History Main / EverythingIs3DPrintedInTheFuture

* Used in the ''Franchise/CSIVerse'' twice:
** In the ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' episode "[[Recap/CSINYS09E11 Command+P]]", the BodyOfTheWeek turns out to have 3D-printed the revolver he was shot with, then mistook the killer for the venture capitalist he was trying to meet, who decided to get a BallisticDiscount. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome The shooter was then injured when the weak barrel burst the second time he fired it]].
** In the ''Series/CSIVegas'' episode "[[Recap/CSIVegas01E03 Under the Skin]]", the killer prints a pair of knives and a mask in order to kill a coworker and frame another.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareIII'' rebrands the blueprint system, that changes a weapon's caliber and other functionalities, as "Aftermarket Parts" that are, by default, represented as large parts of the gun being made of white 3D-printed plastic, even if the part they are depicting has formal production using injection-molded plastic or metal.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareIII'' rebrands the blueprint system, that changes a weapon's caliber and other functionalities as "Aftermarket Parts" that are, by default, represented as large parts of the gun being made of white 3D-printed plastic, even if the part they are depicting has formal production using injection-molded plastic or metal.

The name of this trope says it all: the use of 3D printing in NextSundayAD[=/=]TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture settings.

This trope rather is flexible, as it can appear in both hard and soft sci-fi without breaking WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. It can also be used to provide justification for elements of the story without having to resort to an HandWave. For example, a necessary device can be effortlessly printed while say, in a colony in another planet, without easy access to a supply route. It's also popular in VideoGames, to justify a crafting system while not using any obvious tools or materials. Beware however to not overdo it, as it runs the risk of causing the audience to ask why it simply hasn't replaced normal manufacture or to avoid turning a printer into immediate problem solver.

Expect the GadgeteerGenius to have one and use it regularly to create his latest devices. Also, assume that one of the first things it's users will think to do with it and as proven by RealLife is to make firearms with it (probably [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture blocky ones]]). This trope is also a simple way to add TechnologyPorn to a work, by either describing or showing a printer while functioning or by displaying the printed object after it is complete.

In RealLife, 3D printing has a significant amount of uses, mostly in engineering heavy industries, such the automotive and the aerospace industry, as it can create prototypes and proofs of concept quickly, with low waste and at very cheap cost. In fact, early in its infancy, it was referred as Rapid Prototyping. There is also a significant hobbyist scene that creates designs for everything, from the simple to the extremely complex.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': The B-plot of "[[Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS6E14TheCooperKripkeInversion The Cooper/Kripke Inversion]]" revolves around Howard and Raj, frustrated at the fact that a pair of action figures meant to resemble them end up being completely different of they ordered (Raj's figure was made [[RaceLift black]] and Howard's has a GagNose), deciding to buy together a $5000 3D-printer to make their own. While Howard initially mentions the several applications for work, they end up just printing a whistle and pair of figures, with the length of process being [[PlayedForLaughs played for laughs]]. At the end, Bernadette makes him sell his half of the printer to Raj in order to pay the debt he has incurred, since he used her money.

* In the background info of ''VideoGame/AliensFireteamElite'', it is mentioned that shortly after the Hyades Revolt, Hyperdyne Systems, the UPP's largest MegaCorp, began to sell licenses for fabrication blueprints. While most colonies in the area lacked either access to the necessary heavy industry for manufacture or to ships capable of serving as freighters, [[TakeAThirdOption Hyperdyne instead used]] the fact all outposts in the Hyades Cluster had general-purpose commercial fabricators meant to assist in colonization efforts, catapulting them to a position of power within the UPP. Fittingly, the design shtick for Hyperdyne/UPP weapons tends to be angular, with trapezoidal cutouts, strut-like parts and flat plastic planes, compared to Armat's [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture boxy weapons]] or Weyland-Yutani's [[EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture round, smooth and sleek designs]]. Some of them weren't even originally created by professionals but by people in order to solve an immediate problem, such as the Twilight v.4 marksman rifle (the first version was developed by a group of rebel workers and distributed through the local planetary network), the AM-16 Gruppa (created by an engineer from [[MacGyvering spare parts and mining equipment]] to help his colony get rid of local pests) and the OCAP-91 Volcan (a crowdsourced [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrower]] meant to aid in {{terraform}}ing and agricultural work), with Hyperdyne licensing the designs to the UPP military. The ''Tientsin''-class ships used by Colonial Marines, of which the UAS ''Endeavour'' serves as a PlayerHeadquarters and HubLevel, are also fitted with 3D fabricators, meant to aid in logistics by producing the necessary supplies for long voyages, serving as justification as to why the players can use weapons made by different (and sometimes antagonistic to each other) power blocs.

* In the background info of ''VideoGame/AliensFireteamElite'', it is mentioned that shortly after the Hyades Revolt, Hyperdyne Systems, the UPP's largest MegaCorp, began to sell licenses for fabrication blueprints. [[TakeAThirdOption They took advantage of the fact]] that while most colonies in the area lacked either access to the necessary heavy industry for manufacture or to ships capable of serving as freighters, all outposts in the Hyades Cluster had general-purpose commercial fabricators meant to assist in colonization efforts. Fittingly, the design shtick for Hyperdyne/UPP weapons tends to be angular, with trapezoidal cutouts, strut-like parts and flat plastic planes, compared to Armat's [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture boxy weapons]] or Weyland-Yutani's [[EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture round, smooth and sleek designs]]. Some of them weren't even originally created by professionals but by people in order to solve an immediate problem, such as the Twilight v.4 marksman rifle (of which the first version was developed by a group of rebel workers and distributed through the local planetary network), the AM-16 Gruppa (created by an engineer from [[MacGyvering spare parts and mining equipment]] to help his colony get rid of local pests) and the OCAP-91 Volcan (a crowdsourced [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrower]] meant to aid in {{terraform}}ing and agricultural work), with Hyperdyne licensing the designs to the UPP military. The ''Tientsin''-class ships used by Colonial Marines, of which the UAS ''Endeavour'' serves as a PlayerHeadquarters and HubLevel, are also fitted with 3D fabricators, meant to aid in logistics by producing the necessary supplies for long voyages, serving as justification as to why the players can use weapons made by different (and sometimes antagonistic to each other) power blocs.

3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD or digital 3D model, normally done by depositing materials, like plastics, liquids or powder grains, which are then fused together with heat. It has several advantages, like ability to produce very complex shapes or geometries that could be borderline impossible to make by hand (including hollow parts or with internal trusses to reduce weight while still being precise), the creation of objects at a much faster rate than if they were made by hand or by industrial machining, and reducing the cost and waste of manufacture (as all that is needed is a computer to create the design, the printer, and material for the "ink").

3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD or digital 3D model, normally done by depositing materials, like plastics, liquids or powder grains, which are then fused together with heat. It has several advantages like ability to produce very complex shapes or geometries that could be borderline impossible to make by hand including hollow parts or with internal trusses to reduce weight while still being precise, the creation of objects at a much faster rate than if they were made by hand or by industrial machining and reducing the cost and waste of manufacture as all that is needed is a computer to create the design, the printer, and material for the "ink".

Expect the GadgeteerGenius to have one and use it regularly to create his latest devices. Also, assume that one of the first things it's users will think to do with it and as proven by RealLife is to make firearms with it. [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture blocky ones]]. This trope is also a simple way to add TechnologyPorn to a work, by either describing or showing a printer while functioning or by displaying the printed object after it is complete.

Despite the popularity of this trope in the second half of the TheNewTens onward, the basic concept of 3D printing is surprisingly older, with early forms of it having been described in the short story "Things Pass By" by Murray Leinster, written in 1945 and in "Tools of the Trade" by Raymond F. Jones, written in 1950, where it is described as "molecular spray", and with the first patent for such a machine having been issued in 1971. It took until the 1980s to reach a level similar to today. Some examples of this trope before it's boom in popularity may use {{Nanomachines}} to assemble the material in the required shape rather than layering it until the object is complete.

In RealLife, 3D printing has a significant amount of uses, mostly in engineering heavy industries, such the automotive and the aerospace industry, as it can create prototypes and proofs of concept quickly, with low waste and at very cheap cost. In fact, early in its infancy it was referred as Rapid Prototyping. There is also a significant hobbyist scene that creates designs for everything, from the simple to the extremely complex.

* ''Fanfic/WorldWarEtheria'': Like many examples mentioned here, the fabricators, products of [[{{Precursors}} the First Ones]], are treated as very sophisticated 3D-printers and as such are restricted to base materials on hand such as needing to make circuit boards out of sand and appropriate metals as need be, with the added caveat that they "pattern crystals" for the various sophisticated projects they can do. With this out of the way, they can create sophisticated prosthetics, armor, weapons, vehicles even more versions of itself. It's later shown that properly equipped ones can create edible organic food too, even beer, interestingly this can extend into creating organic replacements for limbs. Having access to these is a major industrial leveler for the Horde, once they find a way to reliably power them when they're up against the magical OneManArmy that are each individual Princesses.

* ''Film/TheCloverfieldParadox'' has a 3D printer used to create food from worms being kept for protein. Someone has taped a "[[WorstWhateverEver Worst Bagel Machine Ever]]" sticker on the printer, implying the stuff tastes about as great as it looks. It serves as a ChekhovsGun for the creation of a literal ChekhovsGun when it's used to 3D-print a firearm.

* The ''Literature/StarCarrier'' series uses nanotechnology to achieve this. ''Deep Space'' has a scene of a character ordering a coffee and having it basically 3D-printed by nanites. Starships are "grown" in record time by grabbing a nearby resource-rich asteroid and unleashing nanites on it. They strip-mine it and use the materials to quickly build a ship. {{Arcolog|y}}ies are "grown" the same way on Earth. It's pointed out that the reason the SpaceNavy can't replace old model {{Space Fighter}}s with new ones quickly isn't because they can't produce them fast enough. They can. It's just that the pilots' neural hardware and software are designed for the old models and need to be adapted, and the pilots themselves need to be retrained. It's easier with new pilots, who simply get the latest implants and training. It doesn't help that they introduce new models, sometimes, mere months after the previous one. This is also why there are no big cargo ships prowling the space lanes. With nano-growing, it doesn't make economic sense to lug physical things light-years away. Instead, trade ships specialize in information.

* In ''Literature/WeAreLegionWeAreBob'', molecular 3D printers are used. As with the ''Literature/TroyRising'' example mentioned above, if you have the correct raw materials (asteroid mining) and a ton of power (onboard fusion reactors), you can build any object molecule-by-molecule. Basically, if you have the correct raw materials ([[AsteroidMiners asteroid mining]]) and a ''ton'' of power (onboard fusion reactors), you can build any object molecule-by-molecule. The process isn't quick, and it only nets you parts of complex devices or structures, which must then be assembled the old-fashioned way. Food can't be replicated (not yet, at least, but Bill is working on printing organic matter). Still, this tech is essential to the success of the [[RecursiveCreators Von Neumann probes]]. The Heaven-series probes are equipped with several autofactories (an autofactory is basically a 3D printer with accompanying "roamer" robots used to deliver raw materials and assemble items from printed parts). However, in order to build something large, it usually requires upscaling to a large autofactory. For instance, in order to build colony ships for humans (each colony ship holds 10,000 people in cold sleep), Riker and Homer first have to gather raw materials or salvage debris (which is actually better, since the materials are already refined), then start building smaller autofactories, then scaling them up to a full-sized shipyard. Finally, the shipyard can start building colony ships. How long? About ten years until the first colony ship comes off the production line, and that's an optimistic projection.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': The B-plot of "[[Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS6E14TheCooperKripkeInversion The Cooper/Kripke Inversion]]" revolves around Howard and Raj, frustrated at the fact that a pair of action figures meant to resemble them end up being completely different of they ordered (Raj's figure was made [[RaceLift black]] and Howard's has a GagNose), deciding to buy together a $5000 3D-printer to make their own. While Howard initially mentions the several applications for work, they end up just printing a whistle and pair of figures, with the length of process being [[PlayedForLaughs played for laughs]] and at the end Bernadette makes him sell his half of the printer to Raj in order to pay the debt he has incurred since he used her money.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXIOfficerRimmer Officer Rimmer]]" reveals that by the 23rd century, 3D printing eventually gets to the point that it can construct biological structures, up to and including copies of people. However, it still suffers from some of the issues relating to regular printing, as Rimmer learns when he tries to make super tough clones and is left with a paper jam-generated monstrosity.
* Twice in ''Shark Tank'', the first in season 6 with a company that made custom action figures and later in season 10 with a company whose pitch was fully functional 3D printer for children to make their own toys.

