The Road Home – Getting the RV Ready

Helen Keller once said that “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”This upcoming adventure won’t be filled with adrenaline, most of the time, but it will be filled with people who make life worth living. The best part about an …

Maker Faire Rejuvenates

Nothing quite restores your soul like seeing kids in all their glory, running around full of wonder and excitement. Maker Faire brings that out in force -- filling people to the brim with laughter and joy. More practically, it opens up one’s …

Jayco RV - Driving in 3D

Jayco is a family run business that makes recreational vehicles, RVs, as most people call them. As one of the oldest running RV companies, we feel pretty fortunate to have them supporting our #3DRV team. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Jay…

Portland ADX – What A Thinker And Maker Space

Instructions serve a useful purpose – in the case of ADX Portland, it keeps you from burning down the shop. I love signs like these for their humor and memory jogs. If it wasn’t for years of marital coaching, our house likely would have one o…

Moon Express Landing A Pickup Truck

In one of the NASA Ames buildings is a large trampoline-like net – its sole purpose is to keep the Moon Express lunar lander from crashing onto a hard surface if something goes wrong during a test. While Andy Aldrin, president of Moon Express…

3D Printers In Space

In almost every company I have visited in the last few years, every one that has a 3D printer tells me that they find unexpected and extraordinary uses for 3D printing. But they do not discover these “unexpected” uses until they have a…

​MakerHaus Seattle Gathering – Scan Complete

Ninety seconds and we had a laser scan of the Makerhaus meetup. Two minutes more and we added color photo-like quality to that scan (I’m showing the non-color option below because of operator error in getting the color portion to load). Th…

Bridge Building The Portland Way

Moving a large object, for instance, a 40 foot wooden beam, might involve some brainpower, but not too much. Sliding a 1,000-foot long bridge requires a fair amount of genius. Not only did Sundt Construction propose the novel idea of tempo…

Dirty Socks and Drones

The first question is whether or not the wire at the top of the fence separating us from the 3D Robotics IRIS quadcopter is electric or not. I guess all the other questions do not matter after that, so I won’t bore you with them. We stil…

​The Power of Clean Air in 3D

When Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory of disease, he was building on the work of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis who introduced hand washing to the medical community in 1847. Such a practice seems incredibly basic, but it was overlooked as a way …

Scanning Our Way In North Dakota

North Dakota is a bit off the beaten path and that's a good thing -- you can experience part of America that, for some, seems to have vanished. Thankfully, the little town of Medora has kept that from happening with at least two treasures tha…

Cutting, Grinding, And Welding For The Greater Good Of The World

Fun. Dynamic. Masterful. Effusive. Lively. Brilliant.A few words that describe Jeff Tiedeken, owner and creator of a modern day machine shop called Monkey Likes Shiny. This is not a hobby shop, but a shop of a full-time tinkerer, a career mak…

360 Degree View of South Dakota Grasslands

We couldn't think of a way to capture the grandeur and immensity of the South Dakota Grasslands (not the Badlands, not yet), then it hit us! Faro 3D Laser Scan them. So we pulled off and here's a great panorama. 360 degrees. Of course, we had…

Anything You Can Dream - We Can Build

Anything you can dream . . . we can build. That is the tagline, motto, mantra for Dynamic Structures in British Columbia and I could not find a more appropriate title to give this post. Our timing was impeccable. Craig Breckenridge, who …

RedEye: Factory of the Future

As we enter the RedEye headquarters in Eden Prairie, we are greeted with warm Minnesota friendliness by the receptionist, Melissa. Since we are early for our appointment, she invites us to look around at the cool displays that were 3D printed…

Lessons From The Roadtrip: Update One

We’ve been on the road for about six weeks. We set out to get a pulse on all things 3D. A lofty goal, to be sure, and we are learning a lot. In a nutshell, we are getting a solid heartbeat.From consumers to business owners, people find 3D (sc…

