Adobe Photoshop update adds 3D printing

The more commercialised 3D-printing has become over the past few years, the more friendly it’s become. Adobe is without a doubt responsible for the most widely used design software available today and has now released an update that gives Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers 3D printing and design capabilities in Photoshop, reportsGigaom.

By integrating certain tools, Adobe is bringing 3D capabilities to graphic designers’ hands the world over. What it exactly allows you to do is edit your 3D designs and print them directly from Photoshop. This update enables you to easily adjust the object’s colour, add texture or do minor mesh adjustments.

Adobe has also added tools that will help the design-to-3D-printer compatibility process. Photoshop product manager Andy Lauta explains:

“The problem is the 3D meshes these different tools create have many flaws, and if you try to print those models as they exist to these different printers, you’re going to get failures. Overcoming these flaws in models is actually a huge burden, particularly to creatives who do not understand the complexities of the printers and are not materials scientists.”

You can choose to export your design as a file or print directly to a printer. Direct printing is currently compatible with MakerBot and 3D Systems Cube desktop printers, with more to come in the future.

“We are making 3D printing available for the first time to the creative mainstream,” Lauta said. Through this Photoshop update, Adobe hopes to let 3D printing reach more than 1-million Creative Cloud subscribers.

It’s similar to what Microsoft hopes to do by reaching a massive 100-million Windows 8.1 subscribers. Last year, Microsoft announced that the popular MakerBot 3D printer will be sold in its retail stores across the US. It then later brought its 3D Builder app to Windows 8.1 which is a simplified, user-friendly way of creating and printing objects.

Image via Adobe