Adobe Photoshop software to get 3D printing capabilities

Adobe Photoshop software will get 3D printing capabilities to allow designers print three-dimensional models and designs - provided they had access to a 3D printer.

Adobe Systems Inc said yesterday that the 3D printing function would be available as an update to Photoshop Creative Cloud, its subscription-based software.

Photoshop users can print 3D designs either locally if they had a 3D printer or using online 3D printing services such as the MakerBot, Replicator or Shapeways.

Three-dimensional models and prototypes find application in architecture, furniture designing, jewelry making and animation.

In an update to Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud, the company said it would include 3D printing functionality under a broader feature rollout. In other words, Creative Cloud subscribers can now build, preview, prep and print 3D designs.

The 3D printing market would be expected to be one of the more notable tech sectors for 2014, but it remains to be seen how consumers and do-it-yourself product makers bought up 3D printers.

In the industrial sector, 3D printing had potential to revamp supply chains and allow creation of custom parts on the fly by enterprises.

Adobe, with its core audience of designers, was aiming to be a 3D printing enabler, commentators said. The argument of the company was that existing 3D modeling tools were not refined enough to produce high-quality work.

According to Adobe, Photoshop Creative Cloud would support most of the popular 3D printers and materials such as ceramics, metals and sandstone.

Adobe would introduce 3D printing possibilities to millions of its Creative Cloud subscribers, which alone according to commentators would broaden the market.

Shapeways, a 3D printing marketplace, and Makerbot, maker of the Makerbot Replicator, are two partners plugged into the latest release from the company.

Additionally, Adobe had built in tools to texture 3D models that included scaffolding for preventing the model from collapsing when printing. According to commentators, by automating scaffolding and spotting troublespots with models, Adobe was taking a lot of the headaches out of 3D printing and modeling.