Many of us search high and low each year to find the perfect ornaments to add to our Christmas trees to make them stand out from the crowd. This year, you can really go a different route by creating your own 3D ornaments using Surface and Microsoft’s recently released 3D Builder app.
Markus Weickenmeier writes on the Surface Blog that although 3D Builder offers a “seasonal” template, his team came up with some of their own for holiday ornaments, shown above, that you can import into the 3D Builder app, modify in your “preferred modeling application,” then print at home.
Developments in hardware have made 3D printers more affordable, but the most significant advancements have been made on the software front,” Weickenmeier writes.
“Each of these printers used to come packaged with its own print utility. Now with Windows 8.1 we have an integrated solution that interfaces directly with the printer and connects it with the print utility in Windows.”
That means that 3D printers in Windows 8.1 “look and feel exactly like your standard plug-and-play paper printer. Whether you are just getting started creating your own models or have been building for some time, you can now choose the printer and software combo that best suits your needs and simply swipe and print with Windows 8.1.”
Head over to the Surface Blog to download the ornament templates and to read the rest of Weickenmeier’s post. And you can find the free 3D Builder App in the Windows Store.
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Suzanne Choney
Microsoft News Center Staff