3D-PRINTING
spark
I joined Autodesk with the acquisition of Topolabs, a 3D tool-pathing company. Together with our new team, we collaborated on building microservices for 3D print preparation and printer communication. I also worked on a 3-year horizon helping the team imagine the future of additive manufacturing.
The team: 1 product manager, 1 electrical engineer, 3 mechanical engineers, 2 software developers, 1 visual designer
The Situation
My role: Experience Design Lead
Timeline: 1 year
Easy print prep
I spent my first year at Autodesk building the microservices for our popular 3D print service, Spark.
I started the job completely naive about 3D printing, and hit the ground running by doing a series of site visits to Bay Area small manufacturers using additive manufacturing in their processes.
Print prep, design considerations and printer connections were the 3 biggest problems facing our customers.
3D printing was so touchy, we observed people naming their printers, refusing to use wifi connections, and subscribing to various software to access only one feature.
We knew we could make things easier.
Spark Print Stream
Was the simplified web version of Spark. It was delivered as microservices in the original version of Autodesk's platform, Forge. Spark became the print prep software of choice for Dremel's consumer-grade printer.
Material-conscious
Material-conscious design and print prep improves outcomes. I worked with cutting edge algorithms to design clever systems for detecting and solving problems, with a focus on preserving design intent.
Purely technical solutions existed in this space, but did not take into account design intent or offer the flexibility people needed to achieve their outcomes.
Because printable files have been reduced to polygonal meshes, features and design intent are stripped away by the time they're in a print utility. My proposal used a combination of machine learning algorithms for feature segmentation, combined with reinforcement learning from user interactions.
Meta-materials
During this period I also worked on multi-material futures for our printing software. Since most printers don't have multiple print heads, our software focused on getting the most out of meta-materials - that could be printed from one material to achieve mechanical or textural outcomes.
The entirety of this software was eventually built by the Netfabb team around the volumetric file format I helped conceive.
AM Alliance
My work on materials resulted in me being tapped as the product manager for the Additive Manufacturing Alliance and Manufacturing Dataservice.
By this point, Autodesk had acquired Netfabb, the print utility with the premier ability to wrap complex models that couldn't be repaired in other ways. The AM Alliance allowed Autodesk to build a network of materials partners to strengthen our position in 3D printing.
The Manufacturing Dataservice went beyond additive and brought unified materials and manufacturing intelligence to all our products.
