Someone needs to make sure to send him this link in a few years....

3D Printing
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@Brook_Drumm You think it’s slowing down?
It was barely 3 years ago that the only filaments available were PLA and ABS. There are probably 40 different kinds of filament now, with new ones coming out practically every month. You can print in multiple materials and colors. You can print with continuous carbon fiber, glass fiber, or kevlar.

The idea of a reliable print farm was almost laughable 3 years ago - now there are companies that rely on them for large scale production.

There have been significant advances in hot ends (just look at the v1.0 Budaschnozzle and try not to cringe and laugh at the same time), bed leveling,electronics and firmware.

There were maybe 3 decent printer options in 2012. Now there are dozens - spanning price ranges from $400 - $15K.

I don’t think the advancements are slowing down at all.

I think you’re right about the hype slowing down, but if anything, the technology is speeding up IMO.

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Makerbot screwed themselves up through bad management. It’s been a few years since Makerbot really led or represented the market in my opinion, because of poor product and poor support.

Making trinkets or petty household items already available cheaply wasn’t going to carry the movement. People making tie racks or shower curtain rings is kind of gag-inducing.

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@Dani_Epstein VR ; )

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I agree that one of the critical blocks is 3d modelling software. The software we have today is pretty daunting to newcomers.

Maybe the 3d modelling software of today can be likened to the desktop publishing software of the 1980s.

When Apple’s LaserWriter arrived - one of the first laser printers - it opened the door to the development of much better software that was to make desktop publishing much more accessible to the home user.

Way back then we all though that the clunky software running on those original old macs (resolution 512 x 342 black and white - how cool was that!!!) was just amazing.

3D design software will improve a lot in the future, and make current software look just as primitive as those original DTP offerings with just 9 fonts and a choice of 6 point sizes.

Call me an optimist, but that’s what I believe.

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@Paul_Gross I’m totally with you! Desktop publishing isn’t for everyone, even today. Modeling in 3D isn’t either. But kids or inexperienced users can use templates to make killer newsletters, or modify a photo… Or cut an iMovie. Software will progress to the point that even newbies can get MORE done than ever thought possible.

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@Taylor_Landry I do think that innovation in 3D printers for the last two years has slowed. It hasn’t stopped. But looking at the new model releases from prominent companies leaves us with larger print beds, slicker looking cases, and the like… But in my opinion no big leaps in innovation.

I do think the materials side of things is really a bright spot as you say.

I think we have hit a wall with Marlin. Very few arm processors out there. Very few wifi enabled printers. Many are stuck on crappy user interfaces with old LCD screens with character displays only. We need better UI on our printers. Cloud services are few so you can’t print from your phone. There are almost no usable apps for your phone. I just think the overall experience is stuck in low gear. The learning curve to just print something you found online is still daunting. The requirement of needing to know the nuances of materials and slicing has to fade away.

Resolution is pretty good (enough), speed is what it is, but getting from model to a finished print is still too hard.

These shortcoming are exactly what I’m working on. When my wife and kids can print on a Printrbot without my help, I’ll be happy.

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Brook, I don’t think we are going to see any great leaps of innovation for a long time (until I finish one of my side projects, that is :-)), and that’s not a bad thing either, there are loads of things that just need tweaking.

Right now, all the way at the bottom of my list, is a full-colour touch-screen. That’s because I use Octoprint, and have not used the screen on the printer for ages. My laser printer does not have a screen. It has one button and still does the job. Computers are great for UIs. Most people who buy a 3D printer will own a computer. Why double up?

Another thing is “cloud” services. I have all kinds of cloud services, from Google and Dropbox to the Blender cloud and odd stuff in between. My printer will not be going near them. Maybe, possibly for streaming a camera, but even then it’s as low on my list as fancy screens, since the printer sits next to me.

Slicing is not hard. Lack of dissolvable supports, materials and other issues makes slicing hard.

The reason materials are hard is because they have to be calibrated on every printer (and every nozzle of every printer). Ambient temperatures and humidity play a role as well. So, if you want a great innovation, it is automatic material calibration. This is one of the bigger challenges but there are solutions for all this, and you know more about this than I do.

Right at the top of my list is active extrusion. This means that the printer actively monitors the extrusion process from the feeder until the tip of the nozzle so it always delivers as much plastic as the g-code requests, and if there are issues it can slow down the printing, raise the temperature or do other stuff. There are many ways to do all of this.

I could carry on but have to do the school run!

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I think the author has purposely written this article to gain attraction and publicity for himself . Its better we should not care and discuss about such topics written by such authors who’s sole intention is of personal gains rather than to our community .

