Well, the issue with 3D printing as I see it is 3D modeling.
Anyone can fire-up a word processor and produce interesting looking documents and flyers.
A lot less people can fire-up a paint program and produce interesting images.
A lot less people than that can fire-up a 2D CAD program and produce 2D mechanical or architectural drawings.
And yet a lot less people than that can run a 3D modeling program and product much beyond trivial trinkets.
Beyond "Look! I printed this tiny Statue of Liberty from a file I got online" and "Check out the letter A I made!" lies real mechanical design. This is where mechanical things start to become useful.
At that level you now need far better understanding of how to design multi-component mechanical assemblies, materials, etc. Anyone can do a little pyramid in Sketchup. Not everyone can design a full robotic hand with differential drive and force compliance.
I imagine most folks buy 3D printers, print a few things they can get online and that's the end of it. A very few are inspired to learn some more and do some basic modeling. I can only see a very, very few go all out, learn advanced modeling and mechanical design and start to extract value out of their 3D printers.
Anyone can fire-up a word processor and produce interesting looking documents and flyers.
A lot less people can fire-up a paint program and produce interesting images.
A lot less people than that can fire-up a 2D CAD program and produce 2D mechanical or architectural drawings.
And yet a lot less people than that can run a 3D modeling program and product much beyond trivial trinkets.
Beyond "Look! I printed this tiny Statue of Liberty from a file I got online" and "Check out the letter A I made!" lies real mechanical design. This is where mechanical things start to become useful.
At that level you now need far better understanding of how to design multi-component mechanical assemblies, materials, etc. Anyone can do a little pyramid in Sketchup. Not everyone can design a full robotic hand with differential drive and force compliance.
I imagine most folks buy 3D printers, print a few things they can get online and that's the end of it. A very few are inspired to learn some more and do some basic modeling. I can only see a very, very few go all out, learn advanced modeling and mechanical design and start to extract value out of their 3D printers.