Kind of doubt we'll see it in the near future, although you will start to see the trickle of more and more women discovering it and giving it a try. Mainly jewelry designers, artists, and whatnot at first.
The change is happening, (now - or I wouldn't be here
), but to get something as big as this to change direction takes decades, and usually several generations. My mom is one of those delicate southern belles who can't put gas in her own car, and for that matter, has to be driven most places. It's okay though, she likes it that way just fine. (It's like trying to turn an ocean liner - you don't do that on a dime.)
Now if you're asking specifically why more gals have not gotten interested in 3D printing as opposed to cutting - that's very simple.......you guys haven't made it applicable to scrap-booking yet!
That's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but also true to a certain extent - the ladies have to see a use for it, something that they are interested in doing with it, and they need to see themselves making things that suit
their interests. The little vinyl cutters were easy enough, un-intimidating enough, and inexpensive enough that they gave them a try and liked them, and made cards and scrap-books of the grand-kids and vinyl projects. But for that matter, the cutters didn't really take off until several years in, after additions to the software made them easy enough to use that most people wouldn't have to spend much time learning to design things. The software does a lot of that for you.
The laser cutter will let them take that knowledge and start making handbags and wallets and cases out of leather, and lamp shades and wood projects and home decor too, so it's a logical progression for some of the gals.
And......it might lead some of them to make the jump to 3D printing. But they'll want to play with the laser for a while first.
If you want to hurry the 3D printer adoption process along, you need to think of a way to make the gals (and guys for that matter) "
got to have" one. It needs to be mostly automated, with very clear instructions, because no-one has time to learn it from scratch if they're working full-time, or raising a family, or going to school. That's where Glowforge got smart - they actually do the vector creation for you with their in-house software - you don't have to learn to vectorize a raster image. You don't even have to know the difference between a vector and a raster - you just send them the file and they take care of it for you.
Not crazy about the cloud aspect of it, but if it works for them, it's a blazing signpost for the direction that the 3D printing industry needs to take to enjoy the same kind of surge.*
Whew! Okay, no more philosophical questions......I can't seem to quit once i get going.
Update: * To clarify, because that reads as ambiguous: Make it easy to use by taking control of some of the more technical design aspects, don't offer as many choices (make it work with
one kind of filament and sell that filament in a lot of colors), preset as much as you can, (fix the level and the nozzle height correctly and don't let the user mess with it), don't offer different layer height and width options, or sell designs on cartridges that automate the process, and give them the opportunity to just change the size of the designs. But take a lot of the technical stuff out of the equation. Make it smaller (cuter), bring down the price, market it as a "craft tool" or "starter printer", get it onto QVC and demo it making flat ornaments, name plates, pendants, and toys for the kids. (The items' demo-ed need to be pretty flat, due to the time constraints, but you can have taller items on display all around, to show what else can be made with them.) The first one that does this is going to kick-start the 3D printing explosion. Once they get their feet wet, people will want a better printer, more options, bigger beds and stronger filaments, and everyone in the industry is going to benefit. People just haven't seen what they can do yet, and applied it to their own lives.
Okay, now I'm done, I promise.
)
well I'm glad we are all mostly on the same page and that unlike many other forums could actually discuss this and figure out what the miscommunication was.