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I understand the reluctance of adding cloud services, but it enables a web UI and persistent storage across many devices. We are using it to enable printing from any browser. Think of the jump from local install to cloud that email has gone through. Even if Dropbox has native apps, which we may do later, the storage in the cloud makes content pervasive. Autodesk is (has been) moving to the cloud and that includes very processor intensive procedures. I believe it is the future for 3D printers. No matter how much I hear “what if I’m not online?!”, I believe the 90% are always online. But you don’t need a persistent connection with our setup, you just need it to choose a model- something you already need the Internet for- and it sends the model sliced to your browser. Then you are just using local wifi or ad hoc to get the gcode to the printer for local storage on the printer. Printing happens w/o any connection to the Internet or the browser. The file is stored on an sd card “drive”.

As far as filament monitoring, yes, there is a lot of potential for improving that. We are working on a simple add-on that tracks out of filament situations and any jamming or skipping. That’s the first on our priority list. Ambient temperature, humidity, filament thickness… These are unknowns, but doable. If there is a 1% performance increase, I’ll tackle it. That type of nuance needs to be market tested for consumer focused printers, but pro level machines will get all the innovation- at a cost. When I go there, it will be an enclosed box to control ambient temperature.

The color touch LCD is an absolute necessity in my book. Requiring a computer be tied up to print is ridiculous. It’s been palatable up until now but I can’t live with it. And the current lcds… With dial encoders are very 1990. Color touchscreens are what we are used to. I try to tap and swipe on my MacBook screen! Having a visual representation - a thumbnail - of what you are printing is awesome. Not even 2d printers can do that well, but we can.

I want to print from my phone. Or tablet, or whatever I have. It’s doable, so we are doing it. It isn’t easy, but people don’t want to be told “you don’t need that- this works fine.”

Fun days ahead.
Brook

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@Brook_Drumm You make some very valid points, and I clearly overstated my case without balancing out what I meant properly.

The whole cloud thing has a limited use case when it comes to printing, whether it is paper or plastic. My laser printer is networked, but not cloud-connected because why would I print a document on my home printer if I’m out?

It would make sense to have my 3D printer cloud connected if I wanted to print something when I was out of the house, so it was ready when I came home. This of course would mean that I would have to have the correct material in the printer, the correct nozzle size, and that a print was not already underway that will have to be removed prior to the job I’m about to cloud print and the bed did not need re-coating (OK, that last one is not really such a biggie). You can see how this is beginning to mount up. Essentially, the whole cloud thing for 3D printing is quite a narrow use case, with the exception of persistence of profiles/settings storage. With email, I want the email wherever I am. Not the case with 3D printing, but don’t let me stop you on that one, I’m simply arguing to put that at the bottom of the list. Sure, it’s much easier than dealing with filament jams and under extrusion, and probably more marketable, so that’s the sort of thing only you can evaluate as a manufacturer, but now you have a user’s opinion :slight_smile:

Certainly if I can get a full colour touch screen on my printer without a serious price increase, why say no? Will it change my printing habits? I doubt it. My argument is not against screens per se, but their actual utility. Since I print using an Octopi, I log in via a web browser from my desktop or whatever and get way more controls and info than one could cram into a small screen. So Wifi/network interfaces makes far more sense, and provides a much richer and sophisticated interface. As it is, most users will already have a touch screen for their printer called a “smartphone”, which will give you your cloud access built-in. As for single dial encoders to control a printer, here we both agree that they are a pathetic interface for something so complex.

Really what I want is to be able to load whatever garbage or quality filament I want into my printer, send it the gcode file and let the printer worry about temperature and feed rates. Better yet, I just want to send the slices to the printer, request a speed and let it worry about everything else: feed rates, temperatures, retractions, supports (dissolvable of course in water or vodka), movements yada yada yada. That will require considerable more computing power, but save me from tearing the last remaining strands of my hair out.

Truth be told, by and large I agree with you, and look forward to seeing something from you in the near future that addresses my immediate needs. You clearly understand the whole 3D printing thing far better than I do, and have an enviable reputation in the community, and the fact that you hang around here is in itself quite impressive.

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Good feedback! But keep in mind, the printer is NOT connected to the cloud, your browser is. But even this is optional. Cura (w our plugin), or our printrapp sends the gcode and neither require connection to the cloud. Only using our cloud app- served through a browser - to slice and save print queues has the cloud requirement. At launch, no other programs will work. We will rely on other software providers, or community members writing apps to service non-Cura, non-printrapp and non-cloud service users.

Brook

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Sounds like we have exciting times ahead of us, then.

This really brings us back to the beginning of the post, in that the desktop 3D printer market is hardly in decline or doomed to die a miserable death, but is consolidating. By that I mean the dross is being skimmed, all the $200-only-for-a-3D-printer kickstarter machines are going to go by-the-by and buyers will look towards purchasing something from a firm that has a good track record for product features, quality and service.

There will always be those who will have a punt on a cheap package of nuts and bolts as a side project, and there’s nothing wrong with that either. It’s the tinkerers that drove this market forward, and I think that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Bearing that in mind, nothing says a tinkerer can’t own a company that manufactures 3D printers, so Brook you have nothing to worry about in that regard :slight_smile: