Have you dreamed of a car being 3D printed in front of your eyes, Tron-style? Then head over to Honda’s 3D website, where they’re showing off a range of their concept cars from across the years. Five cars are currently available, from the 1994 FSR Concept through the 1999 car-as-DJ-booth Fuya-Jo and on to last year’s NSX prototype. The site is presented a bit like a Pixar movie, quirky and fun, but the underlying concept is far more serious – and exciting. You can view each car through 360 degrees in your browser, but the most unexpected thing is that you can also download CAD files for each car.
This is pretty huge, as Honda are distributing them under the Creative Commons licensing model. That means you can not only download but also edit and redistribute them. Honda are actually encouraging you to see what you can come up with! Sure, the internal details and mechanicals are sparse, but as a starting point it’s pretty cool. Each car comes as high and low-res .STL files; even just opening and rotating one of the cars in a viewer is pretty thrilling.
At the moment 3D printing is really only viable for scale models of course, but this is a window into the future. Honda aren’t the first car company to use CC licensing and its crowd-sourced results, but it’s something that could become more widespread. Imagine that we, the drivers, could have a say in how future cars look and work?
Although I can barely afford to run my desktop printer, what with the cost of inkjet consumables, access to commercial 3D printers is increasing. I can’t think of anything better than sketching out your own car and then being able to print it out. But even if you don’t have your own MakerBot, get over to Honda-3D.com and go virtual!
Jonathan Moore
Instagram: speedhunters_jonathan
jonathan@speedhunters.com
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Oooo finally! Something worth running CAD for! Now, where did I put my command line prompt sheet....
Anyone figure out what to open the 3D models in?
Dan8989 Note to self, try for more than 5 minutes before asking questions.
Dan8989 if they are .STL files you can open them in any CAD modeling package, even the free ones such as: http://www.freecadweb.org/ just in case you don't have access to SolidWorks, Catia, Solid Edge, Inventor, Etc.
TarmacTerrorist Cars are designed using cad software in this day and age. So if you like cars (which might be why you're on this site), you may deem that they are worth running the software for. Only much older low end software packages have had me running command lines.
Wonder how long it takes until modders take these files and make cars for the race sim of choice from them
Suddently the "anti pirating" comercial is proven wrong. I would indeed download a car.
Looks like I have something to do on a slow day with the office makerbot.
Errr.... Autocad runs with a command prompt dude, I use it quite a bit...
2xthefun TarmacTerrorist case in point......
Dan8989 I recommend eDrawings. http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/
Quick, someone mock up a widebody kit for the NSX. Go fast or Kei Miura will beat you to it.
Cool, thanks for the heads up Jonathan.
Here is my NSX widebody after an hour of virtual tinkering. lol
http://statigr.am/p/649255909184702789_27914545
So, are you saying that the 2013 edition of autocad's flagship software is some how cheap, low end and elderly?
If so, what do you sugest I approach my physics lecturer with to get him to change the syllabus?
That last video was a work of art. If those last three screens were made into bumper stickers and sold online Honda would sell hundreds of thousands.
Here are some progress photos from the NSX I printed today. Enjoy, my fellow SpeedHunters!