Adobe Adds 3D Printer Support To Photoshop 73
angry tapir writes "Adobe has rolled out an update to Photoshop that incorporates direct support for 3D printing. According to Adobe, they don't expect most users to directly create 3D meshes in Photoshop. Instead they expect most of the time people will import objects from other applications and then use Photoshop as a finishing tool to tweak and repair meshes — in a similar fashion to how Photoshop can be used to tweak photos before production. The application currently directly supports MakerBot printers and the online Shapeways service. More printer support is coming (printer profiles are editable XML files) and the application can also export STL files that can be copied to a USB drive and used on other brands of 3D printer."
Awesome! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Odd that the software costs more than the hardware. You can get a 3D printer for $500, PS is about a grand unless you get the Pirate Bay Discount version.
By the time I get a 3D printer (I'm waiting for the price to come down and quality to go up) maybe someone will have added these features to Gimp, because I refuse to pay that damned much for a piece of software, especially since I had a perfectly good replacement that came free with a scanner I bought fifteen years ago.
Unless you're a rendering profession
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Odd that the software costs more than the hardware.
Was true in the 2D world too.
maybe someone will have added these features to Gimp,
Is Gimp really the right place to add it? Sounds like a kludge, if most of the tools are made for 2d stuff, unless there is a 3d side to PS I hadn't noticed before. Why work toward such features in a program already meant for 3d work, like Blender?
Re: Awesome! (Score:2)
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SketchUp isn't that free these days though --- read the license for the ``free'' Community edition.
great news for nerds! (Score:2, Funny)
Now we can airbrush our 3D printed sex bots.
Re:great news for nerds! (Score:5, Funny)
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I see what you did there...
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Thank you Ted, that was the joke.
I won't upgrade until they add.... (Score:1)
I'm waiting until they add the kitchen sink and rename the project adobe franken-shop. come on, photo editing, then video editing, now 3d cad? I swear they just keep adding in items so people feel they are getting value from the upgrades. OR they want to help out the massive (and lucrative) training economy built around the wonderful (and intuitive) user interface in Photoshop.
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It's official. Photoshop is the new Emacs.
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I'm sorry, but to me that doesn't make sense. Photoshop is a program to manipulate raster images, that is, 2-dimensional arrays of coloured pixels. 3D printing simply doesn't fit in here.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with Adobe making a program for 3D printing. They also can bundle it with Photoshop, that's a pure business decision. But it simply doesn't make sense to add that functionality to the Photoshop program itself. Three are almost no operations which make sense for both raster image editing and 3D printing.
Photoshop has been adding (marginally functional) 3D tools for years now. Real 3D programs tend to offer better functionality and workflows, but I suppose the user case is that if you are just cleaning up a mesh you don't need the full Maya suite and you don't need to go wander around the depths of Free Software to fun a specific tool.
This may say more about 3D printing than Photoshop though. When you're noticed by the big guys, you've made it.
Gimp developers - please don't (Score:5, Insightful)
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This is Adobe we're talking about here. The Kings of bloatware. Even Microsoft seems to be making race cars by comparison.
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Wilber already had an encounter with Blender. That's how he became a gimp.
OT: But does anybody know... (Score:1)
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They had their most profitable year ever last year (the first full year since they made the change), so I guess good?
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I know on a number of photographer forums, I constantly hear people griping about not wanting to rent their software, and are not at this point, moving past CS6.
I'm personally sticking with the CS6 Production Premium suite I got for the educational pricing, and believe that will last me a number of years to see how this plays out,
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Creative Cloud (was Re:OT: But does anybody know.) (Score:1)
Well, over 1 million people have signed up as of 24 September or so: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/september/creative-cloud-1-millionth-user [creativereview.co.uk]
which sounds impressive, until one recalls that for its 20th anniversary, Adobe announced PhotoShop had over 10 million users.
There's also no word on how many of these people have merely signed up for a 30 day free demo / trial.
Adobe's initial estimation was that only one-third or so (~4 million) of their customer base (~12 million) would initially sign u
WHY??? (Score:4, Insightful)
Whose brilliant idea was it to add something that has nothing to do with photoshop?
2D image editing and 3D modeling are two completely seperate things that share almost nothing. I'd be surprised if they shared anything beyond the basic interface.
Re:WHY??? (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, some basic 3D modelling has it's uses in Photoshop, especially if you want a super accurate rendering. Stuff like extending the perspective of a photo or placing a product label you created on a bottle or can. But that's pretty much where the uses for 3D end in Photoshop.
If it were up to me, I'd push for Photoshop to have a more tablet friendly mode (as in Wacom tablet, not iPad or Android tablets) and get rid of the subscription model.
