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3D Printing Before It Was “3D Printing”: Fiction, Foundations, and the First Breakthroughs

  • Team 3DGT
  • Jan 14
  • 5 min read

Series: The Origins of 3D Printing — Episode 1



When people think of 3D printing, they usually picture a modern machine producing a part, prototype, or gift on demand.

But the origins of 3D printing aren’t just “one inventor built a printer.” The real story starts earlier — with the idea that physical objects could be produced directly from information, and with the technologies that had to evolve before that idea could become a repeatable manufacturing process.

This post kicks off our series by covering three things:

  • A 1945 fiction reference that describes a surprisingly familiar “objects from drawings” idea

  • The key technical foundations that had to mature before 3D printing could exist

  • The first major breakthroughs that turned the idea into real, repeatable processes


1) A 1945 fiction moment that feels oddly familiar

Long before hobby printers existed, the concept of creating objects directly from instructions showed up in fiction.

In Murray Leinster’s 1945 short story Things Pass By, he describes a machine that produces physical objects from scanned drawings — essentially treating information as the input and a solid object as the output. It isn’t a technical explanation, but it captures the conceptual leap that sits at the heart of additive manufacturing: objects as something you can “make from data.”

That one idea turns out to be the seed of everything that follows.


2) The core principle: build objects in layers

All 3D printing (more formally, additive manufacturing) shares a single workflow:

  1. Create or obtain a digital model

  2. Convert that model into a set of thin cross-sections (“slices”)

  3. Build those slices layer by layer until the object exists

Different technologies build each layer in different ways (extruding plastic, curing resin, fusing powder), but the logic is the same. That “slice it and build it” idea is the common thread across resin printing, filament printing, and powder-bed systems — the physics changes, but the workflow doesn’t.


3) Why it took decades to become real

If the core idea is so straightforward, why didn’t it appear in the 1950s or 1960s?

Because multiple foundations had to mature at the same time:

  • Digital design (CAD): you need a precise way to describe 3D shapes

  • Computing + geometry handling: you need to store and process that geometry reliably

  • Precision motion control: you need accurate, repeatable movement in X/Y and consistent stepping in Z

  • Materials science: you need materials that reliably solidify or bond (cooling, curing, fusing)

  • Process control: you need repeatability, not a one-off demonstration

The origin story of 3D printing is really a story about convergence.


4) The “unlock”: slicing turns 3D into manageable instructions

A 3D model is complex. A stack of 2D slices is manageable.

Once the “slicing” approach becomes practical, there are many ways to physically build each slice:

  • extrude a thin bead of material

  • cure a thin layer of liquid resin

  • fuse powder with energy (often a laser)

  • bond particles selectively

This is why the early evolution of 3D printing isn’t one straight line — it branches into different methods that all share the same digital workflow.


Quick timeline pins (for context)

  • 1945: Murray Leinster’s Things Pass By describes making physical objects from drawings (fiction, but conceptually relevant).

  • 1981: Hideo Kodama publishes an early description of building 3D models using photo-hardening polymers.

  • 1984–1986: Chuck Hull’s stereolithography work is patented (SLA).

  • Late 1980s: SLS and FDM foundations appear, setting up today’s major process “families.”


5) The first widely recognised real-world breakthrough (1980s)

Most timelines place the “start” of modern 3D printing in the early-to-mid 1980s, when the workflow (digital model → slices → physical layers) was paired with a repeatable machine process. That’s when additive manufacturing shifts from concept to reliable prototyping tool — and industry starts paying attention.

A common starting point is stereolithography (SLA) — a method that uses light to cure liquid resin layer-by-layer — associated with Chuck Hull and the early commercialisation work that followed.

From there, other foundational methods rapidly developed, including:

  • Selective Laser Sintering (SLS): fusing powder in layers with a laser

  • Fused Deposition Modeling / Fused Filament Fabrication (FDM/FFF): extruding melted thermoplastic filament layer-by-layer

Together, these methods become the “pillars” that much of modern additive manufacturing builds on.


6) A quick “spec reality” note (because specs need context)

People often compare 3D printing technologies by a single number (like layer height). It’s useful — but only in context.

Layer height affects Z-detail (how “steppy” curved surfaces can look), but overall quality also depends on:

  • model geometry (curves vs flat faces)

  • material behaviour

  • machine calibration

  • nozzle/laser spot size

  • slicing decisions (walls, infill, supports, orientation)

So yes, specs matter — but workflow choices matter just as much.


7) Why these origins still matter today

Modern marketing often makes 3D printing sound like “press print → object appears.”

In practice, success still depends on the same foundations that shaped the technology in the first place:

  • strong digital models

  • correct slicing choices

  • material selection

  • matching the process to the job

That’s exactly what we do at 3DGT: help people get from idea to object in a way that’s reliable, practical, and fit for purpose.

If you’d like help turning an idea into something printable (or improving a model you already have), take a look at our 3D Printing, Design & Customisation Services.



Two questions for this week

  1. What’s your favourite piece of tech that fiction predicted — and we now have?

  2. What piece of tech from fiction do you most want to become real?

We’ll share some of our favourite answers in the next post.

Next in the series (Episode 2): early pioneers, patents, and the first practical processes — who did what, when, and what problem each breakthrough was trying to solve.


Sources & further reading

Fiction reference

Primary sources (patents and original research)

Standards and terminology

  • ISO/ASTM 52900 — Additive manufacturing — General principles — Fundamentals and vocabulary (terminology and core definitions).

Solid, readable books (great for “full nerd-out” posts)

  • Lipson, Hod & Kurman, Melba. Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing.

  • Gibson, Ian; Rosen, David; Stucker, Brent. Additive Manufacturing Technologies: 3D Printing, Rapid Prototyping, and Direct Digital Manufacturing.

  • Chua, Chee Kai; Leong, Kah Fai; Lim, Chu Sing. Rapid Prototyping: Principles and Applications.

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