Today, Chicago-based Inventables has made the path from idea to finished product as smooth as ever before.
The one-stop-shop for makers has officially opened up Easel, its free cloud-based 3D Carving software, to the public. This announcement marks a major milestone in the digital manufacturing revolution because the majority of the equipment that fuels the industry is "controlled" by computers. (Users upload or submit a design to a program and an automated machine executes the product or parts; this is a very basic description of digital manufacturing).
Though the machines - like 3D printers or Inventables' Shapeoko - are gradually becoming more affordable and easy-to-use, the software that powers the equipment has traditionally been expensive and inaccessible.
Easel, on the other hand, is a free program that can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection. The software allows designers to easily create, from scratch, a flat design that can be fed into a 3D carver or printer. The program was designed with the first-timer in mind and, unlike similar software, does not require a Computer Science degree to navigate. In other words, the release enables anyone to start creating. (For example, the Chicago Public Library has equipment from Inventables in its Maker Lab. With Easel, you can now design a product and make it - all for the price of a Library Card).
Check out the CEO of Inventables, Zach Kaplan, present Easel to the public at the week's MakerCon:
