Formide 3D Printing Platform to Launch in November

[Brian_Krassenstein]

A new 3D printing and modelling platform will soon launch. This November, The Netherlands-based Printr will launch Formide. Formide promises to make 3D printing easy for everyone. It will be a platform which encourages users and developers to make and applications for it, as well as integrate Formide into their applications. The specifics have not been released, but the company believes that this could be a major stepping stone, which would enable the mainstream adoption of 3D printing. More details on what Formide will be, and how it may help you can be found here: http://3dprint.com/18377/formide-3d-print-platform/

[Geoff]

Heidi is right, it is sort of beating a dead horse. I hate to be so negative, but I am not sure what sort of stepping stone or innovation it is to turn 3D printing into an Itunes market where people have pretty apps and pay for a model from a giant repository and print it. It doesn't encourage kids to be creative really, I think Autodesk are already way ahead with 123d.. my kids have been sculpting on that for months.

[3D OZ]

Do we really need Forum Topics that are nothing more than pointers to "news" items on the same website?
Does this non-story with no real information deserve a discussion?

[Remco]

Heidi is right, it is sort of beating a dead horse. I hate to be so negative, but I am not sure what sort of stepping stone or innovation it is to turn 3D printing into an Itunes market where people have pretty apps and pay for a model from a giant repository and print it. It doesn't encourage kids to be creative really, I think Autodesk are already way ahead with 123d.. my kids have been sculpting on that for months.

Hi Geoff,

We are aware that we have not given a full insight into what you may expect. We have our reasons but I'm willing to shed a little light on the subject:

The apps come in 2 flavors; Customizers which have a base model that you can easily edit & the Freeform apps which allow you to get really creative with easy controls but more advanced if you need that.

I hope this gives you the info you need and if not I would love to receive an email from you!

[Geoff]

Hi Geoff,

We are aware that we have not given a full insight into what you may expect. We have our reasons but I'm willing to shed a little light on the subject:

The apps come in 2 flavors; Customizers which have a base model that you can easily edit & the Freeform apps which allow you to get really creative with easy controls but more advanced if you need that.

I hope this gives you the info you need and if not I would love to receive an email from you!

Hi Remco, thanks for your insight.

I understand not wanting to pull all of your rabbits out of the hat at once, but when you are stepping into an area , that is already so heavily inundated with similar approaches to learning and making 3D printing more accessible to both the young and old, you must have something special in store.

I am a little against cloud or forced printing, I wonder what will become of the open source freedom of sharing that we enjoy now? It feels like companies are in a struggle to be in control of it all, much like Apple and it's app store model, I give you makerbot desktops software, a prime example of locking down and controlling users. All marketing and control aspects aside, at the end of the day I think I find it hard to agree that it is better than actually learning to model something yourself or teaching someone the fundamentals of modelling, rather than putting a base model into a program and simply modifying it to sort of look like what you want.

So far no one has made anything even resembling a decent modelling program that is easy to use for the mobile industry, maybe you guys have? Even the ability to load a simple Side profile and front profile background image for modelling reference seems to be sorely lacking on all of them.

Modelling something on an Ipad or mobile device is still light years away from where it needs to be, or at least in the affordable sense other than buying a $10k tablet rig with proper stylus etc, so really.

If this is all about integration and seamless activity, I think (unfortunately for companies like you ) for people like me, it will be a very long time before things are the way I would expect that seamless integration to be. Model it, send it to the printer, print it out all from one app, and not having to rely on logging into someone's cloud based system.

Too many chains, too many strongholds ... Too many companies at the moment fighting for that top dog position.. it's a bit of a nightmare really

[Remco]

Hi Remco, thanks for your insight.

I understand not wanting to pull all of your rabbits out of the hat at once, but when you are stepping into an area , that is already so heavily inundated with similar approaches to learning and making 3D printing more accessible to both the young and old, you must have something special in store.

I am a little against cloud or forced printing, I wonder what will become of the open source freedom of sharing that we enjoy now? It feels like companies are in a struggle to be in control of it all, much like Apple and it's app store model, I give you makerbot desktops software, a prime example of locking down and controlling users. All marketing and control aspects aside, at the end of the day I think I find it hard to agree that it is better than actually learning to model something yourself or teaching someone the fundamentals of modelling, rather than putting a base model into a program and simply modifying it to sort of look like what you want.

So far no one has made anything even resembling a decent modelling program that is easy to use for the mobile industry, maybe you guys have? Even the ability to load a simple Side profile and front profile background image for modelling reference seems to be sorely lacking on all of them.

Modelling something on an Ipad or mobile device is still light years away from where it needs to be, or at least in the affordable sense other than buying a $10k tablet rig with proper stylus etc, so really.

If this is all about integration and seamless activity, I think (unfortunately for companies like you ) for people like me, it will be a very long time before things are the way I would expect that seamless integration to be. Model it, send it to the printer, print it out all from one app, and not having to rely on logging into someone's cloud based system.

Too many chains, too many strongholds ... Too many companies at the moment fighting for that top dog position.. it's a bit of a nightmare really

I'm sorry to hear how you feel about us / the market. We are doing our best to make a product that caters to everyone.

I would invite you to have a conversation about this with me if you are interested? Let me know and we'll schedule a google hangout / skype talk to discuss your point of view and we'll see if we can incorporate some of your ideas.

[Geoff]

I'm sorry to hear how you feel about us / the market. We are doing our best to make a product that caters to everyone.

I would invite you to have a conversation about this with me if you are interested? Let me know and we'll schedule a google hangout / skype talk to discuss your point of view and we'll see if we can incorporate some of your ideas.

Sure, after the last week of purchasing something off makerbot and then trying to print it through their all-in-one software and then eventually getting a refund off them because the experience was so negative, I think I have a few things to say that might be of interest to you considering that is almost exactly what your plan is, just with the addition of the modelling software.