Who feels like printing some 3D? Oh yeah! But don’t rub it on yourself. It chafes like you wouldn’t believe and there has yet to be any partnership to produce a 3D anti-chafing cream. (I would pay good money for this.) There has, however, been a(nother) partnership to print 3D direct from a website where you store models. That site is 3DVIA, a community focused on all things 3D and that partnership is with Sculpteo, a online 3D Printing service. If you have any models on 3DVIA you now have the options to send the model directly to Sculpteo to be printed. Your life is complete.
3D Print from 3DVIA
Below you see the Mush, a docking station for your iPhone to make the noise that comes out of it sound less craptastic. On the left is the model in CATIA. On the right is the 3D printed model. SEE. PROOF. They can actually do it.
My one big gripe? I can’t print that Mush thing. You’re not able to print another person’s stuff. So that model of the T-rex you want to print, so you can start an army of modded 3D printed dinobots is not even possible. You can’t even buy a printed dinosaur through the 3DVIA store. That’s just sad really.
There’s some interesting backend info though. 3DVIA doens’t have an open API, but they are using Oauth to allow data to be transmitted to Sculpteo. “The user grants permission for Sculpteo to access their account using OAuth. Sculpteo downloads the model to be prepared and printed. We have created a web service specifically for the partnership to handle it easily and securely.”
Specifically for the partnership. Yeah 3DVIA, thanks for sharing. Even thought they’re not providing access to their API, it’s there, being used to send your models away. Could more services be developed to interact with 3DVIA if the API were open? Probably, and wouldn’t be a bad idea for a community-based website.