HP and MS touting a new 3D printing file format

http://3dprint.com/60863/microsoft-3d-print-file-format

Interesting.

 

As a service bureau and training consultant, it sure would be nice to have a file format that does what they say.

"The file format must contain a complete definition of the printed model, in a way that allows unambiguous and accurate processing of the model. Finally, the file format must be practical, simple to understand and easy to implement."

When I hear Microsoft doing things with 3D printing, I always think of the awesomeness that Emmett brings on Thingiverse and hope that he is heavily involved.

 

Just an FYI, Microsoft, no matter what anyone personally feels about them is a large contributor to open source. I for one am looking forward to what they do with a new format for 3D printing. A revamp of the file format is long overdue. It will likely be controlled by a consortium of some kind. Take a look at some of the Open Source projects Microsoft is working on here http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/directory.aspx.

 

@Virgil, I appreciate your skepticism but you bias is showing (understandably so).

@everyone
A few things in play here, there is a definite need to commoditize 3D printing. It cannot and will not be anything more than a novelty if it doesn't become Plug & Play and a mainstream consumer product. Gartner predicts the 3D printer market will be $13.4B by 2018, it won't get there if only enterprises, media companies and makers are the only ones using it. I am sure Robo is counting on commoditization, they want a big piece of that $13.4B pie! The fastest way for 3D printing to achieve critical mass is by companies like HP, Autodesk, Microsoft among others to integrate this technology into desktop applications, peripherals and operating environments.

Windows alone is over a $4B product for Microsoft, going Open Source will cannibalize some of that money. Tell me a single company that will throw away, what could be, significant portions of their revenue just to please a few of us advocates.

The current reality of open source is not the Utopian society the ideal promised us. Yes you can fork various projects and make changes for yourself and your buddies, but try to mainstream those changes and see just how controlled the environment is. I am not speaking about bad code, any enhancement has to be 'approved' by the one/core that controls the main code. I know this as a fact from documentation writing. Programmers hate documentation (I know this is a simplistic stereotype, but more true than false). I have had complete sections of documentation stripped of much content because the 'owners' felt the end user should know how the code works on their own or they wanted to have the end user believe that things auto-magically happen. How is that really any different than a closed system, when only code writers know what the code does? Difference is Satya Nadella signs one group of code writers paychecks.

The 3MF Consortium is not just Microsoft and HP, so let's put this half truth to rest. It initially includes Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, netfabb, Shapeways, SLM Solutions as well as the big two. The standard will be open and royalty free. Just take a quick look at their GitHub repository and see that netfabb is the main contributor. To use a headline that says Microsoft and HP come up with a new file format, whether intentional or not, is specifically done to bias the reader and short changes the contribution of others.

Sorry for the long post, I am not a Microsoft fanboy, nor HP for that matter, but I can't see how this is bad for 3D printing no matter what the motives of the individual players are.

 

Virgil only the very first line of my response was directed to you, hence the @everyone. The rest was general commentary about the state of affairs in 3D printing with regard to the original post. It has to move beyond "community" if there is truly a chance to become mainstream. Easiest way to accomplish that is put it in the hands of the biggest players. There will always be differing opinions on who should control what, but some control is always required. What difference does it make if it is 3MF or some other single group.

 

As far as I know, only the companies mentioned in my comment are currently included. Also note my comment about the github repository.

I started the series with FO3, but it is one of my favorites, also enjoyed all the ME and FC games.

Had to reply from my Android phone (talk about fragmentation and the wild wild west) since my PC thought it would be a good time to update to W10 build 10122.

 

They can do a decent job of this if they try and really want to.
They probably will...seems like someone got smart...windows 10 has all the right moves (runs on embedded hardware, cheap/free for makers). We will see. Just letting Linux 'have'/own the embedded market would have been ... short-sighted (if not terminally stupid).