These Affordable 3-D Printers Are Impressive—And Plagued by Weak Software

Da Vinci 1.0. XYZ Printing

The original Da Vinci 1.0 3-D printer made its debut at CES in January, and a two-color Da Vinci 2.0 “Duo” was introduced two months later. Today, the Taiwanese-based company XYZ Printing behind the Da Vincis has announced yet another addition to the lineup: the Da Vinci “All-in-One,” which boasts a built-in scanner.

I’ve had the opportunity to test the 1.0 and the All-in-One. So far, I’m impressed with the print and build quality of both, but there is one hitch. A 3-D printer is more than just its extruder; unlike regular inkjet printers, 3-D printers are largely defined by the flexibility and utility of their software, which XYZ Printing seems to have forgotten in its rush to market.

Da Vinci 1.0: $500

The original da Vinci printer is a single-color, fused-filament machine. The device gets much closer to being something people might own at home than many other printers of its kind. It’s ready right out of the box: After the packing foam and tape has been removed and the filament inserted, it can immediately print its default test objects, or plug into a computer to receive new ones. Its enclosure—which admittedly looks like what the ’90s thought would be cool in “the future”—hides all the wires, hot metal, and moving bits, and cuts down on the sounds and scents. It’s also hard to beat the $500 price tag, which makes the Da Vinci 1.0 an option even for people who only want to dabble in 3-D printing.

Liana Bandziulis/WIRED

For more advanced users who have already printed a thing or 30 and want to tinker with the insides, the da Vinci 1.0′s hardware remains easily accessible. The extruder and moving heated bed are familiar fixtures, and, though the filament comes in proprietary “cartridges” of either PLA or ABS thermoplastic filament, there are ways of spoofing it to use filament spools of your choice.

The da Vinci is not breaking any ground in fused filament technology, but the little things, like the wiping tab that cleans the nozzle before and after the print and the large 7.8 x 7.8 x 7.8-inch print capacity, make it a good build of an established model.

Annoyingly, the attention to detail in the hardware fails to reach the accompanying software. XYZware, which takes files and pushes them to the printer, has minimal functionality and an infuriating user interface peppered with comically bad translations (“Take a minute to finish the registration, and enjoy the benefit with us!”). Editing an object is limited to resizing and rotating it—and even that is done by moving sliders, not the actual object. If the object isn’t well-formed, the slicing algorithms don’t have any healing options. When I tried to print a model of a waving cat, it included a glitch that morphed the cat’s middle into a cylinder. You are better off using open-source programs like Blender to create STL files and throwing them through Slic3r to produce the G Code, and using XYZware only as the final link to the printer. Or, for the advanced hacker, there’s been buzz about a Repetier firmware hack that might be the answer to bringing this printer up to its full potential.

Da Vinci All-in-One:$800

The All-in-One is almost identical to the original printer—same size, same enclosure, same hardware and software—with the added feature of a 3-D scanner. As of today, it’s available for pre-order on Newegg and Amazon for $800. To operate the scanner, a new XYZscan application lifts the heated bed out of the way, and prompts the you to place an object on the turntable hidden underneath. Using what looks to be a red-light scanner on the right and left, da Vinci attempts to recreate a 3-D model. According to the instruction manual, the scanner can’t detect items smaller than 2 x 2 x 2 inches; if the object is too small or too complex, strange voids or blobby fills can appear.

Understandably, this technology is still cutting-edge and hard to get right, but it’s difficult to justify $300 more than the original for something that’s still a bit half-baked. This experimental printer is certainly appropriate as a project in a hackerspace, but shouldn’t be branded as a turn-key consumer product.

Conclusions

If you’re looking to get a Da Vinci 3-D printer, I’d recommend the Da Vinci 1.0: it’s the best value of the three models, and holds its own against competing brands. Although the software isn’t great, I have yet to see a plug-n-play printer that has a well-integrated interface.

As the technology gets better, including a scanner will make more sense. After all, generating 3-D models is a huge challenge for the 3-D printing field, and being able to turn clay or cardboard prototypes into shareable, replicable objects via a scan will be a great stepping stone.

A quick note on the Da Vinci Duo ($650): Though I didn’t get a chance to try it out, generally speaking, dual-nozzle printers only make sense if you’re printing two types of materials, such as nylon interwoven with hard plastic. And, as the Da Vinci technically only takes proprietary ABS or PLA spools, its usefulness is dramatically reduced.

If XYZ Printing comes out with a better app, the Da Vinci line has great potential. The company has a running head start in the ready-made printer market, experimenting with some interesting business models in an uncertain field. The devices are surprisingly high quality for their price. For being barely a year old, XYZ printing is making some excellent advances in 3-D printing accessibility and affordability for enthusiasts, designers, and schools around the world.