** "Old" economies restrict unlimited nanofabricators to the elite class, and having one without the clout to keep it can be a serious crime. Limited versions which produce food or small items are the most common, and pretty much what the civilian population is allowed. More advanced models have limitations placed on them such as DRM, encrypted one-use blueprints, and company copy locks which prevent one company's blueprints from being used by another company's fabricators. And most fabricators keep logs of what they make, and many are preprogrammed to alert authorities if they detect something dangerous in the works. Most of this can be overcome by a talented hacker and some time.

** "New" economies, which run on favors and formalized reputation scores, don't restrict their public nanofabs, they just give everyone a daily ration of raw materials, and blueprints are crowdsourced and open-sourced to the public. This doesn't come without its own set if problems, since items requiring rare elements or huge allotments need to be paid off with favors and rep. Particularly dangerous items or components will alert the authority analogues, and the user could face some serious consequences if they can't answer some awkward questions.

* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'', stores have largely been replaced with "Buyspots" where one can order something that the owning MegaCorp produces and a 3-D printer will make it on demand. Manufacturing centers can also be added to spaceships. And there's the Spontaneous Assembly Machine which is the size of a baseball and contains a bunch of {{Nanomachines}} and super-compressed foams for rapidly constructing things without moving parts in the field (like cover).
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Lancer}}'', "Printers" are a key component of Union's PostScarcityEconomy. Simple objects like disposable tools, hardcover panels, and replacement blades can all be "flash-printed," while an entire mech, complete with a full complement of weapons and wargear, can be printed from scratch over the course of 10 hours. This allows a lancer to replace a destroyed mech at no in-game cost, but upgrades require licenses that act as the game's ClassAndLevelSystem. Printing technology in the setting is essentially 3D printing on crack and explicitly doesn't adhere to normal physics, but it still has its limitations such that they're not magic create-anything machines.

* In the background info of ''VideoGame/AliensFireteamElite'', it is mentioned that shortly after the Hyades Revolt, Hyperdyne Systems, the UPP's largest megacorp, began to sell licenses for fabrication blueprints, [[TakeAThirdOption they took advantage of the fact]] that while most colonies in the area lacked either access to the necessary heavy industry for manufacture or to ships capable of serving as freighters, all outposts in the Hyades Cluster had general purpose commercial fabricators, meant to assist in colonization efforts. Fittingly, the design shtick for Hyperdyne/UPP weapons tends to be angular, with trapezoidal cutouts, strut-like parts and flat plastic planes, compared to Armat's [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture boxy weapons]] or Weyland-Yutani's [[EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture round, smooth and sleek designs]]. Some of them weren't even originally created by professionals but by people in order to solve an immediate problem, such the Twilight v.4 marksman rifle, of which the first version was developed by a group of rebel workers and distributed through the local planetary network, the AM-16 Gruppa, created by an engineer from [[MacGyvering spare parts and mining equipment]] to help his colony get rid of local pests and the OCAP-91 Volcan, a crowdsourced [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]] meant to aid in terraforming and agricultural work, with Hyperdyne licensing the designs to the UPP military. The ''Tientsin''-class ships used by Colonial Marines, of which the UAS ''Endeavour'' serves a PlayerHeadquarters and HubLevel, are also fitted with 3D fabricators, meant to aid in logistics by producing the necessary supplies for long voyages, serving as justification as to why the players can use weapons made by different (and sometimes antagonistic to each other) power blocs.
* ''VideoGame/{{Astroneer}}'': Available in multiple tiers. One in your backpack can print items taking up 1 inventory slot, including a Small Printer. Small Printers then can print items that take 2 connected slots and platforms to put them on, including a Medium Printer. Medium Printers cover 4-slot items, including most of the base structures. Large Printers go for Extra Large items, most of which can't even be put on platforms after being unpacked as they are the biggest vehicles and platforms in themselves.
* ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol'': REFORGE Stations are large on-site fabricators that can be used as shops to buy and sell supplies, weapons and upgrades. The designs are quite [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture boxy, angular, and utilitarian]], and upon purchase the machine [[TechnologyPorn will print out the object in full view of the player]], ready for use.

* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': Many of the ancient data files have references to the society of late 21st-century printing just about everything from prefab housing to food (though there are many comments that it never tastes as good as the real thing). [[spoiler:This is also one of the reasons the Faro Swarm was so unstoppable, as the Horus-class Titans had onboard manufacturing capabilities and so were essentially able to mass print new fighting units to replace anything human forces managed to destroy and then produce more.]]

* ''VideoGame/Prey2017'' has the slightly more real-world Fabricator, and its logical counterpart, the Material Recycler. Put any kind of matter into the Recycler; cigar butts, plant leaves, soda cans, and it will spit out cubes of compressed raw material. Put those cubes into the Fabricator and upload a print plan, and it will recycle the raw materials into whatever you want: guns, bullets, medkits, and more. There are also Recycler Charges, which are grenades that recycle anything in their blast radius, including, as one unlucky researcher found out, part of a person's ''foot''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' features a variety of 3D printing devices. Fabricators (tools and supplies), Habitat Builders (buildings and large devices), and Mobile Vehicle Bays (vehicles). These allow for humans to quickly settle newly discovered worlds as long as they have the raw resources to make them. Fortunately, the player's EscapePod is equipped with a Fabricator that can build the other devices once he has the schematics. The player is also equipped with a Scanner, allowing them to scan wreckage and technology to make more schematics for their fabricators.
* In ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' (and its SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander''), your two resources are Mass and Energy. Mass is mined by specialized facilities, and Energy is produced by, what else, power plants. Factories use energy to 3-D print mass into MechaMooks and buildings. There are even machines to turn energy into mass.

** [[Recap/FuturamaS6E17Benderama "Benderama"]] introduces the "[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banach?Tarski_paradox Banach-Tarski]] Dupla-Shrinker," an invention of Farnsworth's that works based on [[GeniusBonus the titular theorem involving disjoint subsets]]: basically it scans objects and creates two smaller replicas, though it has to be fed a proportionate amount of matter. Since [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Bender is technically an object]], he [[MesACrowd abuses]] [[GrayGoo this]].
** [[Recap/FuturamaS7E17FortyPercentLeadbelly "Forty Percent Leadbelly"]] achieves this using a highly advanced 3D printer to make fully functional replicas of any object using complex layers of nano-plastic. The input source can be as simple as a digital photograph; Bender snaps a picture of a guitar and is able to make a facsimile that's identical down to sound quality. [[spoiler:After the program is accidentally left running without severing the wireless link to Bender's internal "folk song directory," the printer starts churning out functioning versions of ''fictional characters from a folk song Bender is working on,'' meaning that an entire crowd of robots he falls in with to generate material for his songwriting all turn out to have been manifested by the printer based on his lyrics. Because he added a vengeful version of Fry to his song to make it up to Fry for a dispute between them, the printer even creates a [[RobotMe replica of Fry]] good enough to fool Bender himself, and it's only the duplicate Fry's OutOfCharacter behavior that tips Leela off to what's going on.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pantheon}}'': This show is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture and has some pretty advanced 3D printing. [[spoiler: It's even used by Steven Holstrom to create a virus]].

The name of this trope says it all: the use of 3D printing in NextSundayAD / TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture settings.

This trope rather is flexible, as it can appear in both hard and soft sci-fi without breaking WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. It can also be used to provide justification for elements of the story without having to resort to an {{handwave}}. For example, a necessary device can be effortlessly printed while say, in a colony in another planet, without easy access to a supply route. It's also popular in VideoGames, to justify a crafting system while not using any obvious tools or materials. Beware however to not overdo it, as it runs the risk of causing the audience to ask why it simply hasn't replaced normal manufacture or to avoid turning a printer into immediate problem solver.

Expect the GadgeteerGenius to have one and use it regularly to create his latests devices.
Also, assume that one of the first things it's users will think to do with it and as proven by RealLife is to make firearms with it. [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture blocky ones]].
This trope is also a simple way to add TechnologyPorn to a work, by either describing or showing a printer while functioning or by displaying the printed object after it is complete.

