Affordable 3D printers are rapidly becoming everyday additions to the desktops and worktables of entertainment design practitioners – whether working in theatre, theme parks, television and film, museum design, window displays, animatronics, or... you name it! We are beginning to ask important questions about these emerging practices: · How can we use 3D fabrication to make the design and production process more efficient? · How can it be used to create useful and creative items? · Can it save us from digging endlessly through thrift store shelves or from yet another late-night build? · And when budgets are tight, will it save us money? This quick start guide will help you navigate the alphabet soup that is 3D printing and begin to answer these questions for yourself. It outlines the basics of the technology, and its many uses in entertainment design. With straightforward and easy-to-follow information, you will learn ways to acquire printable 3D models, basic methods of creating your own, and tips along the way to produce successful prints. Over 70 professionals contributed images, guidance, and never-before-seen case studies filled with insider secrets to this book, including tutorials by designer and pioneer, Owen M. Collins.

Desktop or DIY 3D printers are devices you can either buy preassembled as a kit, or build from a collection of parts to design and print physical objects including replacement household parts, custom toys, and even art, science, or engineering projects. Maybe you have one, or maybe you're thinking about buying or building one. Practical 3D Printers takes you beyond how to build a 3D printer, to calibrating, customizing, and creating amazing models, including 3D printed text, a warship model, a robot platform, windup toys, and arcade-inspired alien invaders. You'll learn about the different types of personal 3D printers and how they work; from the MakerBot to the RepRap printers like the Huxley and Mendel, as well as the whiteAnt CNC featured in the Apress book Printing in Plastic. You'll discover how easy it is to find and design 3D models using web-based 3D modeling, and even how to create a 3D model from a 2D image. After learning the basics, this book will walk you through building multi-part models with a steampunk warship project, working with meshes to build your own action heroes, and creating an autonomous robot chassis. Finally, you'll find even more bonus projects to build, including wind-up walkers, faceted vases for the home, and a handful of useful upgrades to modify and improve your 3D printer.

From a simple desk tidy to an elaborate castle, this step-by-step guide to 3D printing is perfect for children and beginners who want to learn how to design and print anything even if they do not own a printer. 3D Printing Projects provides an introduction to the exciting and ever-expanding world of 3D designing and printing. Learn how a 3D printer works and the different types of 3D printers on the market. Understand the basic 3D printing and designing terms, how to create and prepare files for printing, and also how to scan things to create a 3D model! You will also find out the common troubles faced while 3D printing and simple tricks to fix them. All the projects included in the book can be made using freely available online 3D modeling/CAD programs. Each project has a print time, details of filament or material needed, and a difficulty rating - from "easy" for beginners to "difficult" for those looking for a new challenge. Step-by-step instructions walk you through the 3D design process, from digital modeling and sculpting to slicing, printing, and painting so that children can make their own shark-shaped phone stand, customized lamps, and much more. The book also gives inspiration to further enhance your projects once you've mastered the basics. Join the 3D printing revolution today with DK's 3D Printing Projects book.

Polymers for 3D Printing: Methods, Properties, and Characteristics provides a detailed guide to polymers for 3D printing, bridging the gap between research and practice, and enabling engineers, technicians and designers to utilise and implement this technology for their products or applications. Presents the properties, attributes, and potential applications of the polymeric materials used in 3D printing Analyses and compares the available methods for 3D printing, with an emphasis on the latest cutting-edge technologies Enables the reader to select and implement the correct 3D printing technology, according to polymer properties or product requirements

3D industrial printing has become mainstream in manufacturing. This unique book is the first to focus on polymers as the printing material. The scientific literature with respect to 3D printing is collated in this monograph. The book opens with a chapter on foundational issues such and presents a broad overview of 3D printing procedures and the materials used therein. In particular, the methods of 3d printing are discussed and the polymers and composites used for 3d printing are detailed. The book details the main fields of applications areas which include electric and magnetic uses, medical applications, and pharmaceutical applications. Electric and magnetic uses include electronic materials, actuators, piezoelectric materials, antennas, batteries and fuel cells. Medical applications are organ manufacturing, bone repair materials, drug-eluting coronary stents, and dental applications. The pharmaceutical applications are composite tablets, transdermal drug delivery, and patient-specific liquid capsules. A special chapter deals with the growing aircraft and automotive uses for 3D printing, such as with manufacturing of aircraft parts and aircraft cabins. In the field of cars, 3D printing is gaining importance for automotive parts (brake components, drives), for the fabrication of automotive repair systems, and even 3D printed vehicles.

Would you like to take an idea, model it on your computer, and then produce a solid, real-life object from that idea? Maybe you are an inventor. Maybe you are an artist. Maybe you need that hard to find part for your dishwasher. Or perhaps you just want to understand the exciting new field of 3D printing. Once the realm of big corporations, 3D printers are now available for just a few hundred dollars and allow you to convert you big ideas into real parts without any special talents or thousands of dollars of machining equipment. In this series you'll learn how 3D printing works, what you can and can't expect from it, what goes into a 3D printer and how to participate in the 3D printer revolution even if you don't want to own your own printer! Veteran author Al Williams takes you step-by-step through the ins and outs of this exciting new field. This print edition contains all four volumes from the original electronic edition, including: 3D Printing Basics, 3D Printing Hardware, 3D Printing Software, and Refining Your Prints. Also includes a free bonus chapter on using OpenSCAD to convert 2D images to 3D objects.

The bestselling book on 3D printing 3D printing is one of the coolest inventions we've seen in our lifetime, and now you can join the ranks of businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and hobbyists who use it to do everything from printing foods and candles to replacement parts for older technologies—and tons of mind-blowing stuff in between! With 3D Printing For Dummies at the helm, you'll find all the fast and easy-to-follow guidance you need to grasp the methods available to create 3D printable objects using software, 3D scanners, and even photographs through open source software applications like 123D Catch. Thanks to the growing availability of 3D printers, this remarkable technology is coming to the masses, and there's no time like the present to let your imagination run wild and actually create whatever you dream up—quickly and inexpensively. When it comes to 3D printing, the sky's the limit! Covers each type of 3D printing technology available today: stereolithology, selective sintering, used deposition, and granular binding Provides information on the potential for the transformation of production and manufacturing, reuse and recycling, intellectual property design controls, and the commoditization of products Walks you through the process of creating a RepRap printer using open source designs, software, and hardware Offers strategies for improved success in 3D printing On your marks, get set, innovate!