Shapeways / Protolabs / First Cut integration

[roambotics_scott]

This actually touches on a few things and will be less interesting once things like automated design rules and exporting individual bodies or components as any format are implemented /but/ it'd still be great for you to partner with companies like Shapeways and Protolabs to build simple integrated prototype ordering into Fusion 360. 

The flow would be something like 

1) create design

2) select specific body or component to build

3) select manufacturer and process (Protolabs plastic CNC milling; Shapeways nylon SLS, etc)

4) design is validated against current design rules for the manufacturer and process and user is presented with any issues and suggestions for ways to fix them or an all clear

5) once the design satisfies all design rules, user can «order this part»

6) properly annotated part is uploaded to manufacturing partner

7) payment and shipping information is automatically and securely retained

8) teams and projects in Fusion 360 can have 1 or more authorized users with sign-off authority who act as gatekeepers to enusue that nothing is erroniously ordered

[schneik-adsk]

Have you tried Redeye service from Stratasys?

[roambotics_scott]

Hadn't heard about them until now but I just tried and I'm pretty unimpressed with their web interface. I couldn't change the prints from FDM to PolyJet and their FDM pricing is not signfiicantly cheaper than Shapeways despite being a generally inferior technology.

Protolabs' web interace could use some work but it's at least not unreasonably browser dependent and what's under the hood there is actually amazing (it's not obvious but they put a lot of work into a HPC back-end for toolpath generation and rapid mold design).

Shapeways isn't as amazing on the back-end but they're good enough and at a much better price point for hobbiests and early prototyping.

[AbdnAllHope]

I'm not sure how much 3rd party branding and integration I would want to see inside Fusion 360.  There are a million choices out there.  I fear this type of functionality would be very lucrative for those partners allowed into the garden while adding little value to end users.  

These partner integrations can sound good when they are partners you like, but the problem is we (end users) wouldn't be the ones chosing the partners.  I'd like to keep my manufacturing options open and my sources private.

It may be useful for some, but I just don't see myself needing a workflow like this.

phil

[roambotics_scott]

I'm imagining it more as a marketplace without brands stamped in the product.

I almost never use the print feature in Office but I wouldn't claim that it shouldn't be there because of that 🙂

[Oceanconcepts]

This is an interesting thought, but I wonder if the best way to look at it is as another form of collaboration in a multi-user environment.  If there were enough Fusion users for Protolab or Shapeways to provide an interface in collaboration with Fusion, the validation annotation could be carried out for those who choose to use those services, without overhead for other users. It would be a matter of Autodesk enabling third parties to extend Fusion's functionality.

[roambotics_scott]

I'm definitely behind building a simple API to allow many third parties to integrate (or perhaps building a more general integrated «marketplace»).

[promm]

This idea is getting changed to implemented because our Protolabs integration was Implemented in our June release. 

Cheers,

Mike Prom

[roambotics_scott]

Cool / was very happy to see that 🙂