MIT's Fab By Example Design Software is Groundbreaking

A new software developed by MIT researchers called Fab By Example promises to allow the rapid modelling of complicated objects such as furniture, go-karts, etc, in a fraction of the time it ordinarily would take. This could have huge implications for the 3D printing space as design of complicated objects can be achieved with very little experience. The software has applications both in and out of the 3D printing space. More details on just how it works can be found here: http://3dprint.com/11744/fab-by-example-3d-model/

http://3dprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/mit-2.jpg

Compared to some of the stuff I've seen out of MIT this doesn't seem all that innovative. Instead it's very practical and looks nicely optimized. Not overly powerful, but simple and perhaps fun enough to be widely used.

I especially like that putting two pieces together automatically chooses the appropriate connecting parts and sizes them to fit.