Speeds kills, and in this case, slow speed kills the quickest. The one I used has a 7″ x 7″ footprint which presented challenges to how delicate everything was once we shrank the house footprint down so that it would be small enough to fit within that area The size of the “build area” of the printer.I will point out that this post is not intended to be a review of 3D printer equipment, since I am only 2 weeks into this experience I am not prepared to deep dive into the specific parameters of why one printer would be better than another with the exception to two things: I don’t know how much the one we have in the office cost when it was purchased but the new ones will run you around $6,300 (ouch!). This is the 3D printer we have – a Ultimaker 3 Extended …which is no longer made and has since been replaced with the newer and improved Ultimaker S5 3D Printer but let me prepare you that these are definitely NOT cheap pieces of equipment. The image above represents the current fruit of our exploratory labors, and I have to say that while I’m not completely satisfied, it does look pretty good and the attention generated in the office regarding this particular project has been very interesting to watch develop.īut I’m getting in front of myself, let’s back up just a bit.

So I have been simply looking at the 3D printer that has been sitting in my office for the last two years and I finally decided to put it to work. I am definitely late to the party on this one but my last office didn’t see any value in this sort of design exercise – we built a lot of models by hand using more traditional materials. Architects have been using 3D printers for years so the process of printing architectural 3D models isn’t new, but over the last two weeks, we have been experimenting with the process of creating a model for one of our residential projects.

Best 3d print model sites