Making On The Fourth Of July In Chicago

Spent some time at the famous Pumping Station: One last night (July 3rd) in Chicago. Thanks to Bart Dring for inviting me. Pretty cool spot for one of the biggest, if not the biggest, makerspace in the USA. They have a lot…

A Motorcycle Built For Any Road: Carducci Dual Sport SC3 Adventure

Over 10 million motorcycles are on the road in America. A subset of those are known as dual sport bikes – motorcycles you can take pretty much anywhere you want off-road or pavement. Jim Carducci and Sherry Cordova are co-founders of a limite…

Industry – A Portland Design Firm Building A Bicycle

Community comes first for INDUSTRY, a design firm in Portland, Oregon. Walking around their studio and workspace, you know you’re surrounded by creative people, but more so, people who are intimately tied to the local community. That’s what p…

​Test, Test, and Test Those Laptops And Workstations: HP Fort Collins

Power and speed – that’s what I wanted in the machines that HP agreed to loan to us for 3DRV. Isn’t that what everyone wants from a computer? Have you ever heard anyone say they needed a slower machine?Well, I can honestly say that …

Pumping Station One: Take 2

Last week, I made a quick visit to Pumping Station One in Chicago. But we had enough interest, thanks to Bart Dring from Inventables, to make a second trip. Wow! Well worth the drive and effort to hang out with this energetic group of makers,…

Laser Scanning With Pete - Safer Than Flying Drones

Pete Kelsey is becoming quite famous here at 3DRV. He makes regular appearances on the 3DRV journey now, well, because he’s willing, memorable, and has lots of good stories while he’s training us. I’m still catching up from our visit that res…

​U.S. Navy 3D Prints Its Way Into Future

Maintaining ships and submarines is no easy task given the harsh ocean environment that our U.S. Navy operates in and under. In the tiny town of Keyport roughly 90 minutes from Seattle, and just north of the larger Bremerton Naval S…

Bertha, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Mario Kart Tunnel Under Seattle

The biggest thing about the Seattle Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project is not that a large, two level, above-ground freeway will be completely removed. It is not that there will be a new, relatively quiet tunnel for cars, trucks and buse…

Eye Candy From Legacy Effects - Hollywood

I visited Legacy Effects before the trip officially started, but that didn't make it any less fascinating, any less exciting. Jason Lopes, Lead Systems Engineer, graciously shared some time with me despite an intense production schedule to ta…

Free Apps Drive Chicago Artists To Create And Print In 3D

Chicago Artist, Adrian Stein, has this quote, author unknown, on his website and I found it provocative and representative of the passion and enthusiasm I’m finding across the USA.“Hearts are wild creatures; that’s why our ribs are cages.”Chi…

Start Your Own Personal Industrial Revolution

What is it about Maker Faire that sets people’s minds and hearts ablaze? Mark Hatch from TechShop gives a very clear picture as to why: You can start your own “Personal Industrial Revolution” by taking classes at a makerspace or at a TechShop…

Step Inside A Virtual Ford Mustang

Today I experienced a piece of the future, of manufacturing in particular, but of design, too. This collaborative virtual reality (VR) lab at Ford, led by Elizabeth Baron, is remarkable. They call it the FIVE lab -- Ford Immers…

Detroit Meetup Teaches Fine Points Of Laser Scanning

All of our stops and visits for 3DRV have something cool about them – this one in Detroit, in Troy actually, was filled with an abundance of enthusiasm and energy from the local community. That happened because of Chad Studer, who owns ADSK S…

Full Of Awesome - Detroit Public Library HYPE Makerspace

During our week in Detroit, we paid a visit to the Detroit Public Library which is home to a teen/young adult focused makerspace. Steve Teeri, the library’s technology specialist, used the phrase that they try only to create courses…

Design Better Portable Power – A Hybrid Generator

As a startup, any prospective customer call is welcome. But when that call comes from NASA, asking if you can help them with a special project, well, that’s got to be a great day. Planetary Power, based in Redmond Washington, received that ca…