Despite the popularity of this trope in the second half of the TheNewTens onward, the basic concept of 3D printing is surprisingly older, with early forms of it having been described in the short story "Things Pass By" by Murray Leinster, written in 1945 and in "Tools of the Trade" by Raymond F. Jones, written in 1950, where it is described as "molecular spray", and with the first patent for such a machine having been issued in 1971. It took until the 1980's to reach a level similar to today. Some examples of this trope before it's boom in popularity may use NanoMachines to assemble the material in the required shape rather than layering it until the object is complete.

In RealLife 3D printing has a significant amount of uses, mostly in engineering heavy industries, such the automotive and the aerospace industry, as it can create prototypes and proofs of concept quickly, with low waste and at very cheap cost. In fact, early in its infancy it was referred as Rapid Prototyping. There is also a significant hobbyist scene that creates designs for everything, from the simple to the extremely complex.

** In the penultimate episode, one of the Posthumans hacks a food printer on an American submarine [[spoiler:to make herself a RemoteBody for hijacking the sub and its' nukes.]]
* ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Rimuru is a living take on this trope, as he has [[MinMaxing a synergistic combination of skills]] that allows him to dissolve and analyze any object he eats and make exact copies from stored materials. He can also refine what he consumes into directly usable and highly potent resources.

* Dubbed fabricators in ''Fanfic/WorldWarEtheria'', a RationalFic of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' are products of the [[{{Precursors}} First Ones]]. Like many examples mentioned here they're treated as very sophisticated 3d-printers and as such are restricted to base materials on hand such as needing to make circuit boards out of sand and appropriate metals as need be, with the added caveat that they "pattern crystals" for the various sophisticated projects they can do. With this out of the way, they can create sophisticated prosthetics, armor, weapons, vehicles even more versions of itself. Later shown that properly equipped ones can create edible organic food too, even beer, interestingly this can extend into creating organic replacements for limbs.
** Having access to these is a major industrial leveler for the Horde, once they find a way to reliably power them when they're up against the magical OneManArmy that are each individual Princesses.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TheCloverfieldParadox'' has a[=3D=] printer, used to create food from worms being kept for protein. Someone has taped a "[[WorstWhateverEver Worst Bagle Machine Ever]]" sticker on the printer, implying the stuff tastes about as great as it looks. It serves as a ChekhovsGun for the creation of a literal ChekhovsGun when it's used to [=3D=] print a firearm.
* The Neo-Korean, UsefulNotes/McDonalds-like [[BurgerFool Papa Song's]] is shown rapidly 3D-printing food from sophisticated spray nozzles in the 2144-set part of ''Film/CloudAtlas''.
* Early on ''Film/JurassicParkIII'', Billy prints the resonating chamber of a ''Velociraptor''. Dr. Grant [[ChekhovsGun later]] uses it to confuse a pack of ''Velociraptors'' in order for the group to escape. It's notable for the fact that the characters refer to the printer as a rapid prototyper, as 3D printers were not commonly known by the average person when the movie was released in 2001.

