A friend, who is an architect, uses them to quickly mock up house designs for clients. He uses a low resolution setting and can "build" a house, complete with windows, doors, roof, chimney - all exterior features in about < 6 hours.
Clients love it as they can pick the model up, turn it around and look at lots of perspectives. He feels that it gives them FAR more knowledge about the final look than the 3-D computer programs that show a house on the screen.
Saves him a LOT of time as he doesn't have to move windows when house is 2/3rds built. He can tweak it easily and just have the 3-D printer do another version.
Once approved, he does a high resolution model, which is more than a foot long and will even show the outlines of chimney bricks and such. That one takes over 24 hours.
He keeps a copy of the final model in his office and he must have 50-60 of them on a platform around his ceiling.
But we are not architects . . . .
Steve
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consulting on geothermal heating/cooling & rational energy use since 1990
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