Stefan Mileschin

You'll forgive us for frontloading this informational post about Doodle3D -- a simple sketching software tool, complete with hardware dongle, that's being Kickstarted -- with superlatives like "totally rad," but it's difficult to feel otherwise. The software is very accessible, enabling 2D drawings done on a computer, tablet, or smartphone to be wirelessly sent to a hardware dongle attached to a variety of 3D printers. Just like that, drawings are magically turned from crude 2D images into physical 3D objects; this principle is demonstrated in the group's Kickstarter video (below the break), which features a variety of non-techie folks using the application to thrilling results. More importantly? Not a single companion cube!

If you'd like to contribute, several tiered options are available. The early bird special affords 100 lucky folks a Doodle3D WiFi box for just $88, but that's quickly running out. The box will otherwise run you (at least) $99, and the team is expecting to ship them sometime in September -- should the project reach its $50,000 goal, that is. With 35 days to go and just over one fifth of that goal already funded, it's looking like that won't be an issue.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/17/d...tarter-launch/