The 3D printers the community actually want: Your say in 2024
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Recently, I put out a community post inviting the 3D printing community to have their say on the state of 3D printing. This was a follow up to an influential survey from three years ago. In this video, we examine what the community likes and dislikes, their priorities, and propose a new 3D printer that aims to meet their needs.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond!
0:00 Introduction
Previous survey video: • Dear manufacturers, th...
0:51 The impact of the first survey video
2:06 The new survey and format
2:36 Section 1: General snapshot
4:57 Section 2: Consumer Interests
Non-planar printing video: • Non-planar 3D printing...
My belt bed converted delta: • Endless 3D printing - ...
12:35 Section 3: Other stuff
14:10 The craziest/funniest ideas
15:00 Summary of survey response
15:37 A proposed 3D printer I think would be popular
16:21 Conclusion
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I think the biggest missing component in all this discussion was bed size. I think that is an important metric as I see it constantly being brought up in various forums as a request to go bigger, but also a fair number saying that small suits their needs just fine. I would love to see what the actual breakdown is overlaid with the type of prints that people are doing.
I could appreciate a ratrig vcore4 500mm but I also think bed size is one of those things people really truly think they need when the vast majority will never have a use or be able to justify it. Its the equivalent of buying a pickup truck. Most owners do not need them.
I make do with a V0 at only 120x120mm bed size, it's rather small, but at the same time. How often do you really need the bigger bed size? Worst comes to worst, I can print things in parts.
I would say it is overstated. For me 250*250*250 is sufficient. Anything bigger I do seldom and I'm able to design models as multipart.
I have a 350x350 mm and is a pain in the a*s because of that. More you go bigger and every normal issues that you have are amplified. Think about that people.
I think its less important. people will buy the size they want to print - we all want the other things, fast + quality etc.
My X1 Carbon is my fifth FDM printer...I'm "past" wanting to tinker with hardware, and I just want it to work. The X1 is my best printer so far.
I wish there was a size category so we could see how many people really want a large format printer and ideal sizes
Good to see that a segment of 3d printing enthusiasts still care about open source. It’s been a big part of why I started doing it and what I enjoy about it.
Honestly I'm quite surprised by the result given how many people but Bambu printers. I think in the end, open source is likely more of a nice to have than a requirement. People want printers that work and are high speed first and foremost. To be clear I didn't like or Bambu but will give them credit for giving the industry a kick in the pants that maybe it deserved
@@willofthemaker Many people don't mind too much if the proprietary solution is rock solid. Outside of Bambu and commercial-tier brands that actually maintain a relationship with their customers, this hasn't been the case with 3d printers, and people get upset when they see that stock klipper or whatever would solve many of their problems and it turns out that they can't install that on their expensive printer without buying a third-party replacement board for it.
The type of people who watch this channel are the type who would care, you might get different responses from a different audience
I used to, and I'm glad it's still available, but after years of it I've realized I don't want "3d Printing and printer building" to be my hobby, I want the printing to be a means to an end. I don't expect my cordless drill or my car to be open source because they're just a means to an end and modifying them isn't my hobby.
I loved modding my printers but getting a bambu printer has opened a new door into looking into new projects. Its also given me a new framework of what I want to focus on when modding in the future.
“Don’t want to be conned by something that over-promises and under-delivers.” Perfectly sums up my preferences. Thank you for doing this! I hope manufacturers listen! Please make something that just works!
I thought of one today. A spool holder that contains a scale. So you can determine if there is enough filament on a spool to complete a print.
Already exists. Sunlu's new dry box has a scale in it.
OctoPrint does this with software
On actually on the printer would be far better then a seperate box
@@MrBizteckif you could put the empty spool weight you could use it for low filament detection as well
Spool Manager in OctoPrint will tell you if you have enough filament left before you start the print.
I think my biggest thing has been reliability. I haven't printed anything since December when I made glow in the dark dragons for my nieces and nephews. Since then my Bambu X1c has been sitting on the shelf turned off. Today I wanted to print a charging stand for my Pixel Watch. I downloaded a STL, turned my printer on, sent the print, and it printed no problem, even after 4-5 months of no use. If i were to try that on my old Ender 3 or CR6, it would take an hour+ of recalibrating to get everything to work right.
Same my ender 3 pro used to be like that but ever since changing the extruder hotend and Mainboard and the Firmware everything have been smooth sailing but more companies need to focus on reliability and dependability
@@IbrahemAlbanawi Ha, ha. Been there...done that. So you completely replaced most everything that made your Creality Ender 3 an Ender 3 and now it works? Well at least glad you could do that without spending more for another printer replacement.
Lol, didn't even knew this was an issue at all. Always used Prusa
@@dggcreations the parts are still from creality the direct drive sprite and the Bed leveling sensor is a CR Touch and the screen is the standard one and the mainboard is btt skr mini e3 v2 so it's more like an ender 3 v2 S1
@@EntropicTroponin Lets not pretend the mk3s didnt have problems
I really like this kind of community feedback, but i would love if you contacted some other channels for your next one and made them too share the survey. That way you both get more responses and feedback from a broader audience.
Lets be real, most of the community is already here.
It's not a comment to the next gen 3d printer, but I would like to see progress in the plastic recycling side. I see some youtubers that have created their own printer shredder / extruder setups, but they are certainly finicky, and I don't expect youtubers will provide customer support if viewers try to copy them. I've seen one or two systems commercially available, but they are several thousands of dollars. A recycling setup on the order of price and consistency of the now-common desktop 3d printer is my want.
Or a way to ship to a company that doesn't cost $150. As well as a way to recycle spools.
Yes with the tremendous material waste of doing multicolor prints, recycling is now almost a necessity to come next. But like you said, I've not seen one unit that can do this consistently well and are often locked into a particular person's recycling needs and are often restricted to pla.
I think plastic recycling at home is a fools errand for the general user without government intervention. There would need to be standardized materials, incentives to use them, ways to identify them and more. That would also have the user not doing it at home because I think a part of that reality js that you could count the number of people who would do so regularly on one hand.
I think there’s someone called greenboy3d or something who made a pellet fed head that solves Aron of issues in that area but he’s still working on it
@@BeefIngotit would just need to be cheaper than buying new material, and relatively easy, and I could see it being adopted by 3D printing community, especially with the waste Bambu multi color produces. If you could just dump failed prints and color change waste into a grinder and have it spit out fresh filament and the machine wasn't 5x the cost of a decent printer, there would be no reason not to... whether thats possible or not, who knows. I don't know enough about plastic recycling to know if that's even feasible, but if they could do those two things I don't see why anyone wouldn't do it...
I appreciate reliability and ease of use. After living with the original Ender 3 for two years, I got a Qidi Q1 Pro a week ago and I feel like I have gone from the horse and buggy to the space age. Auto bed leveling is the one feature I appreciate the most. I finally got the moon lamp to complete without falling off the bed like it did in the bed slinger after 18 hours. We spend $2k to $3k for CAD capable laptops to design with, a similar price for fast, reliable and easy to use FDM printers isn't out of bounds as far as I am concerned. My time is valuable and spending it adjusting bed leveling knobs is a waste. When I first started in this I didn't mind but somewhere along the way I just wanted the thing to print as I want to spend my time designing, not babysitting a cheap entry level printer.
Once you've had auto bed leveling, those handwheels under the bed look like stone age equipment 😅
I hope all the 3D printer companies pay serious attention to this video. Thank you for collecting and showing this data! It is amazingly valuable to the future of what printers should focus on doing. You and Stephan are doing some of the most valuable printing videos. You are saving thousands of people having to figure out all this stuff on their own.
I suspect that if they don't all pay attention, that someone will particularly pay attention and they will get left behind while one company shows everyone up and they race to respond. It already happened once.
Teaching Tech just did free market research for SOOO many companies. I'm curious to see if they listen though...
@@DJBillyQ he did market research on a tiny segment of it. If that makes money, then good, but number of responses alone don't translate to potential purchases.
The email from Dr. Tao is pretty great. We live in a context where the Bambu Lab machines have been very well received, but they were still in R&D when the last video came out. I think it was a pretty big gamble to put out a premium-priced machine aimed primarily at consumers. But I'm mostly impressed with the email's candour, you don't often get genuine responses from CEO types, so that's cool to see. I hope more manufacturers take note of the actual lesson here, listening to consumers and enthusiasts in the community can be a great way of learning what risks to take, and what people value. Don't just copy what's working. It would be really cool to see another version of the video that collaborates with more creators to build on the survey (including things like; purchasing demographic information, regional information, interest in industrial technologies like SLS etc.), and increase the reach to an even larger audience! Everyone puts out their survey introduction video, and they all link to one central survey with an open-source dataset. It's kind of doing the leg work for manufacturers, but that feels aligned with the spirit of this community.
great idea
Quick thought: Sovol has been blowing me away recently. My SV06 and SV06+ are my workhorses, and I'm VERY excited for the SV-08
good to know.
I agree that the SV08 is an exciting proposition.
I just got my SV08, and so far it is great!
@@ectoBRUH my only reservation is yet another proprietary toolhead. Do you have any similar reservations?
@@ectoBRUH I've built 3x Vorons so far ( a pair of zeroes and a 2.4 ) and I hope that the SV-08 brings the same fire-and-forget convenience as the rest of their products. I love the Vorons, but the elaborate VOODOO involved in getting a print going is a bit much.
You know what I really wouldn't mind? A 3d printer that supports multi-material/color but only holds like two spools. I like the implementation of the new prusa xl, but I don't like the price tag or need 5 tool heads.
Im pretty sure you buy the prusa tool heads individually. And having four spools instead of 2 on an mmu is only incrementally more expensive.
@jdoe1917 I know you can buy them individually like that, but unless I just haven't done my research (which is very highly probable), I don't want something that's as big as the xl and uses multiple heads. Something similar in size to an Ender 3 would be perfect, I think.
idex is the answer. something like a RatRig Vcore 4
@@ThePickleSoup sovol has that
@@ThePickleSoupender 3 with the enderIDEX conversion. It’s basically exactly what you’re looking for
Your printer suggestion is a very close description of the Ratrig V-core 4 if it came pre assembled
same exact thought, would've loved to buy it once i have the funds to do so. With what i want to do with 3D printing, idex is enough. toolchanger is cool but is a bit overkill for me. Plus, having it be technically 2 printers when I'm in a rush doesn't hurt
Think ratrig 4 semi ensemble for shipping costs is going to be to pricey for most ,but it would be fastitic printer I am sure there gonna be voron tweak coming soon too , we can hope !!!!
a ratrig is not really in this $500-700 price range it is more likely $1000+
I was thinking the exact same thing
@@xeraoh Yeah I mean right now it’s a premium diy kit, but if it came pre assembled they could probably greatly reduce cost by not having so many options for kits
A couple thoughts I had… First, as an alternative to non planar printing for those who only care about surface finish, non planar ironing. The nozzle would pause printing at certain layers, go back and iron and then continue on or even be replaced with a separate special nozzle made for the purpose. The slicer would need to slice in a way that it left enough material to iron. The next thought is focusing on at least 2 head/nozzle printers. This would for many benefits including faster material/color changes, since one could be printing while the other is changing filaments. I think this should do for now. (I’m also always a fan of closed loop motor control)
The results of your survey and your conclusion are 100% in line with my perception and wishes. Thank you for the research.
Filament waste/reuse/recycling is my biggest concern long term as a hobbyist.
Collect your waste and failed prints. In some time there will be someone who can reuse it. Here in Germany we have the "Recycling Fabrik" where you can sent your wasted prints and get credits to buy new (recycled) filament from them. You get a points, which you can trade into a discount.
@bi___2112 do you sort your failed prints by color, filament type etc or just chuck them all in together?
@@flyingshutters3438 there are different grades within this reward-system. You get more points if you pre-sorted them, if they are clean, ... for colours i dont know. Personally, because i print basicly PLA in white and PETG in Black, i seperate them in two different Boxes (labeled). I would consider seperate them by Material at least, bacause thats often the hard Part for them to do and you know what you printed in what material
@@bj__2112 Noche nie von gehört, interessant 🧐
Yea i hate to print just it turns out my messure was wrong so the part don't fit.
Please do one of these videos for the model hosting websites. I think just about every single one stands in need of some major improvements for model discovery and usability that would not be hard to add. And make the search features better.
Yes please
I'm more worried about closed sites, where one has to create account to be able to download (otherwise) free models. I don't like being the product 🤨 Printables & Thingverse shine in this respect. For paid models it probably is necessity due to billing, delivery etc.
Well prepared and excellent video! I'm missing the form factor in the research, like: 1. What's the average size of your prints? 2. Do you print multiple pieces in one go? (so, do you need a large bed?) 3. What's the max height of your prints?
As I notice more and more trend towards printed images (hueforge, signs), I could imagine that there is a market for printers with a large print area, but not necessarily a large height. You could then hang it on the wall to minimize the space required. And of course it should be able to do multicolor with at least 6 colors and more
A wearable 3d printer that only prints "Kick me" signs on your back. Good idea
Great video. One thing I prefer in printers is easy repairability/maintenance. I feel like some of the newer hobbyist machines are leaning more towards closed-source parts and making it hard to repair and troubleshoot issues as a user.
I don’t like how manufacturers are shifting to proprietary extruders and hotends. Nozzle technology has been one of the best pathways for improvement, and they are taking a huge step back in that regard now. What I would like to see is a return to and expansion on partnerships between printer manufacturers and specialty parts manufacturers like E3D, Bondtech, Slice, etc. Bondtech and Slice have partnered up for upgrade kits to common printers. I would like to see those available from the start. Just like cars have trim level packages, printers could have the same with a base level package or with aftermarket type upgrades pre-installed and firmware optimized from the factory.
I just purchased a Bambu X-1 Carbon to replace an extensively modified Ender 3 Pro. I am blown away at the printed quality difference and the speed. So far it has been everything I could ask for. The walled garden is disappointing but realistically hasn’t been a problem.
Spending 5x amount of money usually gets better product 😅 Modding has diminishing returns + adding all the good stuff (excluding kinematics - bed slinger can go only so far) afterwards is way more expensive 🤔
@@kimmotoivanen True, I put more into my Ender 3 Pro than I paid for it, at least by a factor of 2, probably closer to 3. BTT SKR Mini 2 main board and LCD, dual Z-steppers, linear rails on all 3 axis, AC heated bed (favorite upgrade), several Micro Swiss DD extruders including the NG extruder for linear rails, and TH3D Zero Touch ABL… Print quality got better but had diminishing returns. Print quality actually got worse after a few high speed prints, it was shredding belts. I had to slow it back down, speed and quality was no where near the Bambu straight out of the box. Print in place pieces, cable winders, hinges, etc, always fused regardless of what I did in Slicer. 2nd print on Bambu was a working print in place cable winder. Edit: Oh and several (3) IKEA Lack end tables for an enclosure…
A clarification I failed to make when filling the survey: I want 3d printing to be my hobby, not 3d printers.
That doesnt make much sense to me. its like saying you want using a monitor to be a hobby. Its a means to an end and the end is the hobby. So its more like what do you want to make. Dont let printers be your only tool. Have more than a hammer, see more than a nail.
@@BeefIngot No. It's like saying I want programming to be my hobby, not building computers. You focused on the words rather than their meaning.
@@marsrevolutionary No, I understood the meaning perfectly. What Im saying is that fff 3d printing is not a hobby. 3d printers are a hobby and making things is a hobby. What you are saying is nothing like programming as a hobby. Programming has many tools to build many things. fff 3d printing is one tool to manufacture geometry in one way. It would be like saying dish washing with a dishwasher is your hobby. Its one way of doing a task. Where is the depth? You press print, the printer prints. Thats not a hobby. Any thing else you add to that has a name and becomes something else, like maker, or 3d printer enthusiast or whatever it may be. By itself its not meaningful enough to be a hobby was my point, particularly because you are excluding the printer itself.
@@BeefIngot You are hyperfocusing on the word printer. stop. I will not further engage in your malarkey.
@@marsrevolutionary At this point I feel like you are purposefully ignoring the point Im making. Frustrating.
@10:52 we emphatically agree 👍
An excellent survey and very well put together and summarised. Thank you for sharing.
Fascinating! Thanks, Michael! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Great comprehensive video. You really covered all the bases with this one. There were several points I definitely agree with.
Very interesting and timely subject. I've been in the business for 4 years, exclusively as a non-profit hobbyist. Initially with QIDI X-Plus and Artillery Sidewinder X1, now with BambuLab P1S, BambuLab A1 and Elegoo Neptune 3 Max. I am happily retired, I enjoy it a lot, I found myself in 3D printing at the time of the pandemic, very happy with it all. Aspects that I consider most when it comes to improving efficiency: 1 RFID as standard for filaments. I've been thinking about this forever. It's about creating the standard, or even following one that already exists, like USB-C, and opening it to all manufacturers. Consumers are grateful 2 super reinforced Nozzles, with diameter adjustment via software. It will be a very welcome game changer 3 beds with standardized dimensions. Pre-defined measurements for different printer categories 4 Unified voltage for all equipment in 110/220. The whole world will thank you I'll stay here. Congratulations on the channel, and continue with success.
Always look forward to your videos.
Great surveys! I always love your videos! 😃
Love that top you're wearing. RIP.
Although I wasn't able to participate in the survey, I agreed with most of the opinions, and fell into most of the larger groups. I would add, don't overlook the market share of users that would be interested in an affordable way to reuse failed or prototype prints, whether through filament recycling (home extrusions) or pellet extrusion systems (from recycling to extruding). If it were in the $300 to $500 range for a full print bed to extrusion system (think completed print to recycled filament being reused), I think it would be a game changer for the industry.
My impression of the printer you proposed at the end is that Rat Rig V-Core 4 is hitting a lot of those targets. I have my V-Core 3 500 running nicely so I am not likely to buy the 4 any time soon but I am intrigued by the option of making it an IDEX without any changes to its main frame and most of its parts.
I think another conversation that should be had is filament manufacturing and standard spool sizes or maybe an entire move away from extruded filament and towards plastic pellets. (Saw a project recently that experimented with this)
14:37 Wall mount is indeed great. I built one with a SCARA arm and fold-out bed, so when not in use it only protrudes a few inches from the wall. Very convenient since I don't use it very often. The "frame" is just a 2x4 with two SBR12 rails screwed to it, one of which also serves as the arm's shoulder axis.
Got videos of it in action? Sounds interesting.
@@TheLaXandro No, but I do have a Hackaday page for it with some photos (project name is Wall SCARA, username same as here). I'd post a link but youtube usually deletes comments with links.
One thing which is difficult to address in these kinds of surveys is that you are asking the people who are already into the hobby what they want. When it comes to a company they will always be wanting to look to expand into new customers and they won’t always get that from the existing customer base. I think Bambu got lucky where they gave existing customers what they wanted but also enabled newer customers in the space due to the “it just works” mentality. So I think unfortunately for those manufacturers who want to get more mass market share, these suggestions are not necessarily as helpful as the ones 3 years ago.
i have an idea for multi-color waste. what about printing lines on the print bed instead of blocks, so that you can feed the lines into the hotend and make a makeshift normal sized string of filiment through special printer settings. that way consumers dont have to buy an expensive spool maker that they might only use once. maybe another nozzle or special feeding system that swaps out with the normal print head?
the problem is solved a long time ago by idex
@@whitewittock true. but you cant easily mod a printer to get dual extrusion. even so, you cant use both at the same time to boost print speed.
thanks for making this, cant wait to see what they come out with next
Oh wow, a follow up to one of the first videos about 3d printing I've ever seen. Now in the market for an upgrade... Thank you so much for these, great stuff.
Dang, i missed the survey. I got my start with a creality Ender-3 v2 and tackled most of the fundamentals of 3d printing. After about 10 months i bought a Creality K1 (post extruder fix) and have absolutly fallen in love with it. I am a Creality fan mostly for their price point. i'm a tinkerer and am willing to spend extra time to thoroughly understand something. The latest project i just completed was building a CNC frame for the 5w laser module i got thats meant for my Ender (i didnt like not being able to print). If other manufacturers could bring their prices down just a hair to make them more accessible to lower income hobbyists like myself. Anything decent over $1000 is really out of the realm for me and i'm sure many others. Great video as always! 🖖🤙
There's a guy, Greenboy, who's supposedly working on a relatively medium-to-low-cost pellet hotend/extruder system that could be used as a drop-in replacement for a filament hotend/extruder system. From his videos, I don't know how reproducible his current methods are as of yet since I gather the parts look like they might still be custom made (that screw in particular doesn't look off-the-shelf), but using pellet-sized plastic materials instead of filament is certainly one way to recycle failed prints.
I'm on the email mailing list. Very keen to use his design.
Really great content as always Michael. I feel like some of this info was pretty obvious, but you touched on some really interesting results that I was pretty surprised about too. Hopefully this will have another positive impact moving forward as I was one of those people that wanted something just a little more expensive if it meant I could get really good results straight out of the box.
I did not complete the survey but agree with many of the responses. I love that my Qidi Tech X-Plus 3 is NOT connected to the cloud. I just send a sliced file to the printer on my local network. I wanted a WiFi capable printer, but not one which required the cloud. I purchased this machine for the CoreXY design and faster speed than my Creality CR10S which by now seems very slow - reliable but slow.
Please remember that people’s answers to surveys like this are often more aspirational than representative. Customer input can be useful, but it’s important to understand its limitations. The Pontiac Aztec was a good example of relying too heavily on customer input.
Aztec was a fantastic car though. Extremely practical and in hindsight even stylish, especially compared to the modern attempts to do the same with now ubiqtous family crossovers.
@@TheLaXandro The Aztec makes a fascinating study in product design vs marketing. It was full of interesting and clever features, but it was a failure because most people don't want clever cars, they want cool cars. I hate that this is true, but it is born out in studies and by simple direct observation of buying habits. The Auto market is just full of contradictions. Customers say one thing, "we pay too much for gas!", but then go and buy gas guzzling SUVs and trucks. A sane person just can't win in that market.
Nice jacket! Worth a pole position!
i fit along the same lines as everyone else in this video, however as i get my friends into this hobby, one click printing is one of the things they use the most with bambu
Thank you for doing this! User experience research is an under appreciated/expensive task. And here you hand it to the manufacturers on a silver platter.
Fun to see the results, thanks for putting effort in this survey. I’m old fashioned now I guess… still have my ender3, modded and tweaked, and it is slow. But it works fantasticly and still prints good.
Wow, your printer suggestion is really close to a RatRig V-Core 4, the price is the only thing is not aligned, but that RatRig V-Core is a big boy! Happy 3d printing!
Not a 3D printer idea per se But what I REALLY am interested in is a 3D design program. Yes, there are some out there, but they either go from insanely complex or super easy I use Tinkercad alot because it is so simple, and I just haven't had the time to learn better programs, but also at the same time learning CAD programs take alot of time What I would love to see, is a program that is super simple like TinkerCad, with a little bit more power to it Being able to add chamfers, slightly more complex shapes, the ability to do things like "Place 8 small cylinders, equi-distant, around this larger center cylinder" and have it automatically do that I don't need to be able to design a nuclear factory or an F1 car in the software I use I just need it a little bit more powerful than what TinkerCad currently is
I like the idea of printers that are treated like cars. You can buy the very basic "stock" car and upgrade it with manufactured designed components that doesn't require us to toss huge chunk of the stock printer. A stock printer could just be similar to what's on the market today. Except, those stock printers are already prepared to accept upgrades. For example. Let's say the stock printer doesn't come with component for bed leveling, but it does have the features on it so we can just attach it later. Right now, how it is, you have to buy or print a completely new extruder assembly just to add bed-leveling to it. That makes the upgrades more expensive because you have to buy. We just need a strong stock model available with ready-upgradeablility already built on to it. Also, US$500 printer may be ok for many in first world countries, but us in the global majority can't easily afford that much at one time. However, a US$200 stock printer will allow us to purchase upgrades as we're able to afford them. I notice that components for 3D printers are getting very expensive these days.
ability to turn the printer of once the print is done while sleeping or at work laser engraving - speed - real run time estimates - silent fans - print head pause to add magnets weights nuts balls keyrings - power out recovery - duel sd cards - sd card removal once you have clicked print so onboard memory? - on off switch on the front - love hart or fav button in menu to know what print works or keep using, i use a folder system of working, always print, testing. - always print for me is some file you print no matter the color u have like a jar keychain or toy.
I feel like this video did a pretty good job summarizing all the data in a way that wasn't exhaustive, which is nice; hopefully we can continue to see improvements and Innovations in the 3D printing space SeemsGood
In in Australia and I own a 30 printer printing farm. Loved this video but there is something that I feel is completely missed. Power... if a bambu came in a 350w varient id be sold. I have k1c as well as bambu and elegoo neptune 3 pros. My priorities are 1. Quality. 2. Power. 3. Speed. 4. Bed size. Enough isn't spoken about power, both in terms of how much they draw, at what points they draw it eg a bambu p1s vs a k1c, purely in terms of power. Id love to see that article. How many printers can you fit safely to a house? Also, the new creality 3 v3 plus may just got this role if the quality is there. 300mm x 300mm bed, 600mm/s speed and 350 watt power? Yes please...
How about a slicer that adds connection hard points. Slot connections, screw holes, even just solid blocks. Even line up marks would be useful. Intelligent slicer software that can at least suggest cut lines, and orientation of prints to minimize the need for supports. An example would be a life size foot. Oriented sole down the arch would need support, and nearly the whole inside would be filled to support the upper. If it was cut where the leg connects, and oriented toes up no support would be needed except for the toes which can be another part pointing up. The heel can be printed with minimal support under the sole with the interior hollow. Another example would be torso. Legs are cylinders, no support. Crotch of pelvis, printed upside down, minimum support inside. Crotch to bust. Cylinder, no supports. Under boob to under nipple, minimal support. Under nipple to lower shoulders. Cylinder, no support. Shoulders minimal support. Except for the sole of the heel, and under boob all the supports are inside the print. Infill should be customizable to a thickening of the print walls for strength like a cardboard box not just infill the whole print. We should be wary of cheat pricing. That's cheap printer expensive, non refillable ink cartridges. The openings for cheat pricing with 3d printers is software that wastes filament, over priced software, and files, software that demands personal information it can sell. Updates that are down grades. Updates that are incompatible with anything you already bought.
WoW, the entire show pretty much was 100% the same feeling here about 3d printing. Nicely done there !
6:58 I think the cloud preference has heavily to do with WHO is offering the cloud service and how it's implemented. I dont know a single Apple user who is not using ICloud and rarely do I encounter someone who does not use their google Drive or Onedrive to sync their computers via the cloud. But on the same note if creality tries to sell me their underdeveloped, featureless cloud service (which also probably spies on me more than other services) - then of course im all against it and wont use it. Bambus services are at least well integrated with their ecosystem and work. An they are a Chinese company aswell. But their product just works and delivers on their promises big difference in products and trustworthiness
I really wonder how the data would be like if you included people who are into 3D printing, but not to the degree of your audience. I'd argue printers like Bambu help bring in new users, but these new users are not yet in the weeds of 3D printing. A lot of this data is skewed due to it being, I'd argue, mostly this audience answering the survey. I can see questions like cloud connectivity be heavily skewed if a beginner were answering these vs more enthusiast users.
unfortunately this form can't really be reasonably filled out by the uninformed who haven't tried anything all and just nebulously think it "would be nice if...". Too many of the questions would be lost on them and we'd have more noise than signal. I think you need a different survey for the general public.
