Autodesk Spark 3D Printer

[cffman]

Wow, this is unbelievable. Autodesk has come out with their Own 3D Printer as well as their own 3d printing operating system called Spark. All Open source!! http://3dprint.com/3760/autodesk-3d-printer-spark/ Opinions?

[pendean]

The novelty of owning one has faded for me: the trade show exhibits I've run into to date as well as at the Autodesk SF technology showroom have these manufacturers creating dollar-store junk with them and not much else. No one is truly showing really useful functions for them beyond the "in the future we can XYZ.." hogwash claims.

I'm waiting for a real reason to need to own or use one, so far: ZIP.

[Mistress0fTheDorkness]

I've seen a few 'useful' things made with them, such as custom gps holders for the car and small adaptive components that would be hard to find elsewhere. But, yeah, the most common theme has been 'toys'.

[pendean]

Speed is another issue: anything more elaborate than a small toy takes forever to create (reminds me of watching pen plotters back in the day).
I was listening to a podcast talking about a found skull in Africa and how you can download a 3D 'printable" model to also examine. Great, but are they expecting me to reload the podcast and listen to it again hours later just so that I can hold the model and listen to their descriptions again?
After I find a 3D printer and material LOL

Very cute idea for sure, but we are about 10-years away from it being common. I can wait.

[Mistress0fTheDorkness]

Wait, thought of something else...

http://www.today.com/tech/hues-boss-device-lets-you-3-d-print-your-own-2D79667459

I'm not a huge fan of makeup, but, since my rosacea keeps getting worse, I'm wearing it more often.

I don't know if you fellas have ever really looked through the cosmetics stores, but, this stuff is PRICEY. It's ridiculous!

I'll be keeping an eye on this stuff and see how the tech matures, but, it's something I'd be willing to try.

[tcrish]

I kinda like the 3d printed pizza....yum.  And somebody has a giant machine that makes a house out of concrete.  I think we should think outside the box....All kidding aside, I have and use 3d printing in my office since the mid 90's to design complex extrusions that would cost around $20,000.00 to make.  I appreciate making a design out of plastic for a few dollars that everyone can hold in their hand and trouble shoot before we make the final decision.  That's just me though...I still kinda like the pizza.  

[jggerth1]

I'm unsure if that announcement actually means a FOSS mechanism.  W.O a FOSS license, calling something 'open' is maketing.  From the linked announcement:

“Spark will be open and freely licensable to hardware manufacturers and others" 

that doesn't tell me if the software is BSD, GPL, MIT, Apache, or other legitimate OSS license.    Time will tell....  Adesk has taken some baby steps into the Open source world, but some of their imposed limitations are not reasonable.  2015 Help for example, is a Creative commons license, but restricted from releasing it as a commercial product.  so anyone is free to fix and improve Help, repackage in a friendlier or more useful format, but are barred from recovering their costs or paying themselves for their work.

Open, as in open source,m kinda requires a supportive and involved community of contributors.  That's something that a vendor can make or break,  see Oracle and OpenOffice.Org for an example of breakage.

[dgorsman]

Until we get to personal Star Trek repllicator technology, I don't think *anything* will be considered fast enough for hey-cool-toy use.  I can see some serious use from those into model trains and similar hobbies.  Then again, such people have just a liiiiitle more patience.

[graemev]

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@Mistress0fTheDorkness wrote:

Wait, thought of something else...

http://www.today.com/tech/hues-boss-device-lets-you-3-d-print-your-own-2D79667459

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I had a good laugh when reading the article.  They mention being able to match a colour from a photograph, such that one might wear the same colour as Angelina Jolie.  They have a LOT to learn about photographic colour correction and the difference between print and display (monitor) colour spaces.  CMYK does not always faithfully convert to RGB and vice versa.  Also, makeup applied under incandescent light (dresser light bulbs) will NOT look the same under fluorescent light (office lighting) or photo strobes (modelling studio) as the lighting colour temperatures and spectra are significantly different.

[Mistress0fTheDorkness]

Oh, no kidding, lol.

[graemev]

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@cffman wrote:
Wow, this is unbelievable. Autodesk has come out with their Own 3D Printer...

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It's kind of like having a donut glazing machine in your own kitchen.  If you don't make many donuts, there isn't much call for having automated glazing.  It might inspire you to make more donuts, but is that the likely course of events?