Making Things See

Conclusion: Comparing Prints

Now that we’ve got both the MakerBot and Shapeways prints in hand, let’s compare them. We’ll look at the quality of results achieved by each process and compare that with the relative cost and complexity of each approach. We’ll find that while the Shapeways results are, in many ways, more satisfying as objects, the immediacy and low cost of the MakerBot prints lend themselves better to experimentation and rapid iteration.

Figure 5-28 shows the results of printing my Kinect self-portrait scan on both the MakerBot and at Shapeways using their White Strong & Flexible material. The MakerBot print is at the top of the figure and the Shapeways print is at the bottom. (Figure 5-29 shows a side-by-side comparison.) The Shapeways ...