I see people pushing 3d printing pretty far, but the progress I've seen in the past decade has been more "because we can" and not in the direction of seriously replacing traditional manufacturing. At best, it's gotten to the point that it makes sense for low-volume runs of simple parts and low-volume runs of complex, expensive parts.

It democratizes manufacturing in a way. I'm midway through a two axis satellite tracker build that involves quite a few parts. The ability for me to go into Fusion 360, create a part, virtually test fit it in an assembly then print it out and put it directly to use is pretty amazing and liberating. If you poke around youtube and look at the hobbyist robotics channels you'll see endless 3d printing...nothing else comes close.

Once products start to pivot to personalized fitment we'll likely see quite a bit more 3d printing in manufacturing. Until then it's mostly going to be what you said, low volume/prototype runs and complex parts that aren't possible with other fabrication approaches.

> it's gotten to the point that it makes sense for low-volume runs of simple parts and low-volume runs of complex, expensive parts.

Yep! And you can get this today, from a machine that costs less than a smartphone, and it's clean, it's quiet, it doesn't make swarf, or dust, or smoke, and it fits on your desk! It turns your CAD models into parts in a matter of hours out of material of almost-negligible cost. We are truly living in the future.

If you don't want to make low-volume runs of custom parts, then 3d printing is utterly useless to you. But it is absolutely game-changing for people who do.

> At best, it's gotten to the point that it makes sense for low-volume runs

At best? That's amazing!!! A hotglue gun on a couple of aluminum tracks can now compete with full-fledged factories! Not on everything. Not on most things. But on anything at all is mindblowing. A seismic shift has already happened in how material goods will end up in someone's hands.

You see the "because we can" projects because they're flashy and are built to demand attention. If you want to see a practical side to 3d printing, you have to hunt for it. It's not glamorous or that interesting to talk about with anyone not already obsessed with the tech. But it's there. My best anecdote is fixing my Dyson vacuum. Without a printer, you could've hacked it with some ingenuity and zipties. But instead, I rebuilt what was broken and maintained the quality of the device.

For more mundane awesomeness: https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprints/