In February after attending the O’Reilly TOC Conference I had the chance to visit 3DEA’s 3D printing pop-up shop in New York.  I had read a bit about 3D printing but had never seen it in action so this was a great opportunity to see what it was all about.  In addition to lots of printers creating a wide variety of objects, there were iPads set up to allow people to create a doodle that could then be printed on one of the shop’s Ultimaker printers.  I have since learned that the software that was used for this is created by a company called Doodle3D in Amersfoort, Netherlands.

With the Doodle3D software, all a user has to do is create a doodle on an iPad then tap a Print button to send the doodle to the printer.  This is much easier than having to find or create files for use with 3D printers.   For libraries interested in creating a makerspace or just providing access to 3D printers, this software should lower the bar for getting started with 3D printing.   The software is not yet commercially available, but Doodle3D is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funding to mass produce their product.

Here are a couple of photos of a doodle on an iPad and the resulting 3D doodle.

iPad running Doodle3D software

3D printed bird