Roadtrip Nation – Dare To Dream

Define your own road in life is the Roadtrip Nation motto and it rattles around in my head and heart after meeting this passionate team, this collection of five people who didn’t know each other until a short time ago.I have seen cutting…

3D Printing Playground At America Makes

As you can see in one of the shirts -- America Makes, formerly the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII), is a creative place. The t-shirt reads: America Makes: 3D Printing Playground. Each visit, each stop, h…

Pittsburgh Meetup -- 3D Hardware And More

Pittsburgh is a town that has gone through tough times and emerged victorious. They made a decision to build out a startup culture with the power universities in their midst and it worked in a big way. Innovation Works and its AlphaLab Gear h…

Charge Your Cell Phone By Walking Around

In developing nations, a mobile phone is the technology choice. People cannot afford to have a computer and the feature and smart phone is the path to freedom in many ways. But for most, the simple act of charging their phone is a chore, a ma…

Slideshow: Reality Computing in Pittsburgh

On July 24th, Autodesk, the 3DRV and Alpha Labs Gear came together to host a Reality Computing Meet Up to showcase some of the latest cutting edge technologies that enable anyone to capture the world around them, modify it to c…

Slideshow: 3DRV Hits Toledo, OH!

One of Autodesk’s customers, SSOE in Toledo, OH, was eager to have the 3DRV stop by for a visit. So much so, they wanted to host an event! SSOE employees, local engineers and members of the local BIM User Group, came out to learn more …

Videos: Monkey Likes Shiny

On May 20th, the 3DRV visited Jeff Tiedeken, owner and creator of a modern day machine shop called Monkey Likes Shiny. Here are two clips where Jeff talks about his passion for vintage machines and creating unique metal trophies usi…

10+ 3D Printing Resources

The 3D printing industry is developing at a cutting-edge rate. Hello. You knew that.If you rely on standard news sources for your information on 3D scanning, 3D design, and 3D printing, you will find yourself behind when it comes to knowing t…

​America Makes Translates Into America Works

Hanging out with “the interns” at America Makes in Youngstown a couple of weeks ago, I glimpsed a small view of the future. The leadership at the facility have a clear view of 3D technology and that’s part of their mission, for sure. But…

Walking In Edison's Shoes

Today we walked in Edison’s shoes, so to speak. We went to the GE Global Research Center in Schenectady, New York for a short visit to their 3D printing lab. As co-founder of GE, Edison's legacy and ideas permeate the atmosphere. The atm…

​Scanning Vintage Motorcycles In Sturgis

It is the quietest collection of motorcycles you will ever see, at least while they rest comfortably in the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum in Sturgis, South Dakota. In this tiny town of roughly 7,000 people, most would not put the words “motorcycl…

Extreme 3D Machining: Shark Attack

Irritating a great white shark is a bad idea, but it can be survivable, if you have the right equipment. The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) known as the REMUS 100 lets you stay safe, while taking on the hazards of being in the water for …

Artisans Asylum Bigger And Better Than Costco

If you will forget (and perhaps forgive) the bulk purchase, big consumer mindset of this comparison and just focus on the size of Costco, you will get my point. Makerspaces tend to be small. They tend to be concentrated, dense work areas. Art…

Recovering the Past and Innovating the Future

The Mindset of the Future

New York City has many faces and it is home to some of the biggest names in maker companies – MakerBot Industries, Adafruit, and a company that I have wanted to visit for ages: Shapeways.As Blair Baumwell, Head of Communications at Shapeways,…

Stern Design Works Grows With 123D Creature

One of the things I’m finding as I wander the nation is that entrepreneurial ventures are almost always a mix of the old with the new. While some might argue that their new “gadget” or “creation” is brand new, disruptive, democratizing (meani…

Bending Metal In 3D

The English Wheel is a tool, some call it a machine, that allows a sheet of metal to be formed. It requires a skilled craftsman to use it, and although it is a time-consuming process, it can create a variety of shapes and forms by stretching …

