From the very small to the ultra-large, Autodesk has a product that can help designers, engineers and architects create prototypes that can eventually be 3D printed. In fact, during the SXSW conference Autodesk announced that they would be partnering with Bre Pettis’ Makerbot to help market and distribute the company’s Replicator 2.
Obviously, Bass is impressed with the way that 3D printing has developed in recent years. “3D printing is this phenomenon. It’s taken it 20 plus years for it to really develop, but the acceleration of the technology in the last few years has been incredible.” Said Bass.
While Bass was excited by the way that individuals were adopting the technology, and the way that industry was pushing the state of the art ,he did caution that the technology still has a long way to grow. “The weakness right now in 3D printing, particularly for home 3D printing is, number one, the materials,” claims the CEO.
He continued, “And the second thing that will always be there, [3D printing] is limited by the power of three… If you want something that’s twice as big, it’ll take 8 times as long [to print].”
Even though Bass did highlight the intractable scaling problem inherent in 3D printing, he still ended his interview with a glimpse towards the technology’s horizon. “Some of the most exciting things are being able to 3D print out of things like metal. And then if you really want to reach 5-10 years, the printing of biological materials… On the other scale there are people who are experimenting with 3D printing buildings. I think it will common to fabricate buildings in the future.”
Watch PopSci’s interview with Bass here.
Image Courtesy of Wikipedia