from Hacker News

Background: I'm a web and mobile dev who's entering the 3D printing space. I've researched and experimented for months, have gone to industry conferences, and I know the space pretty well, including its limitations and history of hype.

I'm wondering whether there's any appetite among app developers for integrating 3D printing into their apps and what they would need in order to do that.

At the moment, 3D printing is entirely focused around modeling. Either you're using CAD to create a model and then you print, or you download a model file and print that.

I'm more curious about building an app ecosystem where 3D printing is casually integrated into all kinds of apps that don't involve the traditional modeling workflow. For example, maybe a video game that can print a trophy as a reward for beating a level, or an app that prints jewelry or fasteners or auto parts on demand (or part of upsell during checkout). Or all kinds of things that I can't even imagine (that's the whole point of an app ecosystem, no?)

My questions are:

1) Are you/have you ever been interested in adding 3D printing capabilities to your app(s)?

2) If yes, what's prevented you? E.g., lack of market, unreliable printer technology, no standardized API, no easy to use SDK.

As I wrote, I'm fully aware of the hype that's surrounded the industry and the limitations of the technology, especially hobbyist printers. I'm thinking big picture: if one were to start ironing out all the kinks, where should one start? What are the biggest showstoppers?