News - Autodesk unveils Spark, an open software 3D printing platform

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The company is also making a new 3D printer to showcase its platform.

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Read more.

Oh joy.... another 3d printing format/platform for companies/people to support.

Autodesk are taking the 'free and open' approach for one reason and one reason only, to maintain their '3d CAD market' cashcow as the 'standard'.

I love the idea of a standard format but I'm not sure having autodesk 'create' the format is the best option.

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Originally Posted by LSG501

Oh joy.... another 3d printing format/platform for companies/people to support.
Autodesk are taking the 'free and open' approach for one reason and one reason only, to maintain their '3d CAD market' cashcow as the 'standard'.
I love the idea of a standard format but I'm not sure having autodesk 'create' the format is the best option.

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Read the article, not only are Autodesk doing an open platform, but also allowing the use of 3rd party supplies. This seems like a good thing to me on the face of it - especially if this Spark platform really is "open", in the true sense of the word, not Oracle's definition of that term.

As the article says, we've currently got a plethora of incompatible standards, so thumbs up from me for Autodesk trying to get some sense into the market. And lets be honest it needs a big player like Autodesk to use their clout to push it through.

And before I get flamed, no I'm not suggesting for a microsecond that Autodesk are being altruistic, I too assume that they want to make Autocad etc the preferred choice for makers. What would worry me is that the "freely licensable" terms would change to become something less friendly.

I find it hard not to support AutoDesk at the moment given that all, or certainly most, of their software is free for schools (perhaps even those who work in schools?). OK, it might be a step towards locking people into the AutoDesk system, but it's still one heck of a programme, and one they've committed to sustain over the coming years.

I'm used to a completely backwards way of offering programs to schools (horrifically overpriced and atrociously programmed software), so it's rather refreshing.

I had no idea of the programme before they called me up, so I have to say credit where it is due and good luck to them.

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Originally Posted by this_is_gav

I'm used to a completely backwards way of offering programs to schools (horrifically overpriced and atrociously programmed software), so it's rather refreshing.

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What about Apple's and Microsoft's "for schools" programmes - I'd heard they were quite good, at least from the money-saving point of view.

Don't know about Apple, but Microsoft's is good. I'm more referring to bespoke educational software (which obviously doesn't apply here, but it's still nice to see!).

Well they rescued tinkercad ( http://blog.tinkercad.com/2013/05/18...esk_tinkercad/) so autodesk is ok with me ;)

I often use tinkercad for the creation of quick models to 3d print...