3D Printing Lab At Ford

For many people, 3D printing sounds like magic – pulling a part out of thin air. nd sometimes, it looks like it, too: Here's one of the team members, Eric Kouba, 3D Printing Supervisor, at the Ford 3D Printing Lab pulling a #3dprinted part ou…

Founding Father: Thomas Jefferson – Photo Scanned

Wandering around Washington, DC late one night, we found ourselves close to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Like the other monuments within the city, Jefferson sits within a hallowed hall. It is a very large hallowed hall. As the author of the…

Smithsonian Institution - Seal Fossil

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

Smithsonian Institution - T.Rex

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

Not Your Average BIM User: NASA Langley Research Center

When you hear the name NASA, you think space exploration, astronauts, and just about everything that exists beyond our atmosphere. It is easy to overlook the other areas of operations that support that mission, in a myriad of ways, especially…

Smithsonian Creates Museum Of The Future

It is fairly well known that the Smithsonian only has about one percent (1%) of its collection on display at any one point in time. That means the other 99 percent is resting peacefully in the archives, well protected and preserved, but unsee…

Blitzing The Airwaves About 3D Design

Pete Kelsey and I spent a busy morning in Washington, D.C. last week sharing the current state of 3D technology with the nation's media. We had 30 back-to-back interviews with television and radio stations around the USA. We had a great …

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello: Rich for 3D Reality Capture

While the 3D RV did not make an official visit to Monticello, a visit to Virginia is not complete without visiting one of our nation's Founding Fathers. Plus, we knew that the facility was undergoing some significant renovation…

SSOE Visit: The Era Of The Design Technologist

Mark LaBell, Technical Leader for Design Technology Department for SSOE Group, in Toledo, Ohio and his team created a great meetup for us back in July where the community and the media joined in as well. We spent the day talking about the fut…

Laser Scanning Madness In Washington DC

Recently, there was an internal Autodesk campaign and Jessica Brill won the contest. That earned Jess a free trip to Washington DC and a few days to hang out with the 3DRV. Jess is a social media manager on the AEC team, so building…

Design Within Reach

The 3DRV National Tour has a tagline: Driven by Design. We liked the play on words and the potential that this short phrase evokes – we can be passionate about design, driven to quality and greater efforts by it, or simply inspired. The doubl…

More Than Disney - Magic In The Orlando Maker Scene

At every 3DRV stop, people ask me "what's your favorite visit so far?"  I cannot answer. Literally. I just smile and look at them, then I explain that in every city, in every town, in every makerspace or big global company, the…

The Future Of Building With Gilbane Building Company

Gilbane Inc. is a real estate development and construction company that knows how to see into the future. Lots of companies want to know their secret and I’m happy to reveal it, although I know it is always easy to achieve: They hire wicked s…

Makers To Be At Electa Lee Middle School

We were in Orlando planning our visit to the University of South Florida in Tampa when we received an email from teacher Bekka Stasny about her school in Bradenton, Florida, an hour south. Since we had to do the long drive up to&nbs…

Capturing Kid's Hearts At Atlanta Mini Maker Faire

Many people have heard of Maker Faire – there is the original one in the San Francisco Bay area and the one in New York City, World Maker Faire, but people do not always hear about the mini Maker Faires that happen in smaller cities all acros…

Reinventing Edison – Build Your Own Lightbulb

After visiting GE earlier in the 3DRV roadtrip, we have spent some time pondering Thomas Edison’s legacy. His boundless energy and enthusiasm for creating, inventing, and making are legendary and many children read about him and are inspired.…

Inventing A Better Battery For Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

In September 2013, a torpedo-shaped unmanned underwater vehicle set an important record: The longest trip for a battery-powered undersea craft. OpenWater Power sent this vehicle from Boston Harbor over 300 miles and more than four days i…

3D Printed Earbuds From Normal

Normal, a startup, and the brainchild of Nikki Kaufman (a founding member of the crowd sourced product firm Quirky), is currently producing custom earphones. Normal is using the Stratasys Fortus 250mc printers and its own smartphone app to ma…

