Category 3D Printing

The Coolest 3D Printed Speakers in the World

Autodesk teammates Arthur Harsuvanakit and Evan Atherton are an amazing dynamic duo (3Duo) researching digital design, fabrication, and 3D printing technologies. They have developed some 3D printed speaker enclosures after Maurice Conti said “Hey, this would make a cool speaker” and then determined the project goals. The first speaker appeared on the cable channel Current TV with Autodesk CEO Carl Bass as well as featured in my Autodesk University 2012 session.

Kairos Society Summit & Some 3Doodling

Last Friday and Saturday Autodesk participated as a sponsor in the Kairos Society Summit in New York City. The Kairos Society is a non-profit organization founded to foster innovation and entrepreneurship by students.

“Founded in 2008, the Kairos Society is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization based in the United States. We work to find and empower the young pioneers who will push the world forward through entrepreneurship and innovation - we do so with the support of the top universities, mentors, and corporations across the globe. At the Kairos Society, we view today’s global problems as opportunities for entrepreneurs to focus on the meaningful businesses and innovations that will radically change the world for the better. Not only for our generation, but for the generations to come.”

Autodesk CEO Carl Bass and Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski were at the event as were about 6 Autodesk employees including myself presenting on the subjects of 3D design and 3D Printing. Many of our 3D printing friends like Stratasys and Shapeways were also at the event.

Christian, Jesse and Shaan at Kairos Shaan at Kairos

During our panel session on 3D Printing where we spoke of Autodesk role in developing software and technologies used in design and also supporting 3D printing. We covered a great deal of ground in a short amount of time to 350 students broken up into 3 groups. I absolutely love discussing technology with students as they come up with the greatest questions and ideas since they don’t know the boundaries or set in their ways. During the session I brought up the hot topic of the 3D Printing pen “3Doodler” on Kickstarter that was trying to raise $30,000 and are now OVER 1.8 million dollars and causing a buzz all over in social media and even among researchers in the 3D printing space. In fact there was a long email thread I was involved in the evening before the Kairos event discussing what it really was and if it was really 3D printing, or really a free form 3D sketching tool. When I brought up the 3Doodler topic a gentlemen in the back of the session pointed to himself and so I asked what he wanted to add to the discussion, it was none other than the co-founder of WobbleWorks and the 3Doodler pen Maxwell Bogue.
3Doodler: The World's First 3D Printing Pen

Max of WobbleWorks and the 3Doodler 3D Prnting Pen Shaan of Autodesk and Max of 3Doodler Pen

Kairos Event on the NYSE Stock Exchange FloorOn Saturday we were invited to participate in the launching of the Kairos 50 on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. What a surreal and interesting venue where many of the startups in the Kairos 50 were presenting their projects.We were all dressed up in suits and I even had a tie on.

Shaan in a SUIT!!

Shaan and the AnybotI also met Anybot a virtual presence robot that allows people to attend remote locations even attend meetings while away over the Internet. Autodesk’s own Jonathan Knowles has had a robot but this is a new and sleek model. One cool thing was the ability to attach a mobile device running Google Hangouts and that could then be used to allow people to join a Hangout session and experience an event or place remotely. Would love to have some of these at AU.

Cheers,
Shaan

Is it Physible?

Yes “physible” which means that it can be 3D printed. The word was just accepted into some online dictionary as a real word now. So next time you get a 3D model from someone you can ask them if it is physible and then explain that you are asking is there enough thickness, angles in order to be able to 3D print the model from the digital to the physical world.

123D Make My Day

Autodesk 123D Make 1.1 for Mac and Windows has been released. Autodesk 123D Make is free software that allows you to import a 3D model and slice it up into printed patterns. You can then using the pattern build a 3D model from cardboard, wood, plastic, tin, or even fabric. In the past we have created some really cool 3D models from cardboard including ancient skulls, museum pieces, and even the life sized recyclable cardboard CEO named “Carl’board”.

Don’t have a 3D Printer, No Problem

I hear it frequently when I speak about 3D Printing “Shaan I don’t have a 3D printer”, but they were not aware there are many printing services available locally and on the web. I think that is the business model 3D printing will be for awhile where the design shops and ultra hobbyists may have a 3D printer, but others designing in 3D can still pay for someone else to create the 3D print for them. I don’t think in the near future every home will have a 3D printer, but I believe they will all have access to one. We are starting to see companies like Staples dabbling in a local 3D print services but I want to see a day where the manufacturers of consumer goods provide free or a for a small fee replacement parts or custom modifications that you can purchase online and then pickup at your local FedEx Kinkos which are located about everywhere. That would save time, energy, warehousing, transportation costs and be better for the environment.