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alcimedes
I shot the sherrif.
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2016-11-23, 13:50

Quote:
I can barely see an academic laboratory market for 3D printers -- saving money on stupidly expensive plastic crap, but do you really foresee people buying the printer, learning the software, etc just to print mostly useless trinkets?
It would boil down entirely to what kind of Library of 3D stuff you were able to print. If someone can make a place where it's easy to share designs and plans for stuff, I can think of a number of useful applications.

(this is part of where a scanner matters, if you want to fix something you need the exact dimensions)

For me, I could see printing a bunch of cool toys for the kids, and I would happily encourage them to learn how to use the machine. Having an understanding of 3D scanning and printing may be very useful.

For me, there are a variety of unique parts I could build for my fish tanks that you just can't find otherwise. My kids might just print out that special lego piece instead of searching all afternoon.

Maybe we download and build a catapult using a rubber band to connect the parts.

Basically if there's a decent library of 3D 'stuff' to work with, I think there will be demand.

Heck, Hasbro could release their entire G.I. Joe library via this 3D store, and you can just download and print off the characters. No production/shipping from China required.

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/04/15/3...na-443350.html

Google is your frenemy.
Caveat Emptor - Latin for tough titty
I tend to interpret things in the way that's most hilarious to me
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