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Featured image of How an Uncomfortable 3D Printed Dress Stole the Spotlight at This Week’s Paris Fashion Show
Suffer for the Print
How an Uncomfortable 3D Printed Dress Stole the Spotlight at This Week’s Paris Fashion Show

Forget breathable fabrics, the future of haute couture is rigid, custom-extruded, color-shifting PETG. Just don't try to sit down.

by Carolyn Schwaar Sep 30, 2026
Featured image of Bambu Lab Launches PETG Matte, Promising PLA-Like Printing With PETG Durability
Tough Stuff, Soft Finish
Bambu Lab Launches PETG Matte, Promising PLA-Like Printing With PETG Durability

The new filament combines a subdued finish with improved humidity resistance, easier support removal, and the toughness expected from PETG.

by Carolyn Schwaar Sep 30, 2026
Featured image of AI Data Center Cooling: The Breakout Market for 3D Printed Copper?
Printing a Cool Solution
AI Data Center Cooling: The Breakout Market for 3D Printed Copper?

With AI processors pushing traditional thermal management to its limits, metal 3D printer makers are pivoting to produce complex, pure copper liquid cold plates for next-generation data centers.

by Carolyn Schwaar Sep 29, 2026
Featured image of Why This Japanese Plan to 3D Print City Infrastructure from Waste Could Become a Global Model
Printing the Daily Grind
Why This Japanese Plan to 3D Print City Infrastructure from Waste Could Become a Global Model

What if your city’s next park bench was 3D printed from morning coffee grounds and discarded household plastics?

by Carolyn Schwaar Sep 28, 2026
Weekend Poll
Desktop 3D printing has evolved in distinct generational waves.

Whether your gateway machine was a 1st-gen RepRap cobbled together with hardware store threaded rods (good luck finding hardware-store replacements for a printer today) or an Ender 3 kit that taught you the value of knowing the thickness of a sheet of paper, that first printer defined your entry into 3D printing.

The lines are arbitrary, but there are some attractive boundaries that seem logical – distinct generational waves in desktop printing hardware. So let's take a generational roll call: which is yours?

 

by  Matthew Mensley Sep 27, 2026
Featured image of PCBWay’s New Student Program Takes 50% Off 3D Printing, CNC, and PCBs
School Savings
PCBWay’s New Student Program Takes 50% Off 3D Printing, CNC, and PCBs

Students can claim up to $200 per project, and schools up to $2,000 per purchase, provided you run the gauntlet of an application review and don't mind a mandatory PCBWay logo on your PCBs.

by Matthew Mensley Sep 24, 2026
Featured image of What Do You Get When You Cross FDM, DLP, CNC, and a Pellet Extruder? The New Modular Printer from XYZO
But Does It Make Toast?
What Do You Get When You Cross FDM, DLP, CNC, and a Pellet Extruder? The New Modular Printer from XYZO

UK startup XYZO has revealed an ambitious modular manufacturing platform that wants to print, machine, cure, clean, and inspect parts without them ever leaving the machine.

by Carolyn Schwaar Sep 23, 2026
Featured image of Creality Launches Sermoon P1S, a Versatile Standalone Laser 3D Scanner for Less
No Strings
Creality Launches Sermoon P1S, a Versatile Standalone Laser 3D Scanner for Less

Creality is launching the Sermoon P1S today, a standalone blue-laser and NIR 3D scanner that joins March's Sermoon P1 at the forefront of Creality's pro-focused, but not expert difficulty handheld scanners.

by Matthew Mensley Sep 23, 2026
Open Season
Snapmaker's model repository, Snapmaker Space, is now open to everyone.

Launching with some 2,500 models and specifically structured around multicolor and multi-material printing, the site features a unique user-reward system that scales rewards based on qualifying print time. It's nothing if not different; a model repository built for the efficiencies of a toolchanger. You can check it out over at Snapmaker Space.

by  Matthew Mensley Sep 22, 2026
Source: Snapmaker
Featured image of Beyond 3D Printing: Inside Bambu Lab’s New Standalone Laser Cutter
Bambu Makes the Cut
Beyond 3D Printing: Inside Bambu Lab’s New Standalone Laser Cutter

The R1 cuts wood, acrylic, leather, fabric, and paper, plus engraves on glass and stone.

by Carolyn Schwaar Sep 22, 2026
Featured image of Snapmaker Collabs With Phaetus for up to 87% More Flow With New High-Flow U1 Hotend
Let it Flow
Snapmaker Collabs With Phaetus for up to 87% More Flow With New High-Flow U1 Hotend

The hotend uses Phaetus’ Liber split channel geometry to heat filament faster, and is capped with a DLC-coated hardened steel nozzle for tough performance.

by Matthew Mensley Sep 22, 2026
IPO to Indiegogo
Creality's four-filament SparkX i8 3D printer is live and ready for backing on Indiegogo.

