3D printing is used to develop lots of different items. For example, you could employ it to manufacture a dinosaur. Of course, the dinosaur will not live but it sure would look cool. You start this process by designing the creature. You could do this by downloading special 3D design software.
However, this is rather difficult. Instead you can use a website like Thingiverse to download dinosaur files that have been created by other people. This is way easier to do, while it will still look good.
Benefits & Limitations of 3D printing.
It is important to understand that 3D printing is a rapid prototyping and developing technology. It comes with its unique set of advantages, but also lags behind traditional manufacturing in some ways.
Here we summarize the most important benefits and limitations of 3D printing, taking into account the pro’s and con’s of all 3D printing technologies currently available. Use them to understand where 3D printing stands today and where it is headed in the near future.
Slicing.
Obviously finding a design of a dinosaur on the Internet is not the entire 3D printing process. In fact, it is just the start. You now have to slice the design, which is also done with the help of special 3D software. If you have your own 3D printer, the manufacturer likely recommends a specific program. If you are using a service, you can decide which software to use. Slicing is done to change the settings, it will make the design compatible with your specific 3D printer. It is thus an important step, you have to do this.
Printing.
After you have downloaded and sliced the design file, your dinosaur is now ready to be 3D printed. Of course you know how to do this if you have a 3D printer of your own. But, if this is not the case you do not have to worry. There are a lot of websites that offer a so-called 3D printing service. This makes it quite easy for you actually, which is not always the case if you own a 3D printer. You should take care of some stuff. The first layer needs to be printed in an accurate fashion for example.
Assembling.
You have now designed, sliced, and printed the dinosaur, so it is essentially completed now. However, in some cases you still have to assemble the parts. This is often the case if you are using a desktop 3D printer. Assembling the parts will lead to you actually having a dinosaur. You might use glue in order to achieve this, but this obviously needs to be compatible with the material used to print the parts. By the way, you could also decide to color the dinosaur. This is not necessary, you can decide for yourself.
