3D Printing, it's not all sunshine and roses.

Hi, my name's Kenta, I'm now one of the official authors for Chic O Chic blog. I was involved in the last few entries but this will be an unofficial entry of my own. I spent all last week touting how 3D Printing would make life easier, that it was the way of the future. While that is true for the most part, all of that praise has to be taken with a grain of salt. While it is true that 3D printing will make our lives easier in the long run there's still the monster of designing what needs to be printed. I myself am currently involved in learning both Rhino and Zbrush as my modeling programs. I can tell you now that the prospect of being able to print yourself a sofa sounds attractive. However, few have the technical acuity to use the software to design a cutting edge product.

Even after learning Rhinoceros 5.0 for my basic CAD training and graduating shortly after into using Zbrush for full on modeling I'm still far from an accomplished 3D designer. Most of the programs now while certainly getting more intuitive than their original beasts, still have a large learning curve. The price you literally and mentally pay for getting into a beast like 3DMax is all its own; around 3500~5000$ USD for the software followed by investment in training and long hours modeling. You may not have to be as artistically inclined as your actual artist counterparts, but it's still no walk in the park. Anybody who already majors in Art or has experience working with their hands will already have an edge up as they'll be able to envision what they want to build. But, having what it takes to translate that into digitally generated model with a keyboard, digitizer tablet and mouse is again another hurdle that needs to be traversed.

You may also have to learn multiple programs to fabricate what you desire. Rhinoceros for example is great with designing rigid more technical structures. It excels vastly in that sense over Zbrush. However, Zbrush offers smoother/easier modeling. Allowing you to make vastly superior organic models at a much quicker pace.

A highly detailed workflow could take you not only days, but weeks/months to complete depending on the level of complexity. So if you're dreaming about owning a machine be prepared to put some blood and sweat into mastering it. Aside from mastering using a program. If one wants to print a functional piece you will also have to consider materials, structural integrity, among many other common design problems.

Ok, ok enough doom and gloom. I think I've made my point. While it certainly is an exciting field don't everyone go out and by a machine all at once. You'll still need to consider if you'll really be able to use such a machine. I look forward to talking more about this topic. I hope you'll continue to read my posts.

-Kenta