Riding the Rhino

One of the deceptive things about 3D printing and laser cutting is that they are seemingly magical - watch this spool of plastic turn into a piece of cruft line by line, watch this metal box light up because lasers. The viewer only sees the product being made, not the behind the scenes part of wrestling with software and models. While you can sit down with your 3D printer or laser cutter and start making stuff from free online models, most likely you will start with a sketch, then plot it all in a program like Rhino (or Sketch Up, Blender, Inkscape or Illustrator). Some of the software that comes with machines are downright clunky! It's definitely this learning curve that I think will hold up 3D printing for most folks.

( Words and pictures )