[rp-ml] Video - 3D Printing Basics

Hello Everyone,

With the handful of budget plastic extrusion machines entering the market,
many people are being exposed to 3D Printing. I feel this is absolutely
fantastic. But, at the same time, I also feel it's sort of a *two steps
forward and one step back* scenario. After all, the technology has been
far more sophisticated than this for well over a decade. Some of these
machines do not even have support structures. It kills me to think that
when people are introduced to 3D Printing, they think they need to edit
their model in such a way that a 3D Printer can make it. It's supposed to
be the opposite. 3D Printers are meant to open doors for designers, not
close them. Now, I don't want to be too critical because, again, I'm very
happy to see extremely affordable and readily available machines out there,
and obviously they could very well be a stepping stone into the more
advanced things. Nevertheless, after being in the industry for over five
years, I *continue *to be surprised by the fact that many engineers'
understanding of 3D Printing doesn't go beyond the basic plastic extrusion
machine.

So, to help spread awareness (and, admittedly, briefly promote my sponsors)
I've created a quick video titled 3D Printing Basics. In just four
minutes, someone can go from completely clueless to having a fairly
competent understanding of how 3D Printing works. It covers things like
support material, complexity, speed, etc. It intentionally moves very
quickly to compensate for our short attention span (thanks for reading this
far, by the way) and it's structured to leave the viewer feeling like
they've only scraped the surface, which they have. With that, here's the
video ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOxZcpyKmzM&feature=youtu.be

I know YouTube is blocked in a lot of schools and so forth, so if any
professors, etc, would like a copy of the MP4 file for their iPad or
computer, let me know.

Thanks everyone. Hope you're having a great week!

Cordially,

- Michael
michaelarmbruster@gmail.com
Received on Wed May 16 23:00:25 2012