My brother used to teach bricklaying in a local college. He may well have found this technology threatening!
This link also had an article on 3D cars! What a bonus... President Obama makes a brief appearance on the video. Presently he is in Asia (Malaysia as I write) trying to improve trade relations.
I have added the video on an upcoming shared open design competition for a 3D car.
As design software becomes easier to use and production methods easier to execute Car design and industrial design will make huge leaps forward.
When I lived in Detroit, I would often cycle around to the Center for Creative Studies. This is a World renowned institution. I often had a sneek look through the windows!
Here is a video of their car design area. It looks very similar to real Design studio's.
It won't be long before the clay models are 3D produced!
I went my local ASDA (Walmart) a few days ago. They were doing a promo for their new 3D printing product. I was intrigued.
I watched the ASDA marketing video. One of the viewers asked what hardware they were using.
Someone said 'Zprinter by Zcorp.'
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I looked it up and came across the following video. Its about an hour. However, it does look like affordable scanning and printing is upon us. This technology is a great addition to design software.
Companies already scan competitors products and add them to their math date, altering them to fit their requirements.
The technology is not new per se... however, it is now reaching a point where good quality equipment is becoming affordable.
I would love to see this in the classroom.
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The sales guy showed a scanner (about $500 USA) which fits and syncs with an ipad. A professional level printer costs between $5000 and $10,000. Not cheap per se, but I'm sure if you have the student numbers I envisage, I feel a good business case could be made.
Students can work remotely, and send the data. A model can be made and posted. For students on campus it would be a case of waiting for the model to be completed and just picking it up.
Designing something virtually and then being able to have it physically in a short time period is great!
Any Auto company I have worked with over the years has benchmarked.
This article from wired.co.uk covers it very well.
I have copy pasted a portion here...
Simulation and modelling also allows GM to measure its new designs against those of competitors before a single weld is made or body panel is stamped. But in order to benchmark against the competition in the virtual realm, GM needs accurate engineering data on its vehicles-something competitors aren't exactly willing to give up themselves.
The beginning of the teardown process is a friendly pass. "First, we want to scan as much as we can without disassembling the vehicle," Pecar said. Next the exterior is scanned with a large blue-light scanner, and then red light scanning is used for details like the interior and seam tolerances. Finally, the position of components is recorded to help put all the pieces together again digitally as the teardown commences. Things start getting unfriendly here. Each component of interest is scanned as the car is disassembled piece by piece. "You can look at a muffler and red-light scan it... it all goes back to the body position of the original model," Pecar said. Some individual pieces, like the muffler or a headlamp, may get cut open and scanned internally to build engineering models from. The end result is a complete set of reverse-engineered computer models of the vehicles brought into the Teardown. In some cases, those models can be even more accurate than the ones used to design the vehicles in the first place. After all, they show the vehicles as-built. Models are shared with GM's designers and engineers, who can use them to study the end product of competitors' design processes and learn from their successes and failures.
I have to say things appear to have moved along a notch since I was last in GM's benchmarking area (Mona Lisa... I have no idea why its called that) in the 1990s.
When I put forward my proposal for an educational venture, I looked at the competition. BPP own Phoenix University.
They have several physical campuses in Michigan. http://www.phoenix.edu/campus-locations/mi/detroit-campus/detroit-main-campus.html
They appear to be successful. The group also has a UK footprint.
Benchmarking a successful company, obviously makes more sense than failures. Particularly, if you are trying to attract investment!
Going back to the GM article, I do find the 3D printer and its uses enthralling.
GM obviously use scanners to reverse engineer. They then use that math data to design around/compare with their products and /or they 3D print it!
An educational institute could obviously do that too. Enabling students to design a part or parts and then send it to a 3D printer and physically produce it in a quick and cheap manner is a very real option.
People like to touch and feel. Designers do too. Virtual is great. HOWEVER! 3D printing brings the design alive. I think its a great addition to the design process.
Here is a video, from YOUTUBE, where the CEO of AUTODESK Carl Bass talks about design and 3D printing. Carl, obviously deals with blue chip companies, and small start ups, as well as individual consumers.
Interesting stuff.