The printer uses a creative four-channel nozzle and switching extruder Creality calls QuarTeks to cut print waste on multi-filament prints. The printer circumvents the filament cut'n'purge other single-nozzle printers use by having each of the filaments primed inside the nozzle in its own discrete channel. Creality claims there's zero purge during printing. See for yourself over on Indiegogo, where a limited early-bird discount has the i8 available from $289.

by  Matthew Mensley Sep 21, 2026
Source: Creality
CAD, but Vibier
A free Tinkercad alternative launched last week that you can drive with Claude.

Layerling, a new browser-based 3D modeling tool aimed squarely at people who want a printable part rather than a career in CAD. It requires no account or cloud service, keeps designs in the browser, and exports STL, OBJ, and STEP files. There’s also an MCP server that lets AI clients, such as Codex or Claude, work directly in the editor while you watch. So yes, apparently even dragging boxes around a build plate can now be delegated. It has already been updated dozens of times, so development does not appear to be lingering over coffee.

by  Carolyn Schwaar Sep 21, 2026
Source: Layerling/All3DP
Interest Rates Be Damned
AM Market keeps climbing, $4.5B in Q2. Here’s where the growth is.

The global additive manufacturing market reached $4.48 billion in Q2 2026, notching a sixth straight quarter of growth, according to AM Research. Revenue across metal, polymer, and ceramic systems, materials, and services rose 12% year-over-year, with metal AM contributing $1.8B and polymer AM $2.7B. Services were the real workhorse, bringing in nearly $2.50B or more than half the market. AM Research's Scott Dunham called the first half of the year “robust growth,” though stubbornly high interest rates could still make manufacturers think twice before signing off on big capital purchases.

by  Carolyn Schwaar Sep 21, 2026
Source: Additive Manufacturing Research
Featured image of Prusament’s New Foaming PLA: How It Cuts Print Weight by 65%
The Weight Is Over
Prusament’s New Foaming PLA: How It Cuts Print Weight by 65%

Prusa’s new actively foaming PLA promises lighter parts, more prints per spool, and a distinctive matte finish.

by Carolyn Schwaar Sep 21, 2026
Weekend Poll
Do you scan objects to 3D print them?

It's a use case we often see scanner manufacturers pushing as a core reason you should use their products, but when the results are often blotchy, fuzzy approximations of the object scanned, we've got to ask, who's actually printing that? Treating the scan as a starting point to reverse engineer, we get, but is anyone printing scans as they come?

by  Matthew Mensley Sep 20, 2026
Space Saver
Everybody's laser software of choice introduces new features in 2.2.0, now available in early access.

LightBurn 2.1's Quick Nest feature gets an upgrade in 2.2.0. Rather than nesting objects based on their bounding boxes, 2.2.0's True Nest feature jostles objects efficiently together based on the actual contour, saving material with each batch. If you're not into laser cutting, that probably sounds pretty dull, but seeing it in action is infinitely more entertaining than reading about it. Read more about it on the LightBurn blog.

by  Matthew Mensley Sep 19, 2026
Source: LightBurn
EmBambattled
A trial by jury in Texas has found for Stratasys against Bambu Lab.

Stratasys alleges Bambu Lab infringed ten of its patents with the X1, P1, and A1 series 3D printers. For four of the patents, the subject of the first of two trials, a jury agreed, awarding $27.6-million in past damages to Stratasys for the infringements. It's worth noting that, so far, there's been no mention of injunction on sales of the machines, some of which are still available, or licensing going forward. Bambu Lab could, and almost certainly will, appeal the decision.

by  Matthew Mensley Sep 18, 2026
Featured image of More Room to Matter? Phrozen’s 16K Resin Printer Is 2.5x Bigger, Not Sharper
Going the Extra 16K
More Room to Matter? Phrozen’s 16K Resin Printer Is 2.5x Bigger, Not Sharper

Phrozen supersizes its Mighty Revo resin printer with almost twice the build-plate area and a 2-liter vat, with pre-orders opening September 22.

by David Henning Sep 18, 2026
Coming Soon-ish
Autodesk aims to put more AI in Fusion.

Autodesk has joined the grand tradition of announcing AI features before they actually exist. The company today announced plans to beef up Autodesk Assistant AI in Fusion so it can use project context to flag problems, trace knock-on effects, and help across design and manufacturing workflows. Users will also be able to hook in their own AI tools. For now, though, this is a roadmap, not a release. The expanded Assistant isn’t generally available, and Autodesk says rollout details are coming in 2027.

by  Carolyn Schwaar Sep 15, 2026
Source: Autodesk
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