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I use PS with a Wacom tablet, Intuos5...seems perfectly tablet friendly to me? What types of problems are you having with it?
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I guess the developers on the Photoshop team are just running out of ideas for 2D image related features and management just lets them run with whatever silly ideas they come up with.
People sometimes want 3D text or preview the texture they're making for their model?
Sure, lets build 3D rendering engine into Photoshop and add support for 3D printing too!
People might want to make an animated gif?
Why don't we build a fucking audio/video timeline editor into it, even though we already have After Effects and Pre
Why does this belong in Photoshop? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand why something like this would be included in Photoshop. "Kitchen sink" applications are usually a bad idea: you want your app to do one thing very well, not a bunch of different things poorly. "One thing" can be defined pretty broadly (2D still image editing, in Photoshop's case), but you need some level of focus. And it's not like there aren't still more important things to fix: the Windows version of Photoshop still does not play nice with HiDPI, and there is still no support at all for the Windows Ink API (so tablets which don't support WinTab for patent reasons can't even get basic pressure sensitivity). Adobe is aware of these issues, but they'd rather add silly glitz that no one will use instead of fixing these rather significant bugs.
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If you think it only does image editing... you don't know photoshop.
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Symantec now offering Norton Antivirus for 3D printers.
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
And not a moment too soon, I read somewhere that 3D printers are being used to print medical gear [slashdot.org], can you imagine if your medical gear printed with a virus? You'd doom the human race to gray goo! It's good to think that we're safe from that, thanks to products like Norton Antivirus.
Of course, 3D prints will take twenty times as long, but it's a small price to pay for the peace of mind and ability to use a laptop as a space heater that Norton Antivirus provides.
On topic... (Score:2)
ob [goatkcd.com] xkcd [xkcd.com]
I think that's the first in /.'s history when a goatse picture is actually on topic.
Can't wait (Score:1)
I can't wait to see the Fark Photoshop contests for 3D printers. Or better yet, give your crescent wrench huge tatas.
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give your crescent wrench huge tatas.
Typo. I'm sure you meant, "Cresent wench".
Why Photoship? Well... (Score:2)
Could it be because nobody is buying their stupid new subscription-only version of Photoshop, and this is a desperate attempt to make it tempting again?
Yeah, that's probably it. [businessweek.com]
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Adobe CS2 had ImageReady, a proper tool designed for Web optimization. Adobe CS3 tried to add the ImageReady tools to Photoshop in a half-assed way where you can only do actual work once you're already in the "export" mode where you lose 95% of the Photoshop power and need to go back-and-forth between regular mode and export mode.
They screwed up bad.
Ulterior Motives? (Score:3)
Oh, wow, so Adobe is going to start supporting 3D printers.
Hey, wait - aren't Adobe those guys who were so adamant about DRM on their new software release they thought making it a subscription based service was a good idea?
Considering the source, I don't trust that this isn't just a power move on Adobe's part to get in on the ground floor of locking down your property (in this case, your 3D printer).
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With the subscription model, no one can 3d print installation media and have infinite Adobe. Obviously that had to be in place before they could support the horde of users clamoring for 3d printing for image macros and headswaps.
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And in the world of professional print graphics name me one other real world replacement...
That's why they can go to a subscription model...
There is no replacement for Photoshop...
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Methinks thou hast missed the point.
Sweet! (Score:2)
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Oh, you were so close!
you could use Adobe to design, print and build your adobe abode!
You could also use Adobe to dawb the wardrobe and floor boards in your adobe adobe.
How? (Score:2)
How did they incorporate 3D modelling, which mostly uses 3D vector-based drawing, into a 2.5D pixel-based application?
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So I guess you're not a big fan of World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV then.
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I won't be happy until Photoshop enables me to do rocket surgery.
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If you can afford to buy Photoshop why not just hire a "rocket surgeon"?
Oh great. (Score:2)
Now 'designers' will believe even more that they can be engineers.
Why Adobe added this to Photoshop (Score:1)
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They have been running out of ways to improve Photoshop. Once they realized this, they switched to a subscription only business model. Now they can roll out meager "upgrades" in drips and drabs without the pressure of having to create a whole new version of the software.
Exactly. Which is why I stopped upgrading years ago. Now we have the problem that Apple has made it so that they're not supporting legacy software. This makes it so I can't run older software on the newer MacOS X which means I can't buy new
Forget photoshop (Score:2)
When are they going to add 3D printing support to Blender. Design your part in Blender, hit "print" and out comes a piece of plastic.
Not so good. (Score:2)
3D printing. Good.
Cloud. Bad.
Subscription. Bad.
Adobe loses 2 out 3.