3D publishing concerns the production and distribution of content for 3D printers. 3D publishing holds the promise of an industry for the creation and distribution of files for the production of 3D objects, or physibles.
Any individual or organisation producing files for 3D printers can be considered a 3D publisher. With the advent of specialist software, scanners and cloud based tools, access to 3D publishing is spreading fast. The development of online tools to facilitate and monetize publishing is bringing a new industry to fruition. Boundaries between value chains are disappearing, leading to new business models. While 3D publishing and 3D publishers are fairly new concepts, the space is developing rapidly along with related 3D printing technology.
Anyone can upload 3D models to a site and anybody can download the model and 3D print at home for free. For example: Thingiverse, Pinshape, Youmagine, MyMiniFactory, Clara.io, Threeding.
Shopfront services allow anyone to open a shop and upload their 3D models. Customers pay to get the 3D model printed via the 3D print services of these companies. The designers of the selected 3D models will get a fee.
Examples: Shapeways, Ponoko, i.materialise, Sculpteo, MyMiniFactory, Threeding.
Designers can upload designs and make them available for paid download for profit. For example: Pinshape.
In a hybrid model, the designer or company might make use of any of the above services and/or local 3D print bureau to create print to order models.
There are many 3D content strategies being developed as part of the growing industry of 3D printing. Companies that are not 3D printing specialists are entering the field. These may be companies who have existing content and brands that can be distributed as 3D models, or they may need tools that enable the secure and efficient distribution of content. Employees will be needed to create, select, edit and market 3D content as part of these companies' marketing strategies. In the near future, companies like IKEA may offer a database with accessories where the customer could pay, download and 3D print.
A conference on 3D publishing was first held in the Netherlands in March 2013. [1]
In order to create 3D models, one needs 3D software tools. There is a broad range of tools available from very simple tools on a tablet to very sophisticated engineering tools.
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newspapers, and magazines. With the advent of digital information systems, the scope has expanded to include electronic publishing such as ebooks, academic journals, micropublishing, websites, blogs, video game publishing, and the like.
Electronic publishing includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the editing of books, journals and magazines to be posted on a screen.
Prepress is the term used in the printing and publishing industries for the processes and procedures that occur between the creation of a print layout and the final printing. The prepress procedure includes the manufacture of a printing plate, image carrier or form, ready for mounting on a printing press, as well as the adjustment of images and texts or the creation of a high-quality print file. In today's prepress shop, the form of delivery from the customer is usually electronic, either a PDF or application files created from programs such as Scribus, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, or QuarkXPress.
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control, with material being added together, typically layer by layer.
Variable data printing (VDP) is a form of digital printing, including on-demand printing, in which elements such as text, graphics and images may be changed from one printed piece to the next, without stopping or slowing down the printing process and using information from a database or external file. For example, a set of personalized letters, each with the same basic layout, can be printed with a different name and address on each letter. Variable data printing is mainly used for direct marketing, customer relationship management, advertising, invoicing and applying addressing on selfmailers, brochures or postcard campaigns.
3D Systems, headquartered in Rock Hill, South Carolina, is a company that engineers, manufactures, and sells 3D printers, 3D printing materials, 3D scanners, and offers a 3D printing service. Chuck Hull, the CTO and former president, pioneered stereolithography and obtained a patent for the technology in 1986. The company creates product concept models, precision and functional prototypes, master patterns for tooling, as well as production parts for direct digital manufacturing. It uses proprietary processes to fabricate physical objects using input from computer-aided design and manufacturing software, or 3D scanning and 3D sculpting devices.
Web-to-print, also known as Web2Print, remote publishing or print e-commerce is commercial printing using web sites. Companies and software solutions that deal in web-to-print use standard e-commerce and online services like hosting, website design, and cross-media marketing.
Paper models, also called card models or papercraft, are models constructed mainly from sheets of heavy paper, paperboard, card stock, or foam.
Customer Communications Management (CCM) is software that enables companies to manage customer communications across a wide range of media. Originally, customer communications referred to printed documents, archived digital documents, email and web pages. It has grown to include SMS/MMS, in-app notifications, responsive design mobile experiences and messages over common social media platforms. It entails an automated process that involves not only the delivery of communication but also the segmentation of messages according to different customer profiles and contexts.
MakerBot Industries, LLC is an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Project. It was acquired by Stratasys in June 2013. As of April 2016, MakerBot has sold over 100,000 desktop 3D printers worldwide. Since 2009, the company has released 6 generations of 3D printers, with the latest being the Replicator+ and Replicator Mini+. It was the leader of the desktop market with an important presence in the media but its market share is in decline. MakerBot also founded and operates Thingiverse, the largest online 3D printing community and file repository.
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, and polygons in a simulated 3D space.
Shapeways is a Dutch-founded, New York-based 3D printing marketplace and service, startup company. Users design and upload 3D printable files, and Shapeways prints the objects for them or others. Users can have objects printed in over 55 materials and finishes, these include: plastics, precious metals, steel and food-safe ceramics, which were discontinued and have been replaced by porcelain materials. As of 2019, Shapeways printed and sold more than ten million user-created objects.
A 3D printing marketplace is a website where users buy, sell and freely share digital 3D printable files for use on 3D printers. They sometimes also offer the ability to print the models and ship them to customers.
Threeding is an online 3D printing marketplace and community for trading and free exchange of files ready for 3D printing. The website gives sellers personal storefronts where they list their 3D-printable models and make them available for a global audience. Threeding is one of several 3D files repositories that have emerged with the fast-growing 3D printing industry.
The Mopria Alliance was formed in September 2013, with the four founding members, all among the world's largest printer manufacturers, including Canon, HP, Samsung, and Xerox. According to their mission statement, "the Mopria Alliance provides universal standards and solutions for scan and print."
Pinshape Inc. is an online 3D printing community and marketplace with headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It allows designers to share and sell their 3D printable designs. people with 3D printers to print those designs on their own printers.
AIO Robotics is a Los Angeles, California-based company that produces 3D printer and 3D scanner technology.
The 3DBenchy is a 3D computer model specifically designed for testing the accuracy and capabilities of 3D printers. The 3DBenchy is described by its creator, Creative Tools, as "the jolly 3D printing torture-test" and was released in April 2015, with a multi-part, multi-color model released in July 2015. While the model is free to download, use, and redistribute with attribution, it is not open source, as the authors have not released the source code, and do not allow modifications. Due to its status as a common benchmark, it is believed to be the world's most 3D printed object. The model itself is a freelanced tugboat design, and actually floats in water given the right conditions in printing.
In recent years, 3D printing has developed significantly and can now perform crucial roles in many applications, with the most common applications being manufacturing, medicine, architecture, custom art and design, and can vary from fully functional to purely aesthetic applications.
OctoPrint is an open source 3D printer controller application, which provides a web interface for the connected printers. It displays printers' status and key parameters and allows user to schedule prints and remotely control the printer.