NBA’s Brooklyn Nets Call On 3D Experts At Gilbane

Here’s a challenge: Create a new basketball training facility from a pre-WWII building where you have little information about the structure. Oh, and do it in about a year. That’s the challenge that Gilbane Inc faces in a cool project for the…

3D In DC: A Conversation With Congress

The public hears a lot about the future of manufacturing from the Oval Office and has seen President Obama highlight some key 3D printing and 3D design businesses helping the economy. As a Washington State resident, I wondered if I could…

Electa Lee Middle School with Bay News 9 Interview of #3DRV

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

3D Scanning and 3D Printing with Autodesk and Geek Beat

Next week, the 3DRV will roll into Dallas to hang out with the Geek Beat TV team. Over two days, a team from the Autodesk Reality Computing department will head out to Dallas to laser scan (using Faro laser scanners, of course) the Geek House…

Soft Shoulders In Mississippi: Attitude Of Gratitude

All across America, you see signs about shoulders. Enroute to Louisiana from Alabama, after visiting Rural Studio, we crossed through Mississippi. It was late, dark, and there were no highway shoulders. It was a hair-raising drive, I can tell…

Defining The New Age Of Eyewear With Adam Mugavero

3D design software has made it easier to create products, to bring your idea to life, but Adam Mugavero works first as a craftsman – taking exotic and common woods and making one-of-a-kind works of art. Couture pieces, if you will, that indiv…

Rural Studio: Design Build From The Heart

A person’s character is revealed when you drop in on them unexpectedly. The character you want to experience is a gracious one, as both Gayle Etheridge and Brenda Wilkerson demonstrated, when you stop by unannounced as we did when visiting Ru…

Come Try The DotProduct DPI-7 Scanner In Houston

Engineers are often focused on one goal: Change. That goal has two objectives - to know what is possible, and to draft the ways to make it possible. This is true for engineers across multiple industries and engineers are often out in the fiel…

Why Pie Is So Important To 3D

Pie. It brings people together. It makes travel much more enjoyable. It is the basis of an entrepreneurial and design-way of thinking. I bet you didn’t know that last part.When we decided to go to Rural Studio in New Bern Alabama, we did a fa…

Gilbane Construction Talks Navisworks

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

OpenWater Power demonstrates how company tackles underwater search

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

OpenWater Power Talks Chemical Reactions

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

OpenWater Power uses Autodesk CFD software to model flow and mine data

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

What is Photogrammetry? Reality Computing Made Simple

The 3DRV journey is all about capturing the stories of people using 3D technologies. But a big part of the trip is also exploring the process of “reality capture” that lets me turn images of objects and people into 3D models. This process is …

No Limits: Observations From Ellis Island

The first photo in this post is a close-up of the ceiling within the Ellis Island immigration station. Maybe you have looked up to see it on your own trip there. Perhaps you have only heard about the place famous in American history for …

FARO Laser Scanning Meetup In Orlando Area

What happens when you fill a meetup with college students? You can power a small city, that’s what. Tons of energy in the house tonight. FARO organized a large event during our Orlando stop and they packed the event with students an…

James Alday: Fusion 360 Modeler

Orlando is loaded with creative people. Maybe we can thank Walt Disney for putting creativity in the Orlando air. Nearly everywhere we visited in Florida, we came in contact with people for whom 3D is comfortable, familiar, not the future but…

Seminole State College STEM Efforts Powered By UAV Drones

Another gem discovered in Florida, thanks to the FARO event in Lake Mary. I met and admired the work of Seminole State College and its program with more than 100 Seminole County high school students. Jason M Gaschel, Director, Academic Innova…

Beautiful Ocean Creatures In Detailed 3D

You would not think that an inland city like Atlanta would be home to one of the greatest aquariums in the world, but it is and it is wonderful. The Georgia Aquarium is amazing for a number of reasons, including one of the largest saltwater t…

