3D printing: Industrial Revolution 2.0!

The more I dig into the ins and outs of consumer 3D printing, the more I see we've still got a ways to go before most of us will have a user-friendly and affordable way to work it into our daily lives. But, fascinating stuff, no doubt and I'm curious to see the trajectory consumer use follows, much like we saw for the adoption of cell phones and how they so quickly became one of our main ways to access the internet.

For those of you taking my upcoming CAD/3D printing SEP course this winter, I've found another UVa resource I'll look into for submitting stl files to get project estimates to print a finished product; take a look here for some pricing and estimated printing duration. Additionally, I've found Staples is slowly getting into the consumer 3D printing business, partnering with MakerBot; in Virginia, the Falls Church and Williamsburg stores offer this service. Being a W&M grad, I definitely plan to make a visit to the Williamsburg store this fall to experience what Staples bills as the complete 3D ecosystem. I'll let you know what I find when I arrive on their door step with an stl project print ready ...