announced that eight new printers are now available. They are all ProJet 3500 models and are designed to make printing three-dimensional objects easier. They include remote tablet controls that allow you to make plastic components and wax patterns for … Read more