As much as 3D printing a PSP, Xbox controller or a photo camera may not be original designs, when you are able to replicate them digitally to create a 3D printable file you feel that now they are, in a way, yours as well. That must be how a group of industrial design students from Universidad della Valle de Mexico (UVM) felt when they saw their design projects become real through local 3D printing service Voxel.
Based in Queretaro, the vibrant capital of the Queretaro State of Mexico, Voxel 3D Printing is one of the first 3D printing services in a country that has been responding enthusiastically to the recent consumer-prosumer wave of 3D printing expansion.
The company has installed both a ZPrinter (now 3D Systems’ CJP technology) powder based professional 3D printer and a Cube X model for filament base printing. And they understand the importance of education in this martket when they made their experience and technology available to design students to turn their projects from basic sketches to 3D designs and then physical models.
The results are quite impressive and range from a Stradivari Violin (similar to the one that The Economist put on their cover in 2011, when the announced the upcoming additive manufacturing revolution) to consumer products such as the video game related ones, to a beautiful design of a “digital deer” and more.
Voxel 3D Printing’s online platform includes detailed instructions on file types and compatible modeling software, including Blender, Revit, 3DS Max, Inventor, Sketchup, Maya and SolidWorks. The company’s founder is a young entrepreneur who studied modelling and animation in VFX and is now using this expertise to make everyone else’s voxels “come true” as well.
