SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft announced today that it’s integrating Autodesk’s Spark 3D printing technology into Windows 10 in order to improve the operating system’s support for creating physical objects from digital models.
Steve Guggenheimer, the company’s chief evangelist, told an audience at the second day of the Build developer conference that the next update to Microsoft’s operating system will come with built-in support for the open-source 3D printing standard. It comes as Autodesk just began shipping its Ember 3D printer, which is the first printing device to support Spark.
Microsoft has been pushing 3D printing inside its operating system since Windows 8.1, when it first began integrating the ability to produce physical objects. Since then, the company pushed those capabilities further through special areas inside certain Microsoft retail stores that let people demo a MakerBot 3D printer.
It’s an important integration, since Microsoft moved further into three dimensional computing with the announcement of its HoloLens augmented reality headgear. HoloStudio, one of the apps that the company showed off at the device’s unveiling in January, allows people to create 3D objects by moving around digital components in the air in front of them.
