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3D Printer Review: Portable 3D Printing Arrives with the Ultimaker Go

It took some time, through 3D print shows and faires, but I finally I got Ultimaker to send me its its newest, portable creation to test and review. Lately, I have been developing a taste for testing out 3D printers. While — as the name entails — its number one feature is portability, I could not miss the opportunity to try out Ultimaker’s most consumer-targeted new product.

Common sense would make you think that consumer products are simpler than professional ones, when the truth is that they are only simpler to the final user. Guaranteeing that simplicity and accessibility to someone without particular technical skills is actually very hard for a manufacturer. Both MakerBot and 3D Systems stumbled down that road, while BeeVeryCreative is, IMAO, the company that has gotten closest so far, but still has some way to go, especially on the software side, to achieve true consumer friendliness.

There are many other contenders I can think of, which I have seen at work during shows, but that, however, I have not yet been able to try first hand. That makes all the difference in the world, because when I am alone with a 3D printer, horrible things can happen. My quest continues and the good news is that, no matter how many 3D printers I try, I remain a stereotypical consumer user: my technical skills don’t improve (they actually seem to be getting worse), I don’t become any more familiar with either hardware or software settings. All I seem to ever be able to do is download models and hit print (even that gives me problems sometimes).

Fortunately new apps such as Tinkerplay, and web apps, like Leopoly and 3DShook, now offer additional customization options (as Tinkercad and Shapeshifter did before them). But that is the full extent of my design abilities. Within this context, I set up my new Ultimaker2 Go.