My Guides

• Fixing Models for 3D Printing Part I – getting started with netfabb
• Fixing Models for 3D Printing Part II – advanced techniques
• How to 3D Print a DOTA Figurine – print out your favorite DOTA2 hero
• How to 3D Print a DOTA Figurine II – now with cosmetic items and in-game poses
• Shapeways vs Sculpteo – a comparison of two 3D printing services
• 3D Printing Patents and Revolutions – a deep dive of exactly what patents will expire in 2014
• Print Your Own Peppermint Butler – a tutorial to turn peppermints into butlers
• List of 3D Printing Services – for when you don’t have your own printer
• Print Comparison: Two Models from Two Services – Multicolor prints from Shapeways and Sculpteo
• How to Save Money on 3D Prints – Save money! Hollow models out!
• Should You Buy A 3D Printer or Use A 3D Printing Service? – a cost comparison
• DIY 3D Print Your Own Glasses – a Blender tutorial
• 3D Scanning Virtual Worlds – applying photogrammetry techniques to screenshots of video games
• 3D Printing ArcheAge – application of 3D scanning for 3D printing ArcheAge
• 3D Print Stereographic Lampshades – make lampshades that project cool pictures using Blender and the Blender API
• 3D Print Protein Models – use x-ray crystallography data to create ribbon models
• Let’s Talk Mesh Repair – the basics of fixing up a model for 3D printing and why there’s no silver bullet

My First Impressions

• Autodesk 3D Print Utility – 3D printing mesh fixer / support generator
• ShapeJS – API for creating 3D objects on the web
• 3D Hubs – rent or rent out a 3D printer (similar to makexyz)
• Wrong About 3D Hubs – impression 2 years later
• Shapeways’ Automated Thiness Check – a feature to visualize potential problem areas
• 3D Printing Support with Adobe Photoshop CC – a test drive of the mesh repair functionalities
• Vertex Coloring with Adobe Photoshop CC – testin’ out the colorin’
• Make: Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing 2014 – a first impression of the magazine content
• MeshMixer – a software for mesh manipulation with neat 3D printing features
• Shapeway’s Full Color Plastic – basic comparison against Zcorp’s colored sandstone

Favorite Tools

• Blender – free software for all your 3D needs (even has video editing!)
• MeshLab – free software that handles a lot of problems (non-manifold meshes, reducing polygon count, etc.)
• VisualFSM – free software for photogrammetry
• netfabb Basic – $0 quick and easy tool to simple mesh repair
• Sculptris – $0 digital sculpting and 3D painting tool

Other Useful Sites

• makexyz – rent 3D printers in your area or put your own printer up for renting
• 3D Printing Price Check – finds you the best price with a single upload (binary STL only)
• Alternatives to 123D Catch – open source alternatives for 3D scanning with pictures
• Sculptfab – web app for digital sculpting
• parametric-art – really good blog with interesting articles that range from tutorials to news (in Hungarian)
• 3D Printing Processes – a list of different 3D printing methods/technologies
• Filament Temperature Guide – a list for handling temperatures and other basic information for different filaments
• How to Dye your 3D prints – dye them any color you want!
• Designing for better colors in full color sandstone prints (from ZCorp printers) – how color printing works
• Intro to Algorithms for Mesh Repair – a good introduction/explanation to the algorithms behind mesh repair
• Practical Guide to Mesh Repair – another good summary of different algorithms, more updated
• kaetemi – awesome blog on 3D printing and 3D modeling, including color optimizations
• 3ders – a 3D printing news feed