I think a cross examination of the "do you design your own models" and "do you care about one-click printing from model library sites" questions reveals the audience. One-click printing is something I personally would never use, but if I wanted to hand my printer down to my non-enthusiast family members, it's the only way they'd ever get any use out of it.
Yeah and people need to stop recommending Ender 3 printers. Never got it to print properly and it's been sitting broken on my desk for a month. Upgrades also shouldn't be necessary to get proper prints.
@@MyFedora maybe for the bog-standard stock ender 3, but the ender 3 se and ke are actually pretty good.
@@plutonasa Seriously, I'm so over the hype around the plain old Ender 3 for beginners. I got into 3D printing to bring my ideas to life, not to deal with constant headaches. It's always needing tweaks, fails more often than not, and official support? Forget about it. This wasn't what I had in mind for an entry-level printer. Honestly, I'm tempted to chuck it out the window and call it quits on 3D printing altogether. People need to stop pushing the Ender 3 already.
i used a stock ender 3(and3v2) for 4 years before FINALY upgrading to the Anycubic Kobra 2(non pro) and it is wild how quickly I learned what ACTUALLY matters to me in 3d printing. 1) Reliability. It just works and that's it, no muss no fuss 2) Speed I dont need my prints god awful quick but printing at mostly modern-ish speeds reliably is a god send 3) Repeatability. Its the same story every print. Same time, same quality, same expectations every time 4) Simplicity. Its just easy to use. NOTHING is hidden and its intuitive to navigate to the option i want without habing to look through a yt video
Any decently modified Ender-3 is even better than that Anycubic...
@@alejandroperez5368 I haven't had any problems, failed prints, or jams on the anycubic, its actually a good little machine now. Plus: food needs cooked, dog needs washed, elderly family needs taken care of, wife and i like spending time together, trash needs taken to the dump, house needs repairs, garden needs tending, i need to sleep, bills need paid, and money needs made. I work 10-12 hr night shifts 5 days a week and have not the gumption nor the time to fiddle around with upgrades that might or might not fix a dying printer so it just made more sense to get a better stock one
Awesome video! Great data for manufacturers to look at.
I am mostly looking forward to miniature pellet extruders, as it allows for more interesting material choices. Mostly for printing truly flexible materials that are very low on the durometer scale!
Excellent video.
I just bought a printer that closely matches your video wrap up. It ticks every box except dual extruder heads. It's the Qidi X Plus 3. I prefer the medium to large format printers.
Glad pellet extruder is mentioned. It will be essential for my next printer. I wait till I can get it.
"Crazy" Ideas: for near future: i see a loooot potential in good and affordable 3D Scanners - to ease the way for people who can't use CAD for making their own Modes. Far future: a combination out of 3d Scanner (e.g. ur smartphone can probably do that one day reliably), AI 3D Modeling software(is already a thing/fast evolving), very easy CAD software(slicers these days are already Mini Baby CAD-Programs when you think about it) - all and more combined and maybe even implementing in a Slicer. With the goal to reduce the hurdles for new but creative people. "Only one or two clicks from an idea in my head to a ready sliced printing Model"
Concisely potent and of genuine value
Non-Planar printing to improve surface finish and reduce waste. I want it now lol.
@RPMiller, I agree 100%. I think the 500MM size is very underserved by the market at this time. I was very glad to see the latest Ratrig can be had with a 500MM bed size and I really like the way they do the 3 different bed sizes with the same form factor. I think modular beds that could be swapped out quickly and easily as needed are something innovative that no has thought to offer. I don't always need a 500MM bed, but it sure is great to have when you do.
Multi filament core xy should be the norm but for the slicer I choose creality print with tinkercad function. Most individuals do not have big spaces for big bed printers. So the best option is slicing but with options to drill 2 or 3 mm into the models so we can put dowels or magnets inside so it will hold stronger
I missed the survey but I had a thought about something I would love to see. How about a color changing system that only uses one filament. Have a way to inject and mix color dyes with an uncolored or white filament inside of the extruder? If a good quality mix could be accomplished before the plastic is extruded, I don't see why we can't get any color desired out of a printer by varying the ratio of the RGB dyes that are injected.
Mentioned this video and channel on bambu official forums but just got hit with the "Who did you ask?" , "What community was polled?" simply because I mentioned there really isn't a want for "1-click printing" in any aspect but a few users apparently will speak for all of bambu labs. I've followed you for quite some time and have grown in knowledge even by watching your videos so I appreciate the time taken to make this happen. I feel the BL community is a toxic farm of loving fans then experienced users who aren't that easily impressed merely by a low price point printer.
going by the results its seems like most people are like i am about it. the printing is the hobby. making the prints as fast as you can, and as perfect as you can is the goal. so anything that makes that easier, firmware, hardware ect is the top priority. then things that make the prints neater come next like idex and mmu followed by anything that doesnt have direct effect on print quality like air filters and packaging..
