The Rocket Printing Hype Train Thread

[Nicholander]

How much will these 3D printed spacecraft cost? Will they be able to have mod parts?

[federicoaa]

How much will these 3D printed spacecraft cost? Will they be able to have mod parts?

I believe those questions will be answered during the AMA this friday

[Whirligig Girl]

Ugh, sandstone? Also they'll probably only do stock parts which cuts out literally all my craft (because ~KSPW/OMODS~ amirite?). Not to mention the price for printing a craft made out of only stock parts...

Yeah, someone else have fun with that. We'll probably see vanity shots in the forums within days of it going live, though.

I challenge thee, make a craft that is pretty enough for you to put on your desk and at least begrudgingly smile at, and at the same time use on stock parts. (An SLS replica might do it.)

If you as a realism player wants your ships as models, just buy a model kit.

[regex]

If you as a realism player wants your ships as models, just buy a model kit.

I'm an old-school kitbasher, I wouldn't build just any rocket from a kit. You missed my point anyway.

[cantab]

I think the barrier to mod parts could be legal as much as technical. A modmaker could in principle license their parts restrictively, such that Eucl3d would not have the permission to 3D print them. If the system could technically print any ship built in the game, I'm not sure how Eucl3d could avoid such issues outside of a block on printing non-approved parts.

But it's probably just going to upload a .craft file anyway, which would naturally preclude printing parts Eucl3d don't have.

[cantab]

For a moment there I thought there was a new thread with 16 pages already! But you just changed the title Gregrox.

[Whirligig Girl]

I'm an old-school kitbasher, I wouldn't build just any rocket from a kit. You missed my point anyway.

And you missed by anyway. Yes I see what you meant. And I don't think we have any confirmation on mods not being possible, you might be able to send in the models and configs for the mods and they'd be able to print it.

[tygoo7]

I really hope that they make mod parts possible since most my rockets are made out of mods.

[regex]

And you missed by http://vsmallfires.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kappa.png

I have no idea what that is. Did you get it from Reddit or something?

I seriously doubt they'd do mod parts. Most of my craft are half-procedural nowadays, I doubt their software would handle that export well. Much easier to deal with a select group of specific models

[KandoKris]

ooooo exciting ..I like the idea but am fearful of the cost, not just purchase price of the 3D printed marvel but also postage...The size looks Ok when looking at the prints they do for "vainglory" what an odd looking game...

[longbyte1]

Marketing, as expected. Probably will cost $50 per model, at least for the poor souls who have to deal with 500-part rocket submissions..

[Coam]

I wonder, will there be certain pre-made craft available? (perhaps cheaper than custom models since they can be mass produced to an extent.)

The Kerbal-X comes to mind as something that would be ideal for that.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Coam

[Sneaky Bstard Sword]

Or go the way of League and get Imagine Dragons to appeal to the normal nerds out there (as opposed to space/physics nerds)

[Wallygator]

We should all pool our money and have Whackjob send in one of his designs.

We will then be able to see the printer self-destruct from half a continent away.

I would pay a dollar to be part of that!

On Topic (or perhaps more on topic): It would have been better if they had partnered with Revell or Tamiya (or similar - you get my point) to have a basic stock range of plastic PARTS which one could order and then build your own spaceship. Only buy the parts you need, a bit of glue, paint and Bob's your uncle. 3D printing is a bit over the top frankly.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Wallygator

[Streetwind]

Marketing, as expected. Probably will cost $50 per model, at least for the poor souls who have to deal with 500-part rocket submissions..

The number of parts is actually close to irrelevant... it's total physical size that drives cost.

The 3D printer doesn't care how much detail it has to cram into the same volume; an intricate structure is just as much effort for it as a smooth cube. There's a physical limit to how fine the detail is allowed to become before the printer can no longer precisely reproduce it, but other than that, all bets are off.

But if your model is large and contains a large amount of material, then you a.) need to pay for that material and b.) need to pay more for the printing run - because the printer may have to spend an entire run just making your one large model as opposed to making 10 smaller models side-by-side in one run. Since each printing run takes many hours, this is the main driver of cost.

[basic.syntax]

if they had partnered with Revell or Tamiya (or similar - you get my point) to have a basic stock range of plastic PARTS which one could order and then build your own spaceship. Only buy the parts you need, a bit of glue, paint and Bob's your uncle. 3D printing is a bit over the top frankly.

This. KSP is about "building" things, after all. A snap-together kit full of rocket parts would do the job just fine

[ShadowZone]

I am wondering about about two things: Will those printed models have working docking ports / decouplers? Because... you know... What do I do with just a launch stage? What about moving parts like landing gears and cargo bays?

And what about monsters like my Gigacruiser? Will they be able to print the interior?

[basic.syntax]

The printed model pictured in the first post looks like the brittle sandstone process used by Shapeways to print other Kerbal models. All one piece. The material allows fine detail and great color, but don't drop it.

[Coam]

If you go onto the main page of their site, rather than the KSP page, there's another Kerbal craft in the background. It has solar panels and a large RCS tank from what I can make out, and maybe a grabber unit on the nose. It's quite blurry since the focus is on the other models.

[Axelord FTW]

I am wondering about about two things: Will those printed models have working docking ports / decouplers? Because... you know... What do I do with just a launch stage? What about moving parts like landing gears and cargo bays?

And what about monsters like my Gigacruiser? Will they be able to print the interior?

As far as I know, the model will be a solid part.

Unless you are willing to have each stage modeled and printed separately (or as a bunch of unconnected parts out of a single production run on the printer), then the answer is probably no.

3D printers can print convex and hollow shapes, but depending on the type of cement and the fabrication, the 'hollow' might still be full of un-hardened material.

[Whirligig Girl]

For a moment there I thought there was a new thread with 16 pages already! But you just changed the title Gregrox.

Had to Make it more accurate. It would be fine if I weren't linked in the announcememnt forum.

[lajoswinkler]

Let's say there was a 3D printer that could 3D print in full color your customized ship/ space station from Kerbal. How interested would you be in having physical versions of spaceships/spacestations you made in Kerbel?

"in Kerbel" :3

[Whirligig Girl]

There's also this, but the Kerbal ship is blurry. :/

Might give some idea of the scale.

[r4pt0r]

oh god how fragile are those extended solar panels

[RabidMonkey]

oh god how fragile are those extended solar panels

Fragile enough that you don't want to exceed 8m/s without a level 3 engineer on board.