Idea #5536: Support for 3D printers in linux (maybe via CUPS)

Written by Auzy the 24 Mar 08 at 00:55. Category: Hardware support.
Related to: Nothing/Others. Status: New

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I don't think we have a single 3D printer working in linux at the moment.

We should investigate improving CUPS to support 3D printers in a standardised way for starters.

Our first printer to support should probably be fab@home which is a totally open source (open circuit design printer), thats cheap, and we can easily support and afford to test (you basically can probably buy the parts from mostly anywhere to build it, or get their kit. http://fabathome.org/ .

3D printing will certainly take off in the future, and we should definately get a infrastructure in caser to properly support them (prferably before Apple and Microsoft get one). So that by the time fab@home model 3 is out (which hopefully will be the same cost as a current inkjet, although I doubt it), we are totally ready, and we become the platform of choice for 3D printing

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Auzy wrote on the 24 Mar 08 at 01:33

I should add, that by adding 3D printer support and awesome fabathome support, we can help ensure that the next gen 3D printers are open-hardware, and cheap, instead of all these proprietry protocols and crap we have for inkjets these days. We should try to get fabathome out there enough, so you'll be able to buy printers based on them anywhere

Eldmannen wrote on the 24 Mar 08 at 01:51

Not a bad idea. But I think there are other things to prioritize.

I think that the most important thing with this idea, is "we can help ensure that the next gen 3D printers are open-hardware, and cheap, instead of all these proprietary protocols and crap".

Auzy wrote on the 24 Mar 08 at 02:14

But thats what I see as one of our bad points. We always wait too long on things. I think we have to start nipping things before it gets to the point that they are a priority. Because we don't know what printer companies are up to.

There could be hundreds of printer companies working on 3D printers at the moment, and they may release them all at once. We want to get this in before the printers are released, so they can work on drivers for them while working on the hardware.

We have to stop waiting, Microsoft for instance didn't wait long for exFAT support, and full EFI support, and now, lots of people are in need of them, but we will only wait until the very last second to implement them and be late (as usual).

Anyway, thats my opinion. Have a happy easter

Eldmannen wrote on the 24 Mar 08 at 15:57

Linux kernel has a new stable release every 3 months. Windows has a new release every 2-7 years.

Linux is often first.
We're first with Multithreaded USB probing, Asynchronous SCSI scanning, Virtualization (guest), TCP congestion avoidance, forward receive timeout recovery, PCI-Express, load balancing, I/O scheduling based on thread priority, etc.

If printer companies were working on it, they would probably be bragging about it. :p

Reason Microsoft didn't wait for exFAT support is because they created it.

XVIIarcano wrote on the 24 Mar 08 at 18:59

Wow... this post opened me new horizons of consciousness... I knew these things existed but I tought there were still far more elitarian and limited to a few super-tech labs...
I just have a perplexity... I never needed one so it is not really my problem, but one of the big showstoppers in linux wasn't the lack of a full featured CAD application? I mean, without some decent cad software I miss the point of having a 3d printer. Always in favour of support anyway. +1

fluo wrote on the 27 Mar 08 at 14:11

what the hell is a 3D printer?

notyetroot wrote on the 12 Aug 08 at 22:21

Why not support gadgets? Still I think we need to make a modular system to make it easier to support new technologies like this.

notyetroot wrote on the 12 Aug 08 at 22:23

Forgot this: Imagine printing out a 3D model in Blender!

Auzy wrote on the 13 Aug 08 at 06:13

Fluo. 3D printers print out a model in layers. So you can print a ball, or print out an model of a city (architecture), or with the right stuff, maybe even mechanical parts.

In fact, when 3D printers are good enough, they will even be able to print out copies of themselves (so with the correct materials, you could print out a new 3D printer, layer by layer out of plastics/whatever, building it up).

Fab@home is the first open source / cheapish one you can build (still costs a lot though). However, I'm sick of waiting for obvious technologies such as this to go mainstream, before we support it. We should be at the forefront of technology!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

Google it and you can see a few examples. The materials companies use for printing currently vary greatly.

Craig73 wrote on the 3 Oct 08 at 18:06

You can add support in CUPS but if the manufacturers don't program for it or produce different interfaces what have you gained.

It's probably better to engage a researcher at a university and a few of the companies to come together to produce an open standard interface to 3d printers.

Really - this is no different than any other consortium except you want to get in the game soon enough that it isn't a standard that you have to pay licensing fees for.

This doesn't seem like a Linux issue per say.

Craig73 wrote on the 3 Oct 08 at 18:08

BTW - the reason I'm promoting open standards rather than Linux is that when you can get the weight of all OS vendors (like MS and Apple along with Linux distributors) behind a common standard, it's actually worth something. If it's open, less ability to hi-jack

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