This weekend I was doing things and started getting emails, tweets, and Facebook posts that I was on NPR. Back in March I was at the 123D event in New York City with many of our partners in the Maker movement and a gentleman approached me to discuss 123D, 3D Printing, and 123D Catch, and the practical possible uses of these technologies. Turns out this gentleman was from NPR and just published his story and interview edited clips.

Here is the NPR story: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/07/156416954/new-projects-help-3-d-printing-materialize

Two clarifications should be noted.

The first in the misspelling of my name, but then again most people misspell my name as it is an odd spelling “Shaan” not “Sean”, or “Shawn” but phonetically the same. No biggie.

Secondly I was talking about two Autodesk free products. The clip was modeled in 123D which is a free 3D solid modeler and use the “Print to 3D” option to create the STL to send to my MakerBot Replicator. Why model a dryer door clip, well mine kept breaking in the dryer I have and it was ABS the same material I can 3D print from and also the same material LEGOs are made of. The part was $39 and 2-4 weeks to get a replacement or I could easily design and 3D print one myself in about an hour using about $1.50 in materials.I printed it then placed the metal clips from the broken clip and it worked.

Note to consumer goods manufactures of parts made from ABS, make your parts available for free on Thingiverse or a small fee so that customers can 3D print their own replacement part otherwise they will just reverse engineer it themselves using free software and do it anyways. I would certainly purchase a consumer product that offered some 3D placement parts as STL files. They could also partner with an online like Shapeways or local 3D print shops so that one could simply go to the manufactures site select the part and then get a notice the part can be picked up at XYZ local 3D print company or that it is shipping from an online partner or even the manufacturer. Imagine all the saved fuel and time as the part no longer is manufactured in Timbuktu then shipped across the ocean and stored in a warehouse waiting for someone to order it. Makes perfect sense to me.

I also mentioned in another cut of the edited interview the other product 123D Catch which can create 3D textured models from photos taken with a standard digital camera.

Here is my post from the event: New 123D Catch for Windows, Web Hosted, and Apple iPad Available and FREE

I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever end up on NPR.

Cheers,
Shaan

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