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Design

How To 3D Print: Turning Virtual Geometry Into Physical Products

modeLab discuss the design practices behind additive manufacturing.

3D printing is poised to revolutionize how we consume and make goods—one day in the future, you might design some housewares on your computer and 3D print them instead of going to IKEA to buy new stuff. One of its design benefits is the technology’s ability to create elaborate forms that would be nearly impossible using traditional techniques like molding and casting.

To design something to be 3D printed is to think differently about what you’re creating and how it’s created. By using mesh modeling you can transform a geometric virtual shape into a printed physical form—and this is just the beginning of what this technology can do. “If you understand 3D printing to mean the deposition and/or fusing of material by layer,” says Gil Akos, one half of design studio modeLab, “it really opens up what you could consider 3D printing to be. And then, shifting out of plastics into things like plant matter or even flesh—3D printing skin, things like that.”

In the video above Akos and Ronnie Parson discuss the design principles behind 3D printing and how the technology’s potential will not only allow the printing of plastic products, but metal and ceramic too, in a much more efficient way.

To find out how this technology is revolutionizing the market for custom-designed products, watch our documentary below.

@stewart23rd