- Autodesk 123d design make object solid how to#
- Autodesk 123d design make object solid install#
- Autodesk 123d design make object solid update#
You are not using just Autodesk appsif you already have a 3D model (maybe you downloaded it from the Web or a friend emailed it to you) you can open it directly in A3DP and optimize it for 3D printing.
Autodesk 123d design make object solid install#
When you download a 123D app like 123D Design or 123D Catch or 123D Make, the installer will ask if you'd also like to install A3DP. The user then can choose the printer and color of material. When the A3DP Utility opens the model it immediately checks it for errors. When you click it your model is sent to the Autodesk 3D Print (A3DP) Utility. The entire suite of 123D apps (available free at ) has the 3D Print button. Autodesk is the first company to write apps with "Print" in its Main Menu. This is a screen capture of Autodesk's free 123D Design (showing the Windows version, but it also runs on Mac and as a powerful online Web app). So what does 3D printing with Autodesk 123D Design look like? Here are some screenshots illustrating the basic steps and capabilities of the software, courtesy of Roberts and Autodesk:
But he said the in-house version demoed at Build is the first 3D printing application to take advantage of the new 3D printing pipeline in Windows 8.1in fact, there's even a big "Print" button that pops up in the demo software's Main Menu screen. In conjunction with a MakerBot 3D printer, 123D Design utilizes the Windows Blue 3D printing pipeline to take 3D printing files and push them directly over to the printer to construct objects.Īutodesk's updated 123D Design software isn't yet available to the public and Roberts said the software company doesn't yet have a timeline on when it will be released. Using the new Windows-enabled pipeline in an application makes 3D printing as near to a simple plug-and-play operation as regular old 2D printing.Īutodesk has done just that with its free 123D Design application, which Roberts demoed on the exhibition floor at last week's Microsoft Build developer conference in San Francisco. But as Roberts noted, current 3D printing requires users to go through a complicated set of steps with 3D printing "mesh" files to ready them for printing. Perhaps that doesn't seem like such a huge deal. The addition of a 3D printing pipeline to Windows 8.1 means a 3D printing file of an object could be emailed to a recipient, who could then simply open the file and hit "Print," pushing it over to a 3D printer to begin constructing the model. With Windows 8.1, a preview of which was made available last week, Microsoft has added a "direct pipeline" from 3D printing applications to 3D printers, according to Rob Roberts, a product manager in Autodesk's Consumer Group.
Autodesk 123d design make object solid update#
Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8.1 update could change all that. Is 3D printing ready for prime time? Even 3D printing's most ardent enthusiasts would likely answer no to that questionthe startup costs and technical training needed to get the most out of a 3D printer continue to make the technology an exclusive one enjoyed by hobbyists and employed for industrial purposes, but used by few mainstream consumers.
Autodesk 123d design make object solid how to#