To broaden your newly Google-supported Lego fantasies, check out this tool to take designs from your computer into the real world. The recent project out of the Hasso Plattner Institute offers a fun and arguably obvious workaround to make rapid prototyping more, y'know, rapid. Their "FaBrickation" program lets you save the 3D printing for only the most vital high-res parts and convert the rest of your design to Legos from the get-go.

Hey Presto! Using standard mass market blocks makes for near ubiquitous availability of prototyping material, and the program provides a schematic for building your own design and incorporating printed pieces.

They claim that switching to this method offers an average building time 2.44 times faster than standard 3D printing, and allows greater flexibility in design modification. The cost would accordingly go down, a selling point since even the most affordable printers aren't affordable for every design team yet. They demonstrated the effectiveness of this system by building a penny-flinging slingshot. Because... slingshot.

Any thoughts?

THINK OF THE SAVINGS!