3d-Printing and it's Uses in Prototyping.

3d-printing, along with many other types of prototyping are capable of bringing ideas into conception. The definition of a prototype is this a first, typical or preliminary model of something, often crude or crass. However, with recent bounds in technology there is no need for these models to be crude or crass. It all depends upon the functionality of which you desire the model or object to obtain, a stationary object such as the ones we've worked on recently allow for minimal effort in prototyping, giving an almost exact idea of what a finished product would look like. The only difference in the models may be subtle changes in design or material use.

However, if you are making a moving object or an object with much more functionality that is when the complexity increases tenfold. Even for an object to turn on a pivot point you have to model each object to fit eachother, allowing enough room to bend or move among the fixed point. Luckily if you model the object together, and then split it apart to print it makes an idea like this much easier, allowing for much more complex prototypes, allowing for proof of concepts for things like a lever system or other slightly more complex things. It all depends upon the skill of the user of the 3d-printer, because as far as proto-typing goes, it stretches as far as the user can go, only needing a push to get there.