[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by JU_88

Heh, the 3d printer has been around for the past decade or more, i belive it works by building up an object in layers from some kind of glue or some similar material. It not such an amazing technological accomplishment really - but it has its uses.
As August said, you cannot make something of out of nothing, so a food printer would first need to be loaded with food before it could 'print' food

What they are used for is prototyping parts for manufacture in plastic from CAD 3D drawings and they do build them up in layers something like an inkjet printer builds an image. My experience with 3D prints comes from prop building where the 3D print is then used to make a silicon mold to cast resin parts from. In some cases the prints are used when the part is delicate or difficult to cast.