这是我们系列中的来宾帖子，研究了3D打印的未来。为了庆祝有关3D印刷行业的5年报告，我们邀请了行业领导者和3D印刷专家，为我们提供了未来5年的观点和预测，并深入了解添加剂制造的趋势。雷电竞充值
Drew Taylor is co-founder and CEO of AstroPrint. Often called “The Android of the 3D Printing Industry,” AstroPrint produces software that makes 3D printers simple to operate, cloud enabled, and connected to a 3D Printing App Marketplace for 3rd party content. AstroPrint recently completed their second successfulKickstarter campaign.
Drew Taylor的未来五年打印的3D打印
3D打印的未来5年将推动创新？
This formula:
Simplicity + Content = Mass Adoption
随着3雷电竞app下载D打印机变得非常易于使用，并连接到人们希望打印的内容时，3D打印将进入下一波大规模采用。不仅用于消费者空间，还用于医疗，小型企业，食品行业甚至工业用途。
In the next 5 years, the two primary drivers to ‘simplicity + content’ will be: Cloud Connectivity and Software Standardization.
Why do 3D printers need Cloud Connectivity, when 2D printers never needed a cloud?
There are two primary reasons.
雷电竞app下载3D打印机从第三方内容中获得价值，2D打印机没有。您永远不会为在2D打印机上打印内容（即文件）购买内容（即文件），因此没有理由将其连接到内容存储库。但是，您将购买3D打印机的内容。对于消费者来说，这可能是为您的孩子购买玩具。为了医疗用途，用于研究目的的特定肿瘤形状。对于工业，在第三方设计的安全条件下打印昂贵的部分。所有这些情况都需要复杂稳定的3D打印云基础架构。
2D Printers evolved pre-internet. Offline drivers, cords, and manual software upgrades all made sense then. However, if your $40 coffee maker can now be controlled from an app and can upgrade it’s own software via the internet, why can’t your $500 3D printer? Or your factory’s $500K 3D printer? The industry is finally waking up to the fact that having printers offline is horribly antiquated and does not match the experience of using other pieces of sophisticated technology.
在接下来的5年中：“内容出售打印机。”
As we move away from using 3D printers solely for prototyping, content will be the primary factor in whether people purchase 3D printers. They will not buy a printer for it’s speed or materials, they will buy it because they want a phone case that says I Heart _____ (their partner’s name), or a pokemon that can only be printed, or Barbie accessories that are not available in the store. This is exactly the same as purchasing decisions for products like the iPad. People do not buy iPads for the iPad… They buy it because they want to play particular games, or send emails while on the bus, or watch movies from anywhere. The iPad’s value is simply as a utility that gets them the content (apps) that they want to interact with.
This concept made the smartphone industry, and it will make the 3D printing industry as well.
智能手机行业有一个Tech-Trinity came together to drive mass adoption, which is the same trinity driving adoption of 3D printers.
– Optimized Hardware – Samsung, Apple, and others solved hardware issues.
– Simple to Use Software – Android and iOS solved these issues.
- 内容生态系统 - Google Play和Apple App Store解决了此问题。
如果没有应用商店，您会购买智能手机吗？当然不是，您会得到一部旧的翻转手机（我仍然想念我的摩托罗拉剃须刀）。没有开发人员生态系统，智能手机就没有价值（也没有销售）。内容出售智能手机。就像内容出售3D打印机一样。
在5年内，所有3D打印机的数字内容分布都将是云驱动的。雷电竞app下载
下载文件并将其发送到打印机的日子已经结束。直接从电话/平板电脑，网站，扫描QR码等打印的日子快到了。为了使这些进步中的任何一个发生，必须有一个稳定的云基础架构，使设备可以与打印机进行通信。由于物联网行业的重大进步，越来越多的平台可以支持这种功能。
Standardization of Software
Using the smartphone market as an example again, look what happened when manufacturers finally stopped trying to make their own software stacks and instead adopted Android as a standard.
If you need another example, take a look at the state of VR right now. Why is it taking off? There are standardized software platforms that allow for easy game distribution: SteamVR and Oculus being the two primary ones.
Why does standardization drive adoption?
There are too many reasons to mention here, but a few are:
– 3rd Party Innovation / Open Platforms will always drive more innovation than a single company can. Any company that believes they can build all the best software tools for their 3D printer line, is foolhardy, and is not following the trends of other industries. For example, The Note Taking App that comes default with the iPhone is not ideal for every user, some users get more benefit out of the iPhone by installing a 3rd party note taking app. In the same way, no 3D printer manufacturer can make the perfect: Slicing Engine, Repository Integrations, Control Interface, Multi-printer Management Systems, etc.
– Content Distribution – Imagine, if you will, that you are Disney (or Blizzard Entertainment, or Tencent, or the creators of Rick and Morty) and you wish to open a new revenue stream by taking your repository of 3D models and offering them to 3D printer owners world wide. How can you verify the quality of the print on 400 different printer models that use different settings and different technologies? How can you slice the model and distribute it to all these different types of printers? As software consolidates in the 3D printing industry, more and more data can be analyzed (with the help of our AI overlords) allowing this content to be distributed more efficiently and with dramatically lower failure rates.
基本上，拥有稳定且标准化的内容分配系统是该行业起飞的必要条件。主要内容提供商在存在之前不会进入该行业。在分发内容之前，人们不会购买3D打印机。雷电竞app下载
The good news is that this will happen in less than 5 years, bringing about the dream of 3D printers being accessible to everyone.
This is a guest post in our series looking atthe future of 3D Printing, if you’d like to participate in this series then contact us for more information.
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More information aboutAstroPrintis available here.