I think 3D printing companies are probably more interested in pulling someone into this topic by selling them their first printer rather than selling some tinkerer a kit, especially if that kit pulls the rug out from under it's successor by being upgradeable. But selling to new customers requires basically the opposite of what the survey demands, so they will probably build Apple-style products that cost a ton of money, just "magically" work and require as little user interaction as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if they started enclosing filament spools in a cartridge to prevent tangles, sold you an IPA cleaning cartridge for the bed or made you replace the printer once the scrap bin was full. The only way to avoid this future is probably to keep 3D printing in a niche and out of the hands of the masses -Which might happen, because I doubt there's a need for a 3D printer in every home. But who knows, there's a surprising need for a computer in every home as well, after all ;-)
There is one thing that every compony seems to avoid... a Glass bed... I just ordered a Creality Ender 3 S1 Plus because it has a "touch" sensor so that I can choose to use a glass bed. I´m printing a lot of large TPU parts and these magnetic sprint steel beds just warp with the printed part because the magnets are not strong enough... Thanks for that really nice video
13:35 i am surprised that (looks like it) not so many people sayed that the most impressive inovation are reliable and good out of the box printers. For me e.g. i don't care so much that my p1p(now p1s with AMS) is especially fast or has a very good user experience (software e.g.). but the fact that there is no more struggle BROUGHT ME BACK TO 3D Printing - after i slowly but surely dismissed that hobby (using and struggling with my ender 3v2 and Anicubic Viper). "Crazy" Ideas: for near future: i see a loooot potential in good and affordable 3D Scanners - to ease the way for people who can't use CAD for making their own Modes. Far future: a combination out of 3d Scanner (e.g. ur smartphone can probably do that one day reliably), AI 3D Modeling software(is already a thing/fast evolving), very easy CAD software(slicers these days are already Mini Baby CAD-Programs when you think about it) - all and more combined and maybe even implementing in a Slicer. With the goal to reduce the hurdles for new but creative people. "Only one or two clicks from an idea in my head to a ready sliced printing Model"
I am very impressed with how far printers have come in such a sort time since buying my ender 3 pro. My same gripe as usual is please someone make a larger bed. Tall printers aren't a big deal. I want something with a larger bed as I make functional parts. Say take something larger than an ender 3 bed and put two together and make it rectangular. Then 8" of Z height would be more than adequate.
very good input!
good interesting video, can't wait to see who listens and what comes of it!😬
Crazy printer idea: secondary/vernier xy axes actuated with voice coils. You could use it to apply heavy input shaping to main xy and catch square corners with the small light weight secondary axes that could accel way quicker. This could make large format printers much faster.
A feature that I hope to see more of in the next generation of 3D printers is a heated enclosure. In the consumer level price category, the only manufacturer doing this now is Qidi Tech; I hope in the near future, more of the 3D printer manufacturers offer heated enclosures, as this will make it easier to print higher temperature materials. I would like to see more printers that are not limited to printing just PLA, PETG, and TPU.
I'd like to see more compact budget-ish printers with heated chamber. You aren't printing cosplay helmets out of nylon, you use it for smaller parts that are structurally critical, so owning a big open printer to print big things with PETG and a small efficient enclosed one for structural parts makes sense. Small chamber will heat up to operating temp quickly.
@@TheLaXandro You make an excellent point, but not everyone who uses a big printer is interested in cosplay parts. I have been experimenting with printing musical instruments like violins, and I need a large format printer for that. My Qidi X-Max 3 does a great job, but I would delinitely be interested in a large format printer with a taller build volume. than the X-Max 3.
@@wfpelletier4348 oh yes, of course, I didn't mean that big printer is just for cosplay, I just picked the first big dumb thing that people use big printers for. If you want a tall volume, you can consider a delta printer with a custom enclosure. Nothing beats deltas in terms of tall.
I'm late to the game here, but...Tl;dr: I just want Bambu to make a filament recycler. I love my P1"S," but here's what I want in the next one I buy to supplement it: Linear motors, hot-swappable hot ends, less waste/better waste management. More 3rd-party profile support on BBL slicer. LESS RETRACTION TIME for multicolor prints. Skippable parts for Bambu Studio, not just Handy. QUIET FANS. And I'm a sucker for upgrades, so...more 3rd-party collabs like the high-flow hot end? ❤
Looks like Sovol pretty much nailed it with the sv08!
I'm seriously considering the SV08 as my next printer.
I ordered mine immediately on release day at 449€. Waiting eagerly for delivery! 😉
I want a Bambu toolchanger with an AMS connected to each toolhead. 16 colors printing, minimal waste and zero waste if you keep it at one color per tool
Speed is important, but precision is MOST CRUCIAL, especially when prototyping.
Your vídeos are awesome... but today the Best is your senna's coach
Still using my Reprap Mono Mendel. Manual level the bed once a year. It's just works. Still using Slic3r v1.3. So good I built a clone but bigger 600x600 bed. Oh and the REAL big issue is to keep the law makers away from telling us what we can and can't print and compulsory safety rules.
aw man, I'm bummed that I missed the survey, but one of the things I'd like to see most is the ability to take PET plastic bottles straight from heated, smoothed, and a strip started straight to the hot end for printing. I'd like to use my 3D printer to reduce waste in the world around us and turn it into useful things!
One other thing I think would be interesting to see is a better way to handle large projects in slicers (ones that use multiple full build plates). Some parts require different parameters (other than the settings you can add to the parts individually) such as filament type, filament color, layer height, etc. My thoughts would be you could specify those parameters for each part (or multiple parts at a time) to begin with. Then when you auto arrange parts, they would be grouped together by layer height (or support different layer heights in the same print, preferably both), by filament color, filament type, etc. Then to take it a step further, have a belt printer and have the ability to auto dump parts and start the next program and change out filaments (if you have a mmu or ams) and just general features to make printing large complicated projects easier.
Michael, you are a leader of the revolution 👍👍👍👍👍👍
I'd really like a glass bed but with a removable sheet steel surface. The glass is a great reference shape to keep the printing plane perfectly flat. Leveling is easy, but flatness is unheard of. I'd rather not have my ABL compensate for divets that result in some dimensional inaccuracy. This is esp the case if you need your bottom surfaces to align to some mechanisms
The problem with that is that you'll need strong magnets to prevent the bed from bowing out. Usual magnetic beds use ferrite magnet sheets, baisically supersized fridge magnets. You can't put ferrite sheet under glass because it won't have enough holding power through glass's thickness. But ferrite magnets are used not necessarily because it's cheaper to (though it is cheaper) but also because they can tolerate the temperatures. Neodymium magnets that would have enough power to hold through glass lose their power right around 55 degrees celsius. There are high temp neodymium magnets, but the price stings, and their temperature tolerance is still up to 100-110 degrees, if you need your bed at 90 it'll be hotter than that between heater and glass.
