Autodesk has also caught the 3D printer fever and has unveiled Spark for applications such as research, product design and hardware building alongside a complementary printer with open software.
Autodesk CEO Carl Bass said in a blog post that the printer and its software “will provide the building blocks that product designers, hardware manufacturers, software developers, and materials scientists can use to continue to explore the limits of 3D printing technology.”
Autodesk has also expressed intentions of licensing the technology to hardware manufacturers for free to develop the technology. Bass wrote, “the design of the printer will be made publicly available to allow for further development and experimentation”.
Spark is the first hardware based product from Autodesk, which had been focusing on software for 3D printing till date. The company also said that it would start working with hardware manufacturers to integrate Spark with current and future 3D printers.
A recent research by Canalys, a market research firm has revealed that the 3D printing market has a value of $2.5 billion and is likely to rise to $16.2 billion by 2018.
Bass noted that “The world is just beginning to realize the potential of additive manufacturing and with Spark, we hope to make it possible for many more people to incorporate 3D printing into their design and manufacturing process”.
Autodesk said that the price range to be around $5,000 and hints at a release date later this year. Currently, the lower-end 3D printing space is packed with MakerBot’s Replicator 2X available for $2,500 and Cube 3 of 3D Systems for $1,000.
