Oct. 10, 2014 | By Alec

We quickly realized that the average consumer thinks it's all just a complicated business. Not everyone has the skills or drive necessary for 3D modelling, and many of them get tired of printed ready-made, downloadable files after about a month or so. They want to do more, but they've walked into a knowledge barrier.

This realization is what has been driving Dutch startup business Printr forward, and culminated in the development of their consumer-oriented 3D printing platform Formide. Rather than being one of so many companies selling 3D printer parts or offering on-demand 3D printing services, this Enschede, the Netherlands-based company seeks to make 3D modelling and printing accessible and let people get creative without technical limitations.

Printr's Formide cloud-based 3D printing platform will introduce apps as a new way for users to create customized content, while enabling consumers to print their own construction without having extensive knowledge of software or hardware. As they explained:

Formide introduces many exciting features like automated healing, repairing and positioning of 3D models. Other features include direct streaming to 3D printers, a highly secured cloud powered system and an interface that anyone can understand and use. Future updates will include the option to completely operate your 3D printer from any web enabled device and a disruptive new slicer that completely changes the way we think about slicer engines.

Printr has designed Formide with the end-user always in mind: 'We believe that websites shouldn't be overly complicated and our intuitive interface is as easy as it gets'. Here are some of the main features:

- Formide can automatically check and modify your creations to optimize printing results. Not only does this save a tremendous amount of time, it helps beginning enthusiasts to get to grips with the 3D printing process without getting stuck in development phases.

- Formide also included the option to stream models directly to your 3D printer. 'There's no more need to mess around with SD cards when you use Formide.'

- Formide has built in security measures to make sure that you are secure no matter where you access your files.

- Furthermore, Formide will come with an API to helps content creators from every industry to easily release their own app to the platform. App owners are invited to get into contact with Printr to get help creating and releasing apps for the Formide platform. Talented modelers may also apply if they have an idea for their own app.

- Finally, the team behind Printr is collaborating with various popular (free & paid) online repositories to share a wide range of free and paid models for direct 3D printing. Anyone lacking the time, interest or creativity to design their very own 3D models can simply dive into the various incorporated content repositories that have been included.

All this makes Formide a very promising and intriguing piece of software, and we're eagerly looking forward to its release in November 2014 to see how it actually performs.

Printr is a promising start-up company founded in 2014 by Remco Katz, Chris ter Beke, Douwe Bart Mulder and Cecile van der Waal. While thus very young, its evolved out of a collaboration of two different companies: the eponymous Printr founded in 2013 that functioned as a print-on-demand service, and Q3D, a small firm focussed on the ICT side of 3D printing.

They joined forces when they came to the conclusion that 3D printing would never go mainstream without the proper solutions for the typical consumer. 'At Printr we believe in the power of creation and we've made it our mission to make 3D printing easy & accessible for anyone.'
Working with the help of a Microsoft BizSpark start-up platform, Formide is only the first of their achievements, but it would not at all surprise us if we heard a lot more about them in the near future.


Posted in 3D Software

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