A mentor often repeated this: "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." Product designers who are working with 3D printing design, development and manufacturing should take heed. Design the way you've always designed, and you won't get anything out of 3D printing that's different from what you've always gotten before 3D printing.
Many people look at end use parts as the nirvana of 3-D printing. But what's really interesting about 3-D printing is not how it's augmenting the way things are done traditionally. It's the way designers are utilizing 3-D printing as a new paradigm to help design a new kind of object.
