A team of researchers from Cornell University Information Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have built a tool and digital modeling approach which uses wax coiling to rethink the design and execution of 3D prints. They call it D-Coil, and it lets users can define a shape to extrude, and then using a hand-held and actuated extruder which guides the motion of the hand and arm, extrude wax while it simultaneously creates a 3D printable digital model in Rhino software. It's an intuitive and non-technical method of 3D modeling which removes the necessity of CAD skills from the equation, and the paper the team wrote on the subject, D-Coil: A Hands-on Approach to Digital 3D Models Design, describes their method of building a system which simplifies the use of CAD systems without having “mastery of complex construction commands.” You can read the whole story here: http://3dprint.com/60922/d-coil-3d-wax-printing-pen/


Below is a photo of the D-Coil system: