3D Printing: How to bring your ideas to life

Everyone loves the idea of 3D printing – the magic of creating something out of thin air! The technology is becoming ever more accessible to the everyday user, and looking at a 3D printer doing its thing, it may seem very easy – but that’s not always the case. Before even starting the printer, you need to take care of some important preliminaries to ensure that the print goes smoothly, and everything needs to be monitored precisely as the job is done. It’s an intimidating and expensive prospect, but by hiring a 3D printing service things can be much easier.

Before you book an expert, let’s take a look at exactly what they’ll need to consider.

STL files

STL is a file format with several backronyms, such as “Standard Triangle Language” and “Standard Tessellation Language”. Without an STL file, you simply cannot use a 3D printer to create an object. These files define the outer surfaces of the model, including the edges and faces, and calculate the internal volume of the design. As essentially the soul of a 3D model, they should be optimised perfectly. An error in an STL file can lead to big issues, for example, a model with poor resolution.

3D printing process

You might already know that 3D printing is an umbrella term for many different processes. It’s important for designers to choose the right one for the 3D model you want to create as the printing process has a massive impact in areas as key as the materials used. To ensure that the right technique is used, your online technician needs to know them all in detail. making a decisions by looking at the model’s application, properties and use. 

Materials

Using the wrong material to 3D print is an extremely common mistake, which isn’t surprising since there are so many different materials to choose from. Each has its own properties and characteristics that will obviously transfer to the models you are going to print. A mechanical print is likely to require a different material to a product that has been developed purely for design purposes. Picking the right material is thus extremely important.

3D printing opens up a world of possiblities, and it’s fascinating to learn what really brings your ideas to life.

The editorial unit