Have you thought about joining the 3D printing craze but been daunted by the prospect of figuring out exactly what to do with a 3D printer?

3D printing pioneer John Biehler feels your pain. Or rather, he has heard it — in a constant stream of questions he gets from wannabe 3D printing operators who are afraid to jump in.

And so Biehler who was asking himself the same kinds of questions when he bought his first 3D printer three years ago, a $1,500 model that he had to assemble, has turned those answers and more into a book: 3D Printing with Autodesk. Co-authored with Bill Fane, a retired B.C. Institute of Technology teacher in mechanical design and author of AutoCAD for Dummies, the book aims to make 3D printing accessible to all.

“One of the questions I get asked multiple times a day is, ‘wow this 3D printing stuff is really cool; I have no clue where to start.’ Or, ‘I have no clue about anything to do with CAD, computer aided design,’ ” said Biehler.

“And neither did I, actually, when I started. I just built the printer first and I figured I’d figure out what I’d print with it later, since it was such an interesting technology.”

That first 3D printer took Biehler a week to assemble but with the technology much advanced since then, readers of the book have it easier.

“The target audience for this book are the people who are curious but they’re not quite ready to jump in and buy a 3D printer,” said Biehler, who was named a Top 100 Innovator in 3D Printing in 2013 and 2014 and a Top 10 Influencer in 3D Printing in 2014.

Now you can buy machines that are fully assembled and quite slick compared with the earliest versions. But there are still 3D printing kits and they’re easily within the reach of even kids — and, in fact, maybe kids more than their parents.

“It’s not really that complex in the big scheme of things; you’re not building a space shuttle, you’re just building a little machine that moves left, right, up and down,” said Biehler.

Biehler said children understand the implications of a machine that lets them make their own Lego or Minecraft characters at home. You can create your own designs or access the now hundreds of thousands of designs that are either freely available online or come with a small fee.

The book introduces the non-design experts to Autodesk’s 123D Design, a free suite of tools for 3D modelling and printing. The second half focuses on people who may be AutoCAD experts but haven’t applied those skills to 3D printing.

“The big thing about 3D printing is you can skip going to the store because you have this factory on your desk,” said Biehler. “But I guess the killer app portion of 3D printing and what I really like about it is the personalization.

“Instead of going to the store and buying a business card holder that’s just plain, you can 3D print one that’s in the colour that you like, you can put your name on it, or a logo or whatever you want, and you’re doing it all yourself.”

Biehler, who’s also a photographer, said among the things he 3D prints are accessories that help his photography, such as camera mounts you can’t buy.

“I have this little piece of plastic that I can 3D print that lets me put my GoPro camera on my DSLR so I can shoot video and stills at the same time,” he said. “That part only cost me about 10 cents to make.”

3D printers, which have come down considerably in price, are available online and in the U.S. through traditional bricks and mortar retailers such as Home Depot, ToysRUs and Staples.

“Every day there’s another Kickstarter project for a $300 to $500 printer,” said Biehler. “Especially for kids, the parental budget of buying them a PlayStation 4 or buying them a 3D printer, they might go for the educational aspects of the 3D printer instead of the PlayStation 4.”

And with 60 per cent of 3D printers made from parts that can be 3D printed, Biehler said once you have your first printer, you can create bigger ones.

gshaw@vancouversun.com

vancouversun.com/digitallife

To hear the full interview from this story, go to vancouversunpodcasts.com.

Click here to report a typo or visit vancouversun.com/typo.

Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestory