Figure 1: Designed in Blender, exported and uploaded to Shapeways, delivered as 3D printed plastic models - Is this cool, or what? They also provide a wide variety of printing materials, including fused ceramics, metals, and plastics.

It's a very easy-to-use service, and the printing services are apparently of very high quality. Shapeways has combined 3D printing services with an online community design that makes for a vibrant and fun environment for creating and ordering models, driven by the community they've created. The main reason for doing this project is simply that I wanted to test out the capabilities of the 3D printing services provided by Shapeways. In this column, I'm going to walk through the complete process, from creating 3D models to receiving the final product in the mail. I've written about this before for Free Software Magazine, but this month I finally got to try the technology out for myself - in order to create 'study models' (a fancy name for 'toys') for my video project, Lunatics. One of the most exciting technological trends in recent years has been the rise of '3D printing' technologies for rapid prototyping of arbitrary shapes.

3d print blender model