2D and 3D Printing

2D printing

3D Printing

As Photo editting software and Music Recording software give liberty to computer aided creativity, 3D modeling software gives me also marvelous chances to be creative.
A 3D-printer can print a 3D object if you have a mathematical representation (geometric data) of the object. 3D modeling software enables you to design such a model. You can also create a model by scanning an existing object, by converting an image-file to a 3D file or by personalising an existing 3D model. You save your design in a 3D file format (.stl is most used) and send it to a 3D printing company (if you don't have a 3D-printer yourself). You can choose out of different materials and colors such as plastic, stainless steel, gold, silver, titanium, ceramic,.... You can print designs more than once or make molds for mass production.

In the example below I made an image with the graphic editor Microsoft Paint and converted it to a 3D file with www.online-convert.com. I made it thinner with the modellingsoftware Thinkercad: . I uploaded the .stl file to the printer-service company i.materialise where I could choose out of different materials, colors, size (with different prices):