3D Printing Dinosaur Bones- You Won't Believe This Man's Crazy Journey

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

Savvy On 3D - Motley Fool Interview Conversation

One of the leading publications to cover 3D (and all financial stocks) is the Motley Fool. I have long been a fan and was excited that they wanted to visit with the 3DRV. Rex Moore is a writer and analyst for the Fool and he spent a bunc…

S-Scale Model Railroad Creations In 3D With CatzPaw Innovations

If you want to see a serious 3D printing expert in action, you have to study what Sherri Johnson is doing with CatzPaw Innovations. She and her partner, Yolanda Hayes, are making tiny, miniscule creations for an oft-forgotten part of the mode…

GeekBeat TV Visit – 3D Technology On Steroids

You can’t walk into the GeekHouse without an immediate surge in energy, in enthusiasm, and in bandwidth. It may be possible that John Pozadzides (aka “John P”), Cali Lewis and the extraordinary team exude internet bandwidth, for one. As the r…

3DRV Visit: USAFA Reality Capture Showcase: Lt. Col. Patrick Suermann

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

3DRV Visit: USAFA Reality Capture Showcase: Travis Evans, Autodesk

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

3DRV Visit: USAFA Reality Capture Showcase: Pete Kelsey, Autodesk

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

3DRV driving, some Smithsonian photos and USS Arizona

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.

Nashville Electric – Laser Scanning And More

Electricity does not bring to mind 3D design or 3D scanning, at least not to me, but I was amazed during and after my visit to Nashville Electric in Tennessee to see the various ways this organization is using 3D technology. Sure, I’m bullish…

Preserving Autograph Rock On The Santa Fe Trail

While driving in Texas, we heard about a little-known historical spot a bit further north (in Oklahoma), known as Autograph Rock. It is on the Sante Fe Trail, which went from Franklin, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We did some resea…

Archer Animated TV Program – Floyd County Productions

Here’s a way to build a business – do not build a website. I am not being sarcastic. Do amazing work online that everyone will watch and want to share and customers will find you. Floyd County Productions does exactly that. It is the work of …

How To Use Sketchbook Pro With Super-User Kevin Mellon

While in Atlanta, I had the cool opportunity to meet with SketchBook Pro artist, Kevin Mellon, comic book artist, and storyboarder for the hit animated TV show Archer on FX Networks.Since I visited Kevin at the Floyd County Productions office…

Facts About Manufacturing: Reasons To Be A Bull

As we have been traveling around the USA, we get asked often about how manufacturing is doing and how it will do in the future. Will 3D printing take away jobs? That’s a valid concern and one that we share, but we see more opportunity than do…

Oak Ridge National Lab Creates Veterans 3D Training Program

In my last post, I was perhaps a bit over-the-top about why I see manufacturing, and the 3D technologies behind its growth, as a big opportunity. We spent the better part of a day at Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL) and one thing stood out for …

3D Printed Car In 47 Hours - History In The Making

Local Motors is a new kind of automotive manufacturer. Their site states that they bring hardware innovations to market at an unprecedented speed by combining co-creation and micro-manufacturing. They also partnered with Oak Ridge National La…

Having Fun With Modio And A Stratasys Mojo

With a Stratasys Mojo in the 3DRV, we sometimes have the chance to print fun stuff from our experiments with 3D models. A few weeks ago, while in Orlando, my son and I played around with the web-based Modio app. With Modio anybody c…

Sparking A Passion For Electronics And Open Source

One of the perks of traveling around the USA is the chance to meet people in person that you have only known by email, phone, or social media. As a researcher and journalist, I talk to a lot of companies. That’s part of how the 3DRV roadtrip …

A Conversation With xyHt Magazine Publisher Neil Sandler

While we were in Washington, DC, we had a chance to sit down with Neil Sandler, owner of Flatdog Media Group, which publishes xyHt magazine.It could be that Neil has to explain the seemingly obscure name of his publication to everyone he meet…

What Kind Of Maker Are You?

