NEW YORK: Researchers have developed a new tool that could allow novices design 3D printed objects in minutes that would otherwise take experts hours to make.
Any but the simplest designs require expertise with computer-aided design (CAD) applications, and even for the experts, the design process is immensely time consuming.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya in Israel aim to change that, with a new system that automatically turns CAD files into visual models that users can modify in real time.
Once the design meets the user’s specifications, they hit the print button to send it to a 3D printer.
“We envision a world where everything you buy can potentially be customised, and technologies such as 3D printing promise that might be cost-effective,” said Masha Shugrina, an MIT graduate student in computer science and engineering and one of the new system’s designers.
For a CAD user, modifying a design means changing numerical values in input fields and then waiting for at least a minute while the programme recalculates the geometry of the associated object.
