Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Closed loop printing contributes more than just monitoring the shape of
printed output. A closed loop 3D printer, if programmed correctly and given
the appropriate hardware to convey environmental feedback, could monitor
the strength of material it is printing and add material if necessary. An intel-
ligent, closed loop 3D printer could monitor the conductivity or elasticity of the
material while it's printed. In fact, any material or structural property in the
inal 3D printed object that can be measured and modiied in real time could
be fabricated using an adaptive, closed loop 3D printer following instructions
from a dynamical blueprint.
Changing the shape of design tools
First we shape our tools, and then the tools shape us. Design for 3D printing
relects the inluence of years of physical constraints, similar to the way that
recorded music is packaged and sold. Do you remember vinyl record albums?
An album was a collection of songs, each about 3 or 4 minutes in length. Since
a vinyl album could hold only so much material, each album was made up of
about ten songs, half on one side, half on the other.
There's nothing sacred about an album when you think about it. There's no
deep aesthetic theory that dictates that periodically, an artist must simultane-
ously release a batch of several songs of mostly equal length and store them all on
a single physical storage unit that's given a name and decorative cover art. Mozart
certainly didn't comply with this standard. Yet our conception of recorded music
is still shaped by vinyl discs that have been obsolete for decades now.
Music fans of a certain age think in albums. Designers think in terms of
constraints imposed by once-limited computing power and the physical limi-
tations of manufacturing machines.
Our capacity to imagine and 3D print physical objects will expand in tan-
dem with design software's ability to express shape. Future design tools will
be intuitive to use; some will be responsive to touch, to movement, to envi-
ronmental conditions. Computers will become more luent at depicting shapes
and intelligent enough to solve design problems that we can't.
Humans will guide their computer's design strategies by feeding in data
or pruning out unwanted design solutions and breeding more desirable ones.
As Sivam Krish wrote on his blog,
Generative Design
, “the answer lies not in
eliminating the human designer, but in assisting the designer by managing the
constraints and the requirements that evolve throughout the design process.”
2