@@TheLaXandro Dont use a ferrite sheet. No professional uses those, they're terrible. Do what prusa did
Thanks for doing this survey. I"m sure it's valuable to those contemplating future product developments. As part of the expandability aspect, you could take that further in a more generalized sustainability. If there were some common mechanical component that were modular and reusable, upgrades could could cheaper and more likely to be adopted. I'm thinking of mechanical components like frames and enclosures. Or maybe some standard interfaces for toolheads and hot-ends that can be swapped out. Maybe turn your 3D printer into a laser engraver, purchased from a third party? Or a 3D scanner "tool" you could swap into your precision motion system? Might not be time yet for something like that, but a first step could be this level of upgrades from within a particular vendor? I moved from an Ender 3 "Pro" to a Voron 2.4. The change from "3D printing as a hobby" to "3D printer as a tool" really was quite profound. It was a nice transition, even after then enjoyable (to me) assembly process that resulted in a pretty reliable tool. I got to thinking about it very differently, and it surprised me. I wonder what other changes will have profound impacts on how people think about these tools?
@teachingTech I used to be an engineer at Apple back when their computers were expandable and upgradeable. One thing we found was that on surveys respondents frequently said they wanted expandability and upgradability BUT when it actually came to spending dollars people never spent the money. Upgradeable CPUs was a biggie. It took a lot to designed daughter cards for the pre G3 machines but no one every upgraded. It's easy to check that you want "upgradeability" on a web form but it people don't buy it then manufacturers spent a bunch of resources on something that isn't going to be used. So manufacturers be sure to listen to history. It would be interesting to see how many people buy a Bamboo AMS after they've purchased the machine vs people who buy it with the machine. The A1 would be interesting to since it's a lot less expensive.
That is because of mac users... Pc users upgrade a lot
I’d say this is a pretty apples to oranges comparison since the consumers between different products varies heavily. A lot of people who get 3D printers inevitably end up tinkering with it and getting to know the parts pretty well about 6 months to a year into having one. Apple consumers don’t really.. do that. Especially now since it isn’t possible anyways, but the consumers never seemed like the type to do so. With 3D printers you HAVE to tinker and mess around with it when things eventually fail, and then you fall down the rabbit hole of what to upgrade to prevent said failures. Which leads to us wanting more accessible upgrades to make this as easy as possible.
One of my biggest issues with the survey is that I bet this is answered by mostly enthusiasts, since there are a lot of enthusiast asks like open-source. The new user/novice won't care about the nitty gritty. The new user is also a large potential market to get into, so companies will obviously try to attack that segment. There are quite a few enthusiast options that, I think, are available, so companies won't bother trying to get into that. I like seeing what TT's viewers want, but this is not indicative of what a majority 3D printer users want.
@@plutonasa true
@@riba2233 Not actually true They mostly just buy new pcs. You can find lots of data supporting this. Even ram is not upgraded that often.
After modifying and Aquila and an buying a used and modified ender 5 pro and tweaking it further then picking up a K1C (came with free 10w laser that I intend to hook into my 4x8 lowrider CNC)... Something that just works is really nice but I still enjoy messing with the printer itself just about as much as using it sometimes as long as I'm not outright fighting with it. I really like multi-color / multi-material, the cost and waste i'm less happy with. There is one retailer I order liquid cooled computer parts from uses a packaging peanut that is water soluble. Dump them in the sink run a little water over them and they are gone. I believe they are corn based and I really like them over the typical foams and packaging options. The one thing I'd like to see more of is something like the Hydra bed leveling become more common instead of taking things as is out of level actual make it level.
I think those numbers would be more "telling" if instead of rating features from 1 to 5, people had to choose between let's say only 3 features out of all of the ones you listed. There need to be a "tradeoff" in the poll (like a limit on the features you can choose, or an impact on the price such as "would you be ready to pay 200$ more for x feature" ...), because here it's not really "information-rich" : - Is multi-material cool ? Yes it is - Is multi-color cool ? Yes it is ...
When it comes to cloud crap. Make it self hostable but also offer your service as a subscription. Not being forced to use it but wanting the convienience many will probably like it.
Very good summary and in this case I'm happy to be in mainstream. There is one point which I would like to stress. Printer enclosure is for me mandatory. I can add filtration or heating later but without enclosure no printer comes in my kitchen. Unfortunately I do not have access to shed or basement :).
Tilting print bed: some vorons with 4 Z motors could do that if the bed mounts are designed to accomodate the tilt.
A video I would love to see is one regarding a workflow designed around the highest reliability in all regards. I see a lot of people trying to make like, a sub 1 minute benchy, but the speeds and stuff the machine is moving at, that has got to be really rough on all the components. I would love to know if there is a sweet spot when it comes to speeds, that is the best balance of reliable to print, easy on the machine, and highest level of uptime/success. I think one of the things that is really cool about 3D printing is the machine can do so much, that I can scale my operation up rather easily by simply adding another 3D printer to my workspace. I don't need to tune one machine to crazy high rates if I can have multiple that are up all the time parallel processing stuff. But it also isn't clear to me if there is also a diminishing return, like can you run a machine so slow that failure increases because plastic is heating up too much in the extruder waiting to be extruded and maybe at slower speeds there is more wear on some components? Does really slow speeds improve ringing, or make it worse? All this stuff I don't actually know but would love to see this information somewhere.