3D printing goes live for Adobe Photoshop CC

Adobe has announced new 3D printing capabilities for its flagship Photoshop Creative Cloud (CC). 

According to Adobe VP Winston Hendrickson, the latest features will allow users to more easily build, refine, preview, prepare and print 3D designs – setting the stage for explosive growth in the 3D printing market.

“The new 3D printing capabilities also help creatives to design in 3D from scratch or refine an existing 3D model and produce beautiful, print-ready 3D models using familiar Photoshop tools,” Hendrickson explained. 

”Automated mesh repair and support structure generation ensure models will be produced reliably, while accurate previews allow creatives to submit print jobs with confidence.”

Hendrickson also noted that the new 3D print capabilities in Photoshop CC will help take the “guess work” out of printing 3D models for everyone.

“Before today there was a gap between the content produced by 3D modeling tools and what 3D printers need in order to deliver high quality results,” he added. “Now, by simply clicking ‘Print’ in Photoshop CC, creatives can bring 3D designs to the physical world.”

Indeed, designs can be printed to a locally connected 3D printer or via built-in access to popular online 3D print services. As expected, Photoshop CC supports the most popular desktop 3D printers, such as the Atmel-powered MakerBot Replicator. 

In addition, Photoshop CC also supports the full range of high quality materials available on Shapeways – the 3D printing community and marketplace – including ceramics, metals and full color sandstone.

Last, but certainly not least, Photoshop users can now directly upload their 3D models to the Sketchfab 3D publishing service, while embedding them in their Behance profile using Sketchfab’s interactive 3D viewer.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the DIY Maker Movement has been using Atmel-powered 3D printers like MakerBot and RepRap for some time now. However, 3D printing has clearly entered a new and important stage in a number of spaces including the medical sphere, architectural arena and science lab. To be sure, the meteoric rise of 3D printing has paved the way for a new generation of Internet entrepreneurs, Makers and do-it-yourself (DIY) manufacturers. As such, the lucrative 3D printing industry remains on track to be worth a staggering $3 billion by 2016.

Building a pressure sensitive floor with Atmel’s ATtiny84

Sean Voisen and his team at Adobe were recently asked to build “something new” for the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco. Several months later, a digital-physical environment for kids called “Sense It” was up and running.

“With a 14’x8′ touch-enabled LED wall and a 14’x12′ pressure-sensitive floor, Sense It is a place for kids to run, jump, play and create in a world of ‘extra large’ digital experiences,” Voisen explained in a recent blog post.

“As part this project, I was tasked with designing and building the pressure-sensitive electronic floor. I call it the ActiveFloor. At 168 square feet with one pressure sensor per square foot, it is by far the largest electronics project I have worked on to date.”

As the HackADay crew notes, a camera-based detection system couldn’t give Voisen’s team the required precision, so Sean decided to use pressure-sensitive resistors placed under MDF panels. Ultimately, the ActiveFloor comprised a total of twenty-one 2′x4′ tiles, each one including 8 pressure-sensitive resistors and an ATtiny84-based platform.

“I was already very familiar with Atmel microcontrollers, and it was cheap, readily available, and had just the right number of pins for the application,” Voisen continued.

“Though the ATtiny84 does have 8 single-ended ADC channels, most of these pins ended up being used for other applications. As a result, I used only 1 ADC and added a 74HC4051multiplexer for selecting sensor input.”

Interested in learning more? Additional information about the ActiveFloor can be found here on Sean’s official page.