BigRep, the Berlin based manufacturers of the biggest reprap 3D printer on the market, have announced at CES that they will be joining Autodesk’s Spark open creative platform, along with other 3D printer manufacturers such as Ultimaker, Dremel, ExOne and Autodesk itself.
While most of us are not yet entirely sure what exactly the Spark platform will do, many industry insiders are raving about it and are rushing to join its ranks. It promises to improve information exchange between design software and the printer, to optimize designs before production begins and to provide open APIs for a broad group of users to access and innovate the 3D printing pipeline.
Along with the above mentioned manufacturers, a number of different companies have already joined Spark each contributing to the platform’s evolution by providing its own specific set of experiences, from 3D Hubs’ user networking to Emerging Object’s materials experimentation.
“BigRep believes that while big is beautiful, it doesn’t have to be expensive,” said René Gurka, BigRep CEO. “Adopting Spark is an important step for us towards building a global ecosystem of BigRep Printers, creating a better experience for anyone who wants to bring big ideas to reality.”
BigRep will be able to provide a new set of experiences working with it BigRep ONE.2 full size FFF 3D printer and a 1.3 m³ printing volume. Although it may take some time, designers and architect generally agree that future furniture and other large items will be customized online and manufactured locally. The BigRep ONE.2 is currently the closest thing to “sparking” that up.
