Autodesk's Spark Platform gets integrated with Microsoft's Windows 10

3D printing of objects and body parts is out of SYFY realm and a solid reality. There are many, many players worldwide.
Autodesk is a computer graphics program vendor and Autodesk came out with the SPARK Platform for 3D printing.

Read this 2014 post:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/05/autodesk-sets-its-eye-on-3d-printing.html

With Autodesk's Fusion 3D you can design, engineer and fabricate parts all in a single tool. As it is cloud-based it is location agnostic. You can download this free trial here:
http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview

Today Microsoft announced that it will be incorporating the Spark platform into Windows 10 which enables businesses as well as individuals to accelerate their digital and physical 3D object creation.

This is what Microsoft envisions of this collaboration/integration:

""We’re approaching a tipping point with 3D printing, which means there is a huge market opportunity waiting for companies developing applications for Windows 10. By providing the 3D printing building blocks found in the Spark platform and optimizing it for Windows 10, Autodesk has empowered our global developer community to confidently enter this new world of additive manufacturing.” -

Here is a pictorial description of this platform:

 

Autodesk sets its eye on 3D-Printing

What with Google showing an interest in 3D Printing and more importantly Autodesk coming out with two important events, this area is getting heated up :

• Launch of Open Source 3D printing software platform called SPARK
• Introduction of a 3D Printing machine of its own with a reference implementation of SPARK

Autodesk is doing all of this to provide building blocks to product designers, harware manugfacturers and material scientists.

SPARK ) is open and licensable to hardware manufacturers and the Reference Printer design will also be openly available.

Both SPARK and the 3D Printer will be available at the end of this year according to sources:
This should generate enough competition to the early starters in this field like, Dassault Systemes, Stratasys, DDD (3-D), VoxelJet, ExOne and many others (there are very many to name). However many of them have suffered set backs in recent days.

3D printing and Microsoft

At least this time Microsoft has gotten ahead of other platforms in recognizing this disruptive technology.

3d Printing is the talk of Wall street and 3d Printing stocks are doing great and even Hewlett Packard is getting into this booming market. There are 3D printers that are readily available in the market.

I was intrigued to see a MakerBot printer doing a 3D demo job at the nearby Microsoft store in Ala Moana downtown Honolulu. I believe it is more than just a demo as Windows 8.1 natively supports 3D printing through the Windows 3D Builder app that you can download for free from here:

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/3d-builder/75f3f766-13b3-45e9-a62f-29590d5781f2

Windows 8.1 operating system supports;

• Plug and play support for supported printers

• Connects APPS with hardware

• Can work with 3d formats

It has the folloiwng features:

•  View and prepare objects for 3D printing on Windows 8.1-ready devices

•     Load STL, OBJ, or 3MF files from disk

•     Library of 3D objects to explore and print

The Builder app helps in crating and printing 3d objects. Just like ClipArt library for graphics there is a library of objects that you can use to print, like jewelry,toys etc. You can also add multiple objects and print them together. Also you can download a 3D object from the Internet and print using the app. You can even buy MakerBot at a Microsoft store.

These 3D Printer vendors are partners:
3D Systems, Autodesk, Dassault Systems, MakerBot, netfabb, Materialise, Stratasys, Tiertime (PP3DP), Of these MakerBot (recently acquired by Stratasys and TierTime will have support for Windows 8.1. The Belgian company Materialize is going for an IPO soon.



Review the following link:
http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/11/15/microsoft-s-3d-builder-comes-to-windows-8-1.aspx