about $1,000, sometimes more. The 3D printing industry began
with the larger industrial printers for manufacturers.
The size of the printer determines the size of what you can
print. So the geometric shape of the object can’t be larger than
the 3D printer itself. If it is, you’ll need to find a larger printer
or do multiple print jobs and then assemble the printed parts.
The maximum length, depth, and height that the printer can
print is called the build volume. The build volume is expanding
as innovators come up with new ideas. For example, robot
printers, such as Arevo Labs’s Robotic Additive Manufacturing
Platform (RAMP), released in 2015, can print anywhere, any size.
For engineers, RAMP offers more design possibilities and larger
sizes for printed objects because the robot is not limited to the
dimensions of a conventional 3D printer.
Autodesk and other companies are experimenting with
3D printing systems that use multiple printing heads to help a
manufacturer make a large object in one print job. Autodesk
is working on the software for this hardware in hopes that
manufacturers of 3D printers for engineers, professionals, and
the home market will jump on board to build these multiple-
printhead printers. The software breaks up large designs into
multiple sets of instructions that can then be sent to multiple
printheads simultaneously. The benefits to this approach include
printing larger objects, taking less time to print small objects,
and doing multiple jobs at once by swapping out printheads for
other tools. A robotic hand, for example, could help the printer by
repositioning parts of the object being printed to allow the printer
to continue printing.
THE SOFTWARE
The software for 3D printing started with CAD tools that required
advanced engineering skills to use. In the twenty-first century,
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H O W I T W O R K S
