Discussion: What Autodesk's Printer Means

Last year an announcement came from Autodesk that excited lots of printing enthusiasts. Autodesk would be entering the 3D printing foray. Since then we haven't heard much from them. Kicking off the new year though Autodesk has released a time lapsed clip of their printer in action

The Spark logo printed above was designed in 3D by Keith Chamberlain and Shalom Ormsby, according to YouTube user Matt Hova. Hova explains that the print was made with 25 micron layer thickness and took about four hours to create. This isn't an entirely vast improvement in the technology. Print speeds are only a bit above average STL styled resin printers as well.

However, the key note worth discussing is that Autodesk has finally delivered more information on their promise. What future advents does this bit of new information hold? My biggest excitement for the software turned-printer manufacturer. Is the bundled software. Autodesk has a long history storied history in regards to their design programs; they are by far some of the best and most polished.(Also most expensive).

Currently most printers rely on a proprietary software that slice the model and process it for printing. Now imagine being able to do that with one of Autodesk's programs, think of the depth of modifications we might be able to do in program and the time it would save for prototyping. Avoiding messing with filetypes and models outside of the program would solve file transfer issues experienced in other programs like Zbrush/Rhino. Not to mention the fact that Autodesk is already an established figure on the software end of things meaning less downtime for early software bugs. This means less hassle and more printing in the end. That's always good news for printing enthusiasts!

What this could also mean is we finally begin to see a standardized software being developed and used across a majority of printers. With Autodesk officially entering the forray we might see them branch out and extend their hands to allow compatibility across the FORM 1, DWS LABS xFab, etc... Overall this means less hassle on the consumer side as standardization will remove un forseen variables on the software side of things. For instance if a modeler makes his/her stuff in zbrush and converts it to .FBX file; others using the same model won't have to convert that particular file again minimizing quality distortion.

Overall I think the arrival of Autodesk to the printing foray means, massive, industry wide improvements as we begin to see standardization easing up the rapid prototyping processes.