What printer to get for prototyping from Solid Works

[Danny Dodge]

I'm trying to decide on what printer to get in order to prototype from products designed in Solid Works. My products are never larger than 1 x 1 x 1 foot. In general, I will be printing off prototypes to check fit and tolerance, as well as prototypes for sending to the media and publications. So I will need need a printer that creates models that are good quality. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Danny

[jimc]

for a semi professional machine with a 1cf build area look at fusion3design.com their printer, the f306 is probably one of the best out right now. price is close to $4k

[soofle616]

Solidworks has VERY limited support for 3d printers if you're hoping to print directly from within the software. As far as I know you're stuck with the expensive commercial machines. That said, solidworks does export to .stl far better than it imports so anything you model can be exported then brought into makerware/ss3d/etc. and sent to whatever printer you want.

Regarding your use for prototypes. Be aware that consumer level (and possibly pro level) machines are not incredibly precise. They are generally accurate but if you're looking to do tolerance stack analysis with a 3d printer you're going to have to verify printed dimensions manually after the print is finished. Do not assume that things are printing at the correct size as most materials exhibit some degree of shrinkage with FDM machines. I limit my comments to that style of printing because with the need for 12x12x12" print volume that's the only type of machine you're going to get without spending a very large sum of money.