[Edu-sig] re: Pepakura Designer

[Jason Cunliffe]

> And the price of 3-D printers is coming down.  They're around US$30,000
> now, which is still steep, but in a few years having desktop "printing"
> of 3-D physical objects may be feasible.  It needs a new word though,
> since "printing" really sounds 2-D (to me).

Well the industrial googleable [hmm.. first time I used that word] phrase is
"rapid prototyping" which often means 3-D or Stereo-lithography. Yes very
tantalizing..

The great news you don't have to own one to use this cool tech. There are
many good sites where you can upload a 3-D model in various standard formats
and get a quote. STL [StereoLithography] is the most common format.

I can't put my hand on the best research I did into this already, for
starters check these out

RAPID PROTOTYPING HOME PAGE
http://www.cc.utah.edu/~asn8200/rapid.html

Other Rapid Prototyping Sites
http://www.wohlersassociates.com/Other-RP-Sites.html

google = rapid prototyping quotes  will find the online services quickly,
for example:

American Precision Prototyping - Instant Online Quote Service
http://www.approto.com/pages/1/index.htm

Solid Concepts' E-Quotes
http://www.solidconcepts.com/


>From Geo-Python projects, what export options for 3D formats?
It would be great to set up a fast track GeoPython 3D model service.  Fun to
mount a show also along these lines ..

- Jason