What do you get for someone who has everything? How about a special, personalized gift designed by you? Shapeways is a site that offers “3-D printing.” With Shapeways, it’s as easy to design your own personal 3-D object as it is to print your own business cards.
There are 3 ways to design models on Shapeways. First, you can use one of their pre-designed models and customize it. In the screenshots above, I took their “lightpoems” model and customized it with the poem from my wedding. If your design will not be stable once it’s “printed,” Shapeways will tell you so you can correct it-as you can see, John Donne’s poetry required a little bit of tweaking. Once you have everything the way you want it, you can choose your material and place your order.
If you know how to make your own 3-D models from scratch, you can also upload those. Finally, previous Shapeways users are given the option to make their models available for other people to order, so you can choose something pre-designed by someone else. Some of these pre-designed models can also be customized-for example, you can order a man’s ring with the wedding anniversary printed on it.
Shapeways isn’t the first 3-D printing company. However, they are the first company to make 3-D printing accessible to people who have no formal training in creating 3-D computer models. The shop is also a wonderful idea, and the more users the site gains, the more cool stuff you’ll be able to order.
The user interface is a breeze to use, although I wish they offered more font options for text-I had been envisioning something more “Old English” for my design. Then, there are the prices…my lightpoem would have cost almost $100 if I’d actually gotten it printed, and as much as I’d love to make monogrammed cufflinks for Dad, I think I can find something he’d like better for $50.00.
This site would be quite useful for shoppers with a bit of cash to spend and the desire to give something personal, as well 3-D designers looking for a marketplace for their designs. Also, as noted on the Shapeways blog, the concept behind the site fits the current trend toward micro-production quite well.
What do you think of Shapeways? Do you see anything on there you like? Would you pay the prices they are asking?
Our Rating of Shapeways
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Shapeway – Printing Goes 3D: http://bit.ly/QnY9i
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