Autodesk Unveils 'Project Spark' Open Source 3D Printing Platform

Advertisement
By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 15 May 2014 13:33 IST

We're witnessing a boom in 3D printing these days, as devices are becoming slowly more affordable and designs are getting easier to share. Despite that, no one can say that 3D printers have gone mainstream yet.

One of the big challenges is the lack of any single standard - there are several different companies with different printers which work in different ways. Autodesk - one of the biggest companies to specialise in 3D design software - wants to change that, and on Wednesday, announced an open source project called the Spark Initiative.

Advertisement

Spark is an open 3D printing platform, which means that everyone can use the same building blocks to connect digital information to 3D printers.

Advertisement

In a post on the Autodesk website, Autodesk President and CEO Carl Bass writes that Spark will make it more reliable and simpler to print 3D models, and added that the company will be launching its own 3D printer to act as a reference implementation for Spark, and to set benchmarks for the 3D printing experience.

Advertisement

Along with the software behind Spark, the design of the 3D printer will also be made publicly available, to allow for further development and experimentation.

Advertisement

Currently, the 3D printing movement is still in its early days, mostly driven by small groups of dedicated believers. We're starting to see small interest groups emerge in India as well, which are trying to evangelise 3D printing here.

(Also see: Printerest: How India is warming up to the world of 3D printing)

The open source movement has been a big part of this - the most famous commercial 3D printer today, the MakerBot, also started life as an open source hardware project in its earlier form, though the design of the MakerBot Replicator 2 was not published.

With Spark, you now have one of the biggest names in 3D design standing behind what could become a standard model for the rest of the industry to prototype and experiment on, which can only help with the development and adoption of 3D printing technology.

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Advertisement
Popular Mobile Brands
  1. OnePlus 15 Battery Capacity, Charging Speed Teased Days Ahead of Launch
  2. iQOO 15 vs iPhone 17 Pro Max: Features, Price and Specifications Compared
  3. Realme GT 8, Realme GT 8 Pro With Ricoh GR Optics Launched: See Price
  4. BSNL Samman Plan For Senior Citizens Announced at This Price
  5. iQOO 15 Launched With Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 50-Megapixel Cameras
  6. These Are the 5 Biggest OxygenOS 16 Features You Should Know About
  7. OpenAI's AI-Powered Web Browser Is Here: Know What It Can Do
  8. DeepSeek-OCR Could Change How AI Reads Text From Images
  9. OnePlus 15 India Launch Teased; Key Features Revealed Ahead of Launch
  1. Poco Pad M1 Spotted on TDRA Website, Could Debut Globally as Rebranded Redmi Pad 2 Pro
  2. Samsung AI Glasses Confirmed to Launch in Collaboration with Warby Parker, Gentle Monster
  3. iQOO Neo 11 Confirmed to Come With 2K Display and 7,500mAh Battery; Colour Options Tipped
  4. MacBook Pro 14-inch (2025) and iPad Pro With M5 Chip Now Available in India: Prices and Other Details Here
  5. Samsung Galaxy XR Headset Launched With Hand Tracking, Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 SoC: Price, Specifications
  6. Samsung Galaxy XR Headset Launching Today: Know Price, Features, and Specifications
  7. Smartwatch Breakthrough Brings GPS Accuracy Down to a Few Centimetres
  8. SpaceX Launches 10,000th Starlink Satellite, Sets New Annual Record
  9. Scientists Discover New Seismic Clue to Predict Mount Etna Eruptions
  10. NASA and ESA Trace Mysterious Lunar Flashes to Meteors and Gas Leaks
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.