Category Archives: Design
3D Printing at Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona
The world famous Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, Spain was the life work of genius designer Antoni Gaudi. Construction started in 1882 and will not be completed until 2028. It is a massive structure featuring incredible towers, rich detailed facades, and complex architecture.
In the museum, one can see how Gaudi’s original designs are developed into full glory. 3D printing is one key tool workers use to prototype Gaudi’s designs at a model scale.
The shop hosts two ZCorp 3D printers which can create the intricate models shown in the photo, as small as 1:2000 in size.
Discharged binder solution cartridges are left on the side of the workshop.
It’s incredible to think that Gaudi designed this building without the use of these modern tools, whereas today’s designers rely on them to ensure the quality of their work.
Artist Uses 3D Printing to Create Amazingly Detailed Sculptures
Artist Micah Ganske uses 3D printing to design elaborate sculptures that are incredibly detailed and nearly impossible to create using traditional methods. He says of his craft:
My sculptures are designed digitally and produced using a MakerBot 3D printer. Just as important to me as the amazing results that can be achieved with this exciting technology, is what it represents as a forward-looking technology. The dream of being able to replicate objects has always been a fixture of science fiction and I whole-heartedly embrace it as a way to create impossible artworks.
Here are some of his works:
“Industrial Ring Habitat”, Extruded Polymer, 18″x18″x5″
“Colette”, Extruded Polymer, 14″x12″x9″
Star Trek inspired- “James Tiberius Kirk #2″, Extruded Polymer, 4.5″x5″x4″
About Micah Ganske
Micah Ganske was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1980. In 2002 he received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Post-Baccalaureate certificate from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2003. In 2005 he received his MFA in painting from the Yale School of Art. In 2005 he was the recipient of the Adobe Design Achiement Award in Digital Photography at a reception held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York where his work was also displayed. In October 2007 Deitch Projects exhibited Ganske’s first solo exhibition. In 2011 he launched his second solo exhibition with RH Gallery in Tribeca, where he is now represented. Micah Ganske is also a 2012 Fellow in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Hat tip to thecreatorsproject.
Last Night to Trim the Christmas Tree with 3D Printed Ornaments
It’s Christmas Eve: the last night to decorate your Christmas tree before the big day. Here are some 3D printed ornaments to add to your holiday cheer.
Above, you’ll see Christmas ornaments by pmoews (available on Thingiverse)
From the designer: Here is a simple Christmas tree ornament consisting of a sphere pierced with 198 holes. It is related to the holed container in Two Spherical Containers, thing:32840. The holes are hypocycloids with 5 cusps and are meant to resemble stars.
Next, we have 3D Printed Christmas Balls by cunicode (available on Shapeways)
And finally, a cool design called Cube Ball Illusion by Ablapo (available on Thingiverse)
The sculpture is showing a cube or a ball depending on the view angle.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
hat tip to 3dprinter.net for finding these designs.
Shapeways Announces Winner of 3D Printing iPhone 5 Contest
3D printing marketplace Shapeways hosted a contest for designers to create iPhone 5 accessories. They announced a winner for the clever “sweater” case shown above.
We had over 70 entries to the 3D Print Contest for iPhone 5 Accessories with so many fantastic designs it was really hard for us to chose a winner among the high caliber of entries. There was one design that really caught the eye of the Shapeways team. As soon as we pulled one out of the 3D Printer to test it out, everyone was in love…
The product page is great but we really had to share a video so that everyone could see how the design captured our hearts and won $500 worth of Shapeways 3D Printing for the designer….
The winner of $500 worth of 3D printing is ArtizanWork with their iPhone 5 – “Sweater” Case.
Below is a video of the winning design.
Via Shapeways blog.
Will Arduino Drive the 3D Printing Open-Source Movement?
Could the open-source movement push 3D printing from the peak of the hype cycle to more mainstream adoption? This would enable consumers to get their hands on cheaper 3D printers and 3D printing applications.
A big catalyst for open-source hardware today is Arduino.
Arduino is the brainchild of an international team of five engineers: Massimo Banzi and Gianluca Martino of Italy; David Cuartielles of Spain; and David Mellis and Tom Igoe of the U.S. According to Banzi, who recently made a presentation at TEDGlobal 2012, Arduino has developed the Interactive Design Institute Ivrea (IDII) to help students there actually build prototype objects that could react to their inputs. Using a foam model of a prototype cell phone, for instance, simply would not make sense.
Arduino’s openness means that the micro-controller board can be found in the heart of a lot of open source hardware devices today, including 3D printers, toys and thousands of projects within the maker community. Commercial vendors and do-it-yourselfers alike are picking up Arduino boards and customizing them for their projects with the eventual launch of some compelling devices.
Implications
With more 3D printers in the hands of product creators, the reliance on “Made in China” would decrease and more goods would be made locally, even in consumer’s homes. Adding open-source technology to the equation only speeds the time to market because of the price discount experienced by consumers.
Will Arduino be that open-source component that gives 3D printing its due boost?
Via ReadWriteWeb.
Arduino photo by LenP17 used under Creative Commons license.
