We have been working with 3D Hubs for a while now (though their print on demand system is not the most user friendly and presents problems with getting paid for work) and they had an afternoon of software presentation and a panel of speakers in the evening to celebrate their collaboration with Autodesk 123D products (essentially the Autodesk API has 3D Hubs as an integrated print source allowing users to print directly to a 3D Hubs user).
Personally I don't use most of the 123D apps because they are limited to iPad platforms (which I think does a huge disservice to the community on the whole because most of the time "makers" are big on open source (running linux homebrew machines) or PCs and a lot of designers don't use Mac products because there have been limited comprehensive design software for Mac until recently).
I do use TinkerCAD (as does my husband) for a lot of design work, which was acquired by Autodesk last year. There are a number of reasons I love TinkerCAD and when I was teaching, I was working on a curriculum to teach it to elementary school kids.
The afternoon consisted of TinkerCAD and MeshMixer presentations (TinkerCAD is a web based CAD program and MeshMixer is sculpt/paint/print program I haven't played much with but it's on my list of explorations).
We didn't attend the afternoon tutorial sessions (but we did print a bunch of swag for 3D Hubs).
Ultimately the most interesting part of the entire event was the Autodesk Gallery itself. As an artist with a background in industrial design, I feel that products can be art. The process of developing an idea is just the same as developing artistic ideas. They had an amazing range of things from 3D printed objects (and an Objet SLS printer), giant Lego sculptures, various prototypes and mock ups of vehicles and products and more. You really should check it out. They are open to the public on Wednesday and Friday each week.
No comments:
Post a Comment