What is 3D Printing?

Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing (source)

    There are 2 main Manufacturing Techniques when trying to make a 3-dimentional object from a digital file on a computer.

• Additive: Where material is added layer by layer (Fused Deposition Modeling 3D printing)

       My 3D printer at home is an additive manufacturing Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printer, which is the most common way to 3D print, layer-by-layer.

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• Subtractive: Where cutting tools remove material from a solid block (drilling, laser cutting)

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Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers

    In FDM printing, a physical object is created directly from a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) model using layer-by-layer deposition of a feedstock plastic filament material extruded through a nozzle.