Rapid prototyping depends on the use of 3D CAD systems, and certain structural changes in a commercial customer’s design, engineering, and manufacturing practices may be required. For many organizations, these changes are fundamental alterations in their core business processes, and they have historically been slow to adapt. An increasingly competitive commercial environment and improvements in 3D CAD software, have accelerated the pace of change, however.

Service bureaus permit users to test-drive various techniques and products, and allow more occasional users to avoid the capital and training expenses associated with the installation of even a low-cost 3D printing system. Technologies such as CNC desktop machining centers give users additional alternatives. Although the costs are typically low and accuracies high for CNC systems, subtractive technologies don’t offer the same geometric capabilities provided by additive systems. Japanese industry has emphasized the CNC solution and has developed very high speed CNC machines to address rapid prototyping, tooling and manufacturing applications. While additive fabrication is certainly developing in Japan, it will probably take a different route there than in the western hemisphere.

Finally, computer simulation can obviate the need for physical models. The ongoing development of virtual reality systems might eventually allow virtual prototyping. Users could assess the aesthetics and feel of a potential design without actually having to hold the part, or by the use of some form of tactile feedback. However, substantial advances in several technologies are required before virtual prototyping becomes practical and commonplace, much less economic. Moreover, potentially important future applications of rapid prototyping such as rapid manufacturing, by their very nature cannot be replaced by any type of simulation.

The world is a tangible place after all, and there will often be no acceptable substitute for an object that can be passed around a table or around the globe.