This poster from the Atlanta Maker Faire does not capture everything in the maker movement, but it sure captures quite a bit. What kind of maker are you?Are you an Artisan?Are you a Hacker?Are you a Craftsman?Are you a Tinkerer?Or, perhaps yo…

Strong Robot Muscle and Smarter 3D Printing With Rise Robotics

One of the things that blows my mind about this new age of invention, this new industrial revolution that many call it – is how people change and adapt. It could be that technology has removed the barriers, or it could be that we are facing a…

Bekka Stasny Awarded 3D Printer Grant For Electa Lee Students

I have long believed that we could solve our energy crisis if we simply found a way to tap into the latent energy found in educators. If you are feeling down or tired, just hang out with a teacher and by osmosis, you will feel more upbeat and…

Shaan Hurley Presents Gift Of 3D Print To Arches NP

Shaan Hurley has been working for almost two years to create the perfect gift for one of his favorite National Parks – a 3D Print of the Delicate Arch, found at Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. This iconic arch is well known and you see it…

3D Print A Holiday Ornament With Tinkercad At Shapeways

Savannah Peterson over at Shapeways just created a crafty, fun maker-type template in Tinkercad that makes creating a custom holiday ornament easy! Give it a try, and if you model one, upload it to Shapeways by December 5 you will get in time…

Restoring Vintage Vehicles With ReCap

When we were at Arches National Park with Shaan Hurley a few weeks ago, presenting the 3D Prints that he made of Delicate Arch, Shaan reminded me of the value of Autodesk ReCap for restoration. We had been talking a lot about preser…

Visiting Laser Scanner Country In Florida

Thanks to a web request from Dr. Lori Collins, Co-Director of the Alliance for Integrated Spatial Technologies (AIST), we got to spend a wonderful day at the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida. AIST sort of sounds like a…

Why “REAL 2015” Is An Event You Don’t Want To Miss

Reality computing is a big new term. It reflects a lot of the work you hear about with the Google Tango phone, Amazon’s 3D phone, or a host of other smartphones that let us capture the world around us, in real time. I’m pretty excited to lear…

3D Printing Hitting Mainstream: UPS, Staples, Microsoft, Home Depot

Dremel makes one of the coolest tools on the planet (the company name is synonymous with the rotary tool itself) and when they decided to introduce their own 3D printer – they launched where you might expect: Home Depot. Microsoft Stores sell…

Studying Bats And Batcaves With 3D Laser Scanners

All across the USA, we have found museums and national parks, to name just a couple, that are quietly pushing the edge of what’s possible with 3D technology. They are doing it not for the technology’s sake, although it is cool, but for school…

Conversation w AR/VR/3D Expert Patrick Eleazar

I have been talking with Patrick Eleazar, founder of Realidyne, about 3D, augmented reality, virtual reality, and the content that supports those technologies for well over a year. He has become my go-to resource when I’m wondering about what…

Your Brain Has Been 3D Printed

Well, maybe not your brain, but a brain. In all its glorious intricacy, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia created an exhibit with a 3D printed brain. When the family visited the Institute during a 3DRV stop, it was a must-see museum. It …

Joe Evans Techno-Archaelogist

Great job title. Indiana Jones would be quite happy with it, I think.Joe Evans and I follow each other on Twitter. I didn’t realize he was a University of South Florida research associate, working with Lori Collins, when we first connected. I…

HP Workstations And Research Lab In Fort Collins

In early May, the 3DRV made its first official stop – at HP Labs in Fort Collins, Colorado to visit with Sean Young in the Workstations division. As one of our premier sponsors, HP loaned us some seriously powerful gear – a Z1 workstation and…

3DRV Arrives Autodesk University

One writer (me). Eight months (almost). More than 122 scheduled stops (+unscheduled ones too). A million stories (truth).The 3DRV tour began with a simple vision: navigate the country gathering stories from the makers, big and small, who are …

3DRV: An Epic Road Tour to Discover All Things 3D

This is a great new blog post by TJ McCue.