Let’s face it, additive manufacturing for the masses is right around the corner. Kinkos anyone? Machine costs are coming down, and 3D modelers are more and more common. Does this spell the end of service bureaus though?
Hardly. As an example, anyone can purchase an all in one office machine for around $100 today. It faxes, copies and prints. Sounds like doom for Kinkos, right? Not even close. These all in one machines meet some needs, but at the end of the day, professional copy services are still in demand. I believe the same will hold true for additive manufacturing.
Now, Kinkos has yet to adopt additive manufacturing (or 3D printing, as I think they’d call it), but even when they do, the need for professionals in this space will continue, and possibly grow.
Clients rarely send a perfect solids file to us. They need to be inspected and fixed before we can kick off the model. This is an area that will potentially grow when the masses begin having models made. I know, there are automated tools that will fix a model. Well, sometimes they work, but often times, they distort geometry, requiring an undo, and manual fix.