LayerByLayer: streaming puzzles to your own 3D printer

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Oskar
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Joined: March 10th, 2013, 11:58 am

LayerByLayer: streaming puzzles to your own 3D printer

Post by Oskar » June 30th, 2013, 10:04 am

Hi Puzzle-Place fans,

Do you have access to a 3D printer? Maybe a Makerbot of your own, at school, at the office or with a friend? Then this may be interesting to you.

This week, LayerByLayer has launched a new 3D-printing-support service, through which you can directly stream an object to your own 3D printer. It works a bit like an app store. Designers can upload and sell models. Buyers can buy single samples at the LayerByLayer marketplace. LayerBy Layer uses a streaming technology, a bit like streaming video over the internet. Through the special LayerByLayer software, your 3D printer is directly connected to a LayerByLayer server via the internet, and that server streams the object to your printer one layer at a time.

As home 3D printers are not good enough for twisty puzzles yet, I decided to start with some non-twisty puzzles. In order to test the service, I have already "teleported" several models to San Francisco and London to test the model settings. I thank Jonathan Schwartz of LayerByLayer and Steve Nicholls for beta testing my first three LayerByLayer puzzles.

This is the link to my LayerByLayer Shop. Please try it out if you have access to a 3D printer. It is much, much cheaper than using a professional 3D-printing service, and the quality is quite acceptable for not-too-demanding puzzles designs.

Enjoy!

Oskar
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Steve
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Joined: March 14th, 2013, 6:48 am

Re: LayerByLayer: streaming puzzles to your own 3D printer

Post by Steve » June 30th, 2013, 10:32 am

As Oskar says, the following puzzles were designed in the Netherlands, sliced in the US and built in the UK. Neat!
OskarPuzzles_small.jpg
OskarPuzzles_small.jpg (191.83 KiB) Viewed 6693 times

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bluesign2k
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Re: LayerByLayer: streaming puzzles to your own 3D printer

Post by bluesign2k » June 30th, 2013, 9:27 pm

What a great idea. I'd love to give this a go but if I understand correctly it only works if I have a makerbot?
Of all the printers I have access to at home and work (which is way more than most) unfortunately a makerbot is not one of them :-(

Steve, your prints look great! I particularly like the funky coloured Domino Tower!

Steve
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Joined: March 14th, 2013, 6:48 am

Re: LayerByLayer: streaming puzzles to your own 3D printer

Post by Steve » June 30th, 2013, 10:36 pm

Thanks Chris. It is a very, very neat idea. Potentially a game changer.

I know that Jonathan Schwartz (the founder/CEO) will be looking to develop the service and make it available to other types of printer in due course. Though with the Replicator being the most common home printer on the market today it was the right first choice.

I was very pleased with the Domino Tower - for a while I have somewhat avoided puzzles that require support but this one printed and cleaned up really nicely. Time for a quick trawl through puzzle will be played to look for other designs to print *irrespective* of whether they need support...

Steve

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