Thinking Outside the CAD Box

This article reviews new 3D printing capabilities for computer-aided design (CAD) engineers. As additive manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing and rapid prototyping become increasingly capable, traditional barriers of resources and skill for manufacturing are all but vanishing. Three-dimensional printers are giving designers unprecedented control over the shape and composition of matter. High-end 3D printers today can combine multiple materials into arbitrary patterns at a resolution close to 10 mm, leading to the ability to create geometry with fidelity and complexity that rivals that of the natural world. The growing accessibility of personal manufacturing tools, such as 3D printers, is democratizing design and enabling new types of designers. The combination of new geometric representations, new design paradigms, and new interfaces leads to new challenges and opportunities in the CAD field as never before. Good design tools are often the hidden enabler of technological innovation; however, balancing the existing performance engine with a new paradigm shift is a difficult but not an impossible task.