Many of us do not feel we need to change the way we work, we feel technology is too overwhelming, we feel it takes away creativity, the truth is we should embrace technology, it increases the speed at which we complete present and market projects, you go from spending days on iteration after iteration to just a couple of hours, 3D printers are a must-have if you want to increase the amount of your clientele, especially if your clients want to see a miniature physical representation of a project, 3D printers can now allow you to build intricate models, let’s look at some of these printers, the pros, and cons and how they might improve the way we work.

Cost, Speed, and Detail

A big factor in your decision to get a 3D printer is, cost, 3D printers can be on the expensive side, the larger they are or the more features they have, you also get the budgets printers, that are still good but with fewer features and sometimes small in size, so first look at the features, what exactly is your end goal and budget before you get one, the other factor is the speed, like we mentioned above, 3D printing is way faster than creating a model from scratch, it allows you to print minute details, this depends also on the type of printer you choose to work with, another point I would like to make is that 3D printers with a large bed will definitely give you value for your money.

The Best 3D Printer For Architects

LulzBot TAZ Pro 3D Printer

One of my favorites on the list, it’s an industrial-grade desktop 3d printer, the Large 280 × 280 × 285 mm build volume with heated build plate, is one of the reasons I think it’s a worthwhile investment, the build volume alone will allow you to come up with some complex prints, the rigid frame, and quiet operation makes having it on your desk a must, you get out of the box printing with water-soluble support material, the LulzBot TAZ Pro 3D Printer features a large selection of materials, this means you can now model with different textures, it’s the ideal tool for building models, although it’s largely used for prototyping.

Dremel Digilab 3D45 3D Printer

The Dremel Digilab 3D45 3D Printer is powerful, let’s take a look at both the pros and cons of the 3D45, it’s a great printer that’s a little too oversimplified, that can be a good thing, you don’t want 3D printing to be too overly complicated, the added webcam makes monitoring your prints remotely a breeze, the Dremel Digilab 3D45 3D Printer allows non-dremel filaments, an extra bonus, the Dremel Digilab 3D45 3D Printer has one drawback, it struggles with flexible filament, this is a good printer for architectural models, and is worth having if you never had a 3D printer before.

FlashForge 3D Printer Creator Pro

FlashForge 3D The first-timers 3D printer of choice, due to its friendliness, you can basically unbox it and jump into it with the help of the large community behind it, it’s quite loud, might not be ideal to have in the front office, the printer is easy to assemble and the software that comes with it is easy to use, the price is also convenient, the type of printer I will recommend if you are starting out.

Ultimaker 3 Extended 3D Printer

Ultimaker 3 is one of the ultimate industrial printers on this list, with its dual extrusion you can now have two different colors in one model, what impressed me the most was the usage of Ultimaker PVA, a water-soluble material, you now can print intricate, complex models, using both PLA and PVA, all you have to do is to dip it into water, this dissolves the PVA and what’s left is PLA, the fantastic build volume and the webcam is an added advantage, the Ultimaker 3 is a printer that will force you to look for faults which are few, it’s a serious piece of machinery, check it out if you want to take your 3D printing to another level.  

Creality3D CR — 10 3D Printer

The Creality3D CR – 10 3D Printer is surprisingly good, the large size of its bed is wonderful it is 300×300×400 mm with a print volume of 3600 cubic cm, and the way it’s priced is good, I wondered why the Creality3D CR – 10 3D Printer was so popular until I experienced it working in spiral, the Creality3D CR — 10 3D Printer is my choice for budget 3D printer, quick setup, easy use.

Sindoh 3DWOX 3D Printer

I called the Sindoh 3DWOX 2x 3D Printer the 3d Microwave, the new 2x line has dual extruders and supports more filament types, PLA, abs, PVA, flexible also open source, the build area also increased by 288 × 200 x300 mm, the printer has an onboard webcam a feature more frequent on 3d printers.

Build volume and speed are very important especially if you are part of a small team, the larger the build volume the bigger and more detailed your model will be, a larger build volume also alleviates printing your models in smaller parts and assembling them, another important quality should be the speed, faster good quality prints equals a faster workflow.