Microsoft to Offer Support for 3D Printing with Windows 8.1

You can almost think of today’s post as a sequel to yesterday’s post. The main gist of that post was of large corporate entities taking additive manufacturing (AM) seriously enough to invest capital in the technology. That will, most likely, bring more attention to 3D printing, which should increase general consumer interest in the potential offered by AM.

In the land of computer software, it’s hard to find a larger corporate entity than Microsoft. The technology giant has announced it will be supporting AM with Windows 8.1. Starting with that update, Windows will treat a 3D printer like any other printer: just push a button that says “print.” 

From the Microsoft blog:

… will 3D printing go mainstream? We think so – which is why we’ve built it into Windows – the world’s most popular platform. This includes all of the things you’d expect from Windows: plug-n-play support for printers, enabling apps to seamlessly submit 3D print jobs, understanding 3D file formats, and connecting lots of apps with lots of hardware to deliver an end-to-end solution for customers. We want this to be so simple that anyone can set up their own table-top factory.

Windows 8.1 is meant to offer a number of features to support 3D printing, including:

• Driver model for 3D manufacturing devices
• Support for Windows Store device apps and extensions for 3D manufacturing devices
• Job spooling and queuing support
• Keywords for modeling device capabilities
• API for apps to submit 3D manufacturing jobs to your 3D printer

In addition to supporting 3D printer builds, Microsoft is working with companies like  3D Systems, Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, Formlabs, MakerBot, netfabb, Stratasys, Tiertime, and Trimble to enhance and simplify the AM design process. Windows 8.1 will offer app-building support for AM, and a simple data capture program that works with the Kinect, providing a basic 3D scanner.

Printer settings are drawn from the drivers provided by manufacturers, and can be accessed via the usual Windows menu system. This includes both basic and advanced settings, an idea that should be familiar to anyone who has ever printed out a document using Windows. The system even monitors the progress of a print and will notify a user when the print is finished. I’m just speculating here, but it seems likely other notifications (such as low materials) will be included as well.

This is a pretty significant step forward for AM. Recognition of how important the technology is by a company like Microsoft should bring good things for the industry. If nothing else, we can probably look forward to a new batch of 3D design apps, thanks to Windows 8.1 support. I’m curious if Apple – often thought of as the company more friendly to the design process – will attempt to match or one-up Microsoft’s move.

Below you’ll find a video that discusses Windows 8.1 and 3D printing.