
MakerBot says its new print process reduces times and costs by around 30% - rbanffy
https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/20/makerbot-print-process/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=twitter
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crwalker
This algorithm appears to minimize infill time while still supporting the
shell during printing. That's useful for prototyping form or fit, but I feel
like 3DP for prototyping has been beaten to death already.

I would much rather have algorithms that can improve the performance of
production parts. For FDM, that means infill algorithms that vary cell size
and structure to optimize some user-defined metric, whether that's rigidity
per dollar, per print time, etc. Just having denser infill near the shell like
a bird bone would be a nice start.

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Mizza
TL;DR - software update with new algorithm to use less infill material by
dynamically generating on a per-model basis rather than filling the whole
model with a repeating pattern.

This is not a new product.

From my (outside) perspective, it seems like the consumer/prosumer/hobbyist 3D
printing scene hasn't seen any big innovations in a number of years. The last
one I can remember was the rise of rostock/delta-bots. Is there something I've
missed?

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schreiaj
Deltas are great for accelerations, you pay for it with the almost requirement
of using a bowden style extruder which makes using some filaments harder (or
impossible). There's also additional complexity in bed leveling, though with
automated bed leveling probes and smarter controller boards this is getting
easier.

I'm really looking forward to when more printers are running CoreXY. One of
the two things I hate about my Prusa Original Mk2 is the fact that my Y Axis
moves my print bed instead of just the extruder. The other is the stupid zip
ties holding my bed on but that's been resolved in the Mk2S revision and is a
pretty simple part to make anyway.

I honestly want the next big innovation to be slicer or design software that
helps design for what is 3d printable. Or at very least a slicer that will
tell me "hey dimwit, this is gonna result in a spaghetti mess of plastic on
your print bed and you spending the next 5 hours cleaning off your hot end"
You get that with experience but if it's EVER going to get to the masses we
need software to stop people from making expensive mistakes.

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086421357909764
After 4 Recent gen MakerBots and the whole Print head issue, MakerBot is on my
list of products I simply won't buy regardless of their _innovations_.

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josephpmay
Makerbots were the worst products to use for awhile two years back, but in the
past few months, their reliability has been unmatched. Have barely had any
failed prints.

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nickthegreek
I have been using a Lulzbot Taz 5 and I find it to be an amazing machine but
recently I have gotten an Ultimaker 2 Go and this thing is unmatched in print
quality and accuracy to any FDM machine that I have used before. I would
highly recommend checking out either of these machines before going down the
Makerbot path.

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cmatt85
Cura already has a subdivided cubic infill that looks better than this.

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5ilv3r
It's really too bad that no one will ever be able to see it since they totally
abandoned opening their source code.

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nickthegreek
The time decreases they are getting are very impressive. I'd love to see Cura
release this type of infill. For all of makerbots fault, they seem to be doing
a lot of cool things with infill. Their cat and shark infills are pretty cool
even though worthless.

