Ubergizmo: China To 3D-Print A 590-Foot Dam, Without Human Workers. “Regular people are barely using 3d-printers at home, and 3D-printed homes are not yet commonly printed, but China is already planning to 3d-print a massive dam in Tibet, with an AI-powered design and no human laborers. The endgame is to deliver 5 billion kWh of electricity per year.”
Hack A Day: Bi-Color Filament Kicks 3D Printed Optical Illusions Up A Notch. “A new video from [Make Anything] shows off a nice combo that has a real visual impact: ambiguous shapes that look different depending on what angle they are viewed at, combined with an unusual filament that enhances the effect greatly.”
Hackaday: Open Database Shares Resin 3D Printing Settings. “3D printing is much like CNC milling or welding or just about any physical manufacturing process, in that good results fundamentally come down to having the right settings. In an effort to aid those working in the resin printing space, [Adam Bute] has put together a community database of resin printing settings. The site has sections relevant to a variety of resin 3D printers, sorted by manufacturer.”
MakeUseOf: The 4 Best Websites for Free 3D Printing Files. “Having access to a 3D printer is a rather exciting privilege. Whether you’ve only just got your hands on one or a 3D printing veteran, free 3D printing models are always welcome. Designing a 3D model from scratch requires time and skill that you might not have. There are lots of websites and libraries where you can download free 3D models, but not every 3D model is 3D printable. Below, you will find the four best websites for downloading free 3D printer files.”
InformationWeek: Supply Chain Strategies: 3D Printing Our Way Out of Russia’s War. “Among mounting supply chain obstacles stemming from Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine are financial sanctions, closed air spaces, trapped shipments, and wartime aggressions. Both sides in this conflict aim to disrupt the other side’s logistics. Earlier supply chain management and company resiliency plans are rendered impotent in the face of so many risks. They’re simply no match for willful destruction and the intense reverberations of war. In short, this situation calls for a massive rethink on the structure of supply chains and their ecosystems rather than a tweaking of inventory and supply management technologies.”
Ars Technica: Take a peek inside a flickering candle flame with these 3D-printed shapes. “Markus Buehler and his postdoc, Mario Milazzo, combined high-resolution imaging with deep machine learning to sonify a single candle flame. They then used that single flame as a basic building block, creating ‘music’ out of its flickering dynamics and designing novel structures that could be 3D-printed into physical objects.”
MakeUseOf: The 6 Best Child-Friendly CAD Tools to Get Kids Started on 3D Design . “The advent of 3D printing can let kids’ imaginations go wild. Since specific shapes no longer limit them, creation possibilities are infinite. However, it’s the software that might restrict their potential. Imagine trying to teach an eight-year-old child Autodesk Fusion 360; that will possibly demotivate them in record time. Nevertheless, there are kid-friendly substitutes available out there. Here are the six best CAD tools to let your child discover 3D modeling.”
Habitat for Humanity: Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg Dedicates Nation’s First-Ever 3D Printed Habitat Home to Williamsburg Family. “The three-bedroom home with two full baths is the first-ever completed 3D printed Habitat house in the nation, and the gallery in attendance on the first day of winter in a Williamsburg subdivision reflected the culmination of the community partnerships that made it happen.”
University of New South Wales: Lunar architecture: small step for 3D printers, giant leap for humankind. “3D printing has come a long way in very a short time, with products including furniture, food and even bones being manufactured by the technology. But a team from UNSW are planning to push the boundaries of 3D printing even further with a proposal that is out of this world. UNSW Computational Design wants to use a 3D printer to build a house. But not just an ordinary house in the suburbs – one that is 385,000km away from Earth.”
The Conversation: From bespoke seats to titanium arms, 3D printing is helping paralympians gain an edge. “Major sporting events like the Paralympics are a breeding ground for technological innovation. Athletes, coaches, designers, engineers and sports scientists are constantly looking for the next improvement that will give them the edge. Over the past decade, 3D printing has become a tool to drive improvements in sports like running and cycling, and is increasingly used by paralympic athletes.”
CNET: Astronomers 3D-print stellar nurseries you can hold in your hand. “Nia Amara is both an astrophysicist and an artist. Those two passions have united in a project that’s helping scientists visualize stellar nurseries, the massive clouds of dust and gas where stars are born. Amara and her team 3D-printed polished, baseball-size orbs that look like oversized marbles with swirling patterns inside.”
Applied Sciences: Copyright Protection of 3D Digitized Artistic Sculptures by Adding Unique Local Inconspicuous Errors by Sculptors. “In recent years, digitization of cultural heritage objects, for the purpose of creating virtual museums, is becoming increasingly popular. Moreover, cultural institutions use modern digitization methods to create three-dimensional (3D) models of objects of historical significance to form digital libraries and archives. This research aims to suggest a method for protecting these 3D models from abuse while making them available on the Internet.”
BusinessWire: Optomec Launches Library for Customer Publications on Printed Metal and Electronics (PRESS RELEASE). “Optomec Inc., a manufacturer of industrial 3D Additive Manufacturing machines, announced today that it has created an online search tool for researchers seeking published work in the areas of Printed Electronics and 3D Printed Metals. The new tool, called Additive Research Hub, catalogs scores of research papers written and published by Optomec machine users worldwide and allows researchers to find relevant papers through a keyword search tool. Optomec users have published more than 3500 academic papers, half of which were published in just the last 4 years.”
EurekAlert: Personalised medications possible with 3D printing. “Customised medicines could one day be manufactured to patients’ individual needs, with University of East Anglia (UEA) researchers investigating technology to 3D ‘print’ pills. The team, including Dr Andy Gleadall and Prof Richard Bibb at Loughborough University, identified a new additive manufacturing method to allow the 3D printing of medicine in highly porous structures, which can be used to regulate the rate of drug release from the medicine to the body when taken orally.”
New-to-me, from Core77: Scan the World Offers 17,000+ Scans of Famous Artworks You Can Download and 3D Print . “Nefertiti, David, Venus de Milo, the Great Buddha at Kamakura. These are just a few famous works of art that have been digitally scanned, and the files made freely available online, so anyone can download and 3D print them. Scan the World: The Open Source Museum has made some 17,000 statues, sculptures, structures and artworks available on their site.”
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