Lets just hope they remember that Apple own the rights to the shape rectangle
The Pirate Bay torrents printable 3D objects
Tremble, thing-makers, because The Pirate Bay has started to share the source files for physical objects. The controversial file-sharing site, known for aiding the distribution of music tracks, films and books, has decided to start a new category for files of 3D objects. Only those with 3D printers will be able to make use of …
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 17:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
** Lets just hope they remember that Apple own the rights to the shape rectangle
Pythagoras presumably is enough prior art for the triangle and it was long enough ago that it's now in public domain.
Triangles are the way to go chaps, and 2 identical triangles can be used to make a nice apple replica rectangle :¬)
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 15:44 GMT Aaron Em
I don't doubt
people said the same thing about videodisc vs. VHS. Believe it or not, sometimes a new technology fails to achieve world-beating status, and the only way to tell which ones will and which won't is to wait and see whether it happens.
I don't have a lot of faith in the home 3D printing revolution, myself; while there are undoubtedly uses for a widget that can spit out ABS in whatever shape you like, a widget that can *only* spit out ABS is only good for so much, and no one seems too inclined to explain precisely how we're going to go from that now to printing out cars and TVs in 20 years' time. Sounds like it's made out of badgers to me.
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 17:28 GMT Peladon
ABS only. Absolutely, sir...
With respect (and indeed, sincere respect. Sincerely), 'ABS only' may be simply early phase.
Yes, this is about home 3D printers. Yes, the link here isn't for a home service. However, that may just be a step waiting for home printers to climb.
http://www.shapeways.com/materials/
PA 2200, WSF with aluminium dust, Acrylic-based photopolymer, UV Curable Acrylic Plastic, Stainless Steel bronze infused, Solid Silver, Full Color Sandstone, Ceramics, Soda-lime glass
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 18:51 GMT Aaron Em
Their "but don't USE it" disclaimer inspires no confidence
From your own link:
"Please note that the 3D printing materials we use for manufacturing the designs make the products suitable only for decorative purposes and they are not suited for any other purpose. The products are not suited to be used as toys, to be given to children. The products should not come in contact with electricity or food & drink and should be kept away from any heat sources."
Sorry, but I need a bit more out of my footwear than "suitable only for decorative purposes".
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Thursday 26th January 2012 02:03 GMT Peladon
So how about...
... these? The Airbus 380 link is, I think, interesting:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20737-3d-printing-the-worlds-first-printed-plane.html
"So Keane's team set out to see how quickly they could design a 1.5-metre-wingspan, super-low-drag UAV, print it and get it airborne. A UK-based 3D-printing firm, 3T RPD of Greenham Common, Berkshire, joined the venture, agreeing to print the UAV out of hard nylon."
http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/rolls-royce-is-going-to-3d-print-aircraft-engines
http://gizmodo.com/5841449/why-yes-maam-this-airbus-a380-was-printed-on-demand-by-a-computer
"What's old is new (and better) again thanks to 3D printing techniques under the employ of Airbus. Seen above are two parts. The simpler one was created using conventional manufacturing techniques. And by conventional I mean, of course, soon-to-be obsolete.
OBsolete, and replaced by 3D printing, which Airbus has apparently perfected to the point that it is using 3D-printed parts to help fly the massive A380."
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 18:53 GMT Aaron Em
Print your own chocolates?
Bet they'll taste just scrumptious, too -- and for the sarcasm-impaired, by 'scrumptious' here I mean 'lousy' -- or else, between materials for the 3D printer and the ingredients that go into chocolates expensive enough to taste good, cost twice what you'd pay for a sampler box. Might be both; won't be neither.
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 15:52 GMT Aaron Em
How backwards of you
to prefer wearing shoes to clattering around in shiny new ABS-printed clogs. Sure, the clogs don't insulate, don't fit comfortably, don't flex without cracking, and don't have traction worth talking about -- but who cares? This is the wave of the future we're talking about here!
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 16:00 GMT Is it me?
Actually, It has
My hobby in Model Railways, yes I know I've said it, as acceptible as Golf in Luton.
However the point is that there are a number of small start-up companies that are producing single or short runs of niche models, at a cost anywhere between £30 - £3000 a go. A lot of that cost is producing the drawings, and the cost of the professional 3D printer. If releasing them means they will arrive on Pirate Bay , then they won't, because they would loose their IPR.
Quite a lot of models are now produced by 3D scanning the real thing, so mass market 3D scanners will be the real challenge to commercial producers, as anyone can then 3D scan a model, Airfix or Otherwise, and make their own.
Yes a complex model can take 24 hours to produce, but it is a fire and forget process.
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Thursday 26th January 2012 09:31 GMT Phil Parker
Don't knock the toy trains
It may be unfashionable buit we are pushing the boundaries in 3D print. Our needs are for incredibly fine resolution which helps create a demand for something everyone needs.
At the moment, the quality isn't there but it's only a matter of time.
I've had a few bits printed. Photos on my blog: http://philsworkbench.blogspot.com/search/label/3D%20print
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Thursday 26th January 2012 09:59 GMT MJI
Erm Model Railways
Hornby are using it to prototype, I know they make some parts for pre production such as dummy chassis using it.
Modelling is one area I think it would work, maybe I will get my SPV steel plate wagons 30 years on, only got my STV tubes and HTV coal hoppers recently after hassling Parkside for years.
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 15:50 GMT Amonynous
Rule 34 - *Yawn*
They've just lifted the plot of the latest Charles Stross novel to yank your journalistic chains. (Quite a good read though, Rule 34: "If it exists there is porn of it.")
Never mind that you don't actually need to inhabit a world of home fabrication devices and downloadable desings to have your IP pirated and traded by a criminal underworld.
Just head down to your local market or car boot sale to see that it is already here, powered by nothing more sophisticated than far-eastern sweat-shop labour.
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Wednesday 25th January 2012 17:14 GMT DrXym
Except you can't
The quality of affordable 3D printers is atrocious. Look at pics of objects produced by Makerbot for example. It doesn't have the precision to make anything remotely resembling lego and works in monochrome too.
You'd have to spend a lot more to get a decent 3d printer, and chances are you'd have to use a service like Shapeways instead who would point blank refuse to print out anything which is recognisably copyrighted.
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