A technology company based in Finland has been working the past 2 years at perfecting a new 3D printer made especially for architects. Currently, the company is seeking crowdfunding from Indiegogo and has 24 days left to get the backing necessary to produce this printer. They call it the Platonics Ark and it is their goal to make 3D printing for professionals easier, more intuitive and faster than ever before.
The team behind the Ark spent a very long time and travelled around the world speaking with hundreds of lead architects to gain insight into the field. They wanted to learn just what architects need from a 3D printer to work more efficiently at what they do.
The Platonics Ark has been designed to make 3D prints with very minimal maintenance in a time-saving manner. It also uses the “highest quality hardware.” Not only that, but the software they developed for it is able to covert CAD files into 3D printable STL files with few errors involved in the process. Actually, what makes the whole thing even smoother is they designed the printer to automate most of the maintenance necessary to keep it running. So, you can print in a matter of minutes thanks to the fact that it can self-calibrate and it automatically cleans itself after each print.
We have been developing the first 3D printer especially for architects for almost 2 years, and now we’re ready to bring the Ark to all architects for easier and faster 3D printing. The Ark makes 3D printing easy with its time-saving software that allows you to print directly from Archicad, Revit, Rhino, Vectorworks and Sketchup, and minimal maintenance, reliable hardware – making 3D printing a matter of minutes.
They also wanted to help architects get back to using scale models in their daily work instead of just relying on two dimensional drawings. They feel that physical models have a larger impact on design decisions and drastically improve communication in this field. Traditionally, models take a lot of effort and time to create and they are not always used at every stage in the design process. However, with this 3D printer architects can now use scale models quickly if they desire.
Currently the Ark is only available in Europe through Indiegogo and product deliveries for backers are scheduled to start in April of 2018. Super early bird pricing starts from 2,095 EUR or about $2472.
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