A team of Australian designers and engineers have designed what they describe as "an affordable professional desktop 3D printer that could redefine what 3D printers should look and feel like." It's Mac OS X and Windows compatible.

"When designing Rapide One we looked at all the current 3D printers in the market. What we found in our research is that there was a big gap in the market between the low-end 3D printers and professional-quality 3D printers," says the Rapide 3D Team.

Rapide One is a 3D printer that uses FDM technology to produce 3D print designs. It comes with a fully enclosed housing and cartridge system. The large glass front and back ensure you can view your printing job. The interchangeable cartridge system placed in the top of the printer is designed to not only saves space but also allows easy change of color on the fly.

Rapide One's chassis has been crafted from the aircraft grade aluminum to provide a solid foundation. A polished aluminum heat bed is purportedly not only flat and level but stable, which means limited warp or curling in the print process.

Rapide One can print layers as thin as 100 microns (0.004 inches) with features as small as 300 microns (0.012 inches) in a build volume of 170 x 170 x 170mm. The Rapide One is 532 x 449 x 345mm when closed.

The retail price of Rapide One with a single extruder is US$2,499. However, early supporters will can get it for $1,649 with one cartridge of ABS or PLA. The first full-production shipment is set to release in March 2014 to early contributors, and April 2014 for other contributors. For more info go to www.rapide-3d.com .