Editor’s Note: Something different and potentially very useful as the number of available 3D printers grow. We need ways for quickly comparing 3D printers and their capabilities. THRE3D are working on solving that problem.
At THRE3D the goal is to help take the complexity and fragmentation out of 3D printing. In essence finding a way to offer reliable information about machines, materials and how they work together.
Which 3D Printer?
Talking to Myles Lambert of THRE3D he had this to say:
“Filtering through the large number of 3D printers coming onto the market is a huge pain. We’ve focused our efforts on making the market more transparent and the technology more approachable. A little more than a year ago we set out to get all the products available in the industry under one roof to make browsing and comparing them easy for the first time.
Myles continued:
“Scrolling through a results page for 3D printers and narrowing down those results with useful filters was a big step forward. However, it soon became apparent that we could do even more with the data we had. There must be better ways to communicate it.”
“We had cataloged a very diverse set of products and curated a global set of technical specs. And we thought, why should all that data be relegated to spec sheets?
“Instead, we decided to use that data to create interactive charts. Creating visuals for the market landscape providing new ways to scan the market and make it even easier to zone in on the subset of products that fit specific needs. This visualization also makes it quick to see how a particular product fits in the market alongside it’s competitors.”
This is obviously a first step that kicks off their efforts to conveniently tap into that data. We realize they can’t answer all the questions somebody might have about a 3D printer with a graph based on specs. Questions like reliability or ease of use. However, let’s say someone knows they need an FDM printer with a big build volume. These graphs provide a means to quickly identify their options and compare prices between the competition. This saves time as a user can then quickly move forward to only consider the products they’re most interested in.
At dock.thre3d.com you can check out an alpha copy of the first few charts they have put together which are interactive (you can also zoom in and remove data points).
The interview continued with Myles explaining where THRE3D are at:
“The reason why we’re putting this out so early in the development process is because we’re interested in feedback to help guide our development. Any ideas of how you’d get the most value from a feature such as this and suggestions for improvements you’d like to see would be greatly appreciated.”
Price By Volume
3DP By Country
3DP By Type
The feedback so far:
More Variety – display the information in formats such as bar charts, pie charts etc. so that they correspond better with the various questions that might be asked.
For Consumers – A few charts keenly focused on answering specific questions with a whole page dedicated to them. Those pages would include explanations/insights about what’s tracked and the charts would highlight popular products to serve as benchmarks.
For Industry – The ability to select parameters and filter from the whole list of technical specifications held in the database.
Please feel free to add your comments and thoughts below.