* ''Literature/TroyRising'' "fabbers", can build just about anything you want very quickly as long as you've got the raw materials. The crushed remains of enemy ships are frequently fed in to supply the raw materials in question.
* In ''Literature/TheDiamondAge'' by Neal Stephenson has "matter compilers" that are essentially nanotech fabricators using matter from the "Feed".
* The ''Literature/StarCarrier'' series uses nanotechnology to achieve this. ''Deep Space'' has a scene of a character ordering a coffee and having it basically 3D-printed by nanites. Starships are "grown" in record time by grabbing a nearby resource-rich asteroid and unleashing nanites on it. They strip-mine it and use the materials to quickly build a ship. [[{{Arcology}} Arcologies]] are "grown" the same way on Earth. It's pointed out that the reason the SpaceNavy can't replace old model {{Space Fighter}}s with new ones quickly isn't because they can't produce them fast enough. They can. It's just that the pilots' neural hardware and software are designed for the old models and need to be adapted, and the pilots themselves need to be retrained. It's easier with new pilots, who simply get the latest implants and training. It doesn't help that they introduce new models, sometimes, mere months after the previous one. This is also why there are no big cargo ships prowling the space lanes. With nano-growing, it doesn't make economic sense to lug physical things light-years away. Instead, trade ships specialize in information.
* Multi-material 3D printers are commonplace in ''Literature/ThePrideOfParahumans'', and nanofabricators are alluded to but not actually seen in the novel itself.
* In ''Literature/WeAreLegionWeAreBob'', molecular 3D printers are used. As with the Literature/TroyRising example mentioned above, if you have the correct raw materials (asteroid mining) and a ton of power (onboard fusion reactors), you can build any object molecule-by-molecule. Basically, if you have the correct raw materials ([[AsteroidMiners asteroid mining]]) and a ''ton'' of power (onboard fusion reactors), you can build any object molecule-by-molecule. The process isn't quick, and it only nets you parts of complex devices or structures, which must then be assembled the old-fashioned way. Food can't be replicated (not yet, at least, but Bill is working on printing organic matter). Still, this tech is essential to the success of the [[RecursiveCreators Von Neumann probes]]. The Heaven-series probes are equipped with several autofactories (an autofactory is basically a 3D printer with accompanying "roamer" robots used to deliver raw materials and assemble items from printed parts). However, in order to build something large, it usually requires upscaling to a large autofactory. For instance, in order to build colony ships for humans (each colony ship holds 10,000 people in cold sleep), Riker and Homer first have to gather raw materials or salvage debris (which is actually better, since the materials are already refined), then start building smaller autofactories, then scaling them up to a full-sized shipyard. Finally, the shipyard can start building colony ships. How long? About ten years until the first colony ship comes off the production line, and that's an optimistic projection.
* ''{{Literature/Planetfall|Universe}}'': Protagonist Ren is a 3D printing engineer.

* Used in ''Series/{{CSI}}'' twice:
** ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS09E11 Command+P]]", the BodyOfTheWeek turns out to have 3D-printed the revolver he was shot with, then mistook the killer for the venture capitalist he was trying to meet, who decided to get a BallisticDiscount. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome The shooter was then injured when the weak barrel burst the second time he fired it]].
** ''Series/CSIVegas'': In "[[Recap/CSIVegas01E03 Under the Skin]]": the killer prints a pair of knives and a mask in order to kill a coworker and frame another.
* '' Series/TheGoodWife'': {{Deconstructed}} in "[[Recap/TheGoodWifeS6E15OpenSource Open Source]]". HilaritySues after a man 3D-prints a gun from open-source schematics on the Internet and tests it on a range, only for the receiver to burst from a misfire, causing the round to hit a man in the neighboring lane in the spine and paralyze him. A firearms expert eventually figures out this was due to the shooter's 3D printer being run in a colder room than it was designed for. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Turns out 3D-printed plastic is a much finickier material than you generally want to use in firearms manufacturing.]]
* Twice in ''Shark Tank'', the first in season 6 with a company that made custom action figures and later in season 10 with a company whose pitch was fully functional 3D printer for children to make their own toys.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXIOfficerRimmer Officer Rimmer]]" reveals that by the 23rd century, 3D Printing eventually gets to the point that it can construct biological structures, up to and including copies of people. However, it still suffers from some of the issues relating to regular printing, as Rimmer learns when he tries to make super tough clones and is left with a paper jam-generated monstrosity.

* The backdrop to the opening credits of ''Series/{{Westworld}}'' has scenes of components of the robot hosts being 3D printed.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has Standard Template Constructs (STC). Extremely powerful replicators, able to create anything from kitchen utensils to buildings to gigantic, artificially intelligent robots. The STC themselves are capable of scanning any environment it is placed in and listing what schematics could be made with the resources available. These were given to human colonies tens of thousands of years before the start of the franchise's timeline, allowing humanity to easily colonize any world it settled on. STC now are considered the most valuable and important parts of ''LostTechnology'' by the Adeptus Mechanicus, as having a fully functional STC and a fully completed database of schematics would allow humanity to easily reconquer the galaxy has they had many eons ago. To put it in perspective: two IG scouts discovered an STC schematic for a slightly different combat knife. They were given a ''planet'' as thanks. Each. However, there's a massive case of DependingOnTheWriter of whether they are this trope or outright replicators, making them now EarlyInstallmentWeirdness.
* In ''TabletopGame/GURPSUltraTech'', they're balanced by truly massive power demands that require "cosmic" energy sources to be economical.
* ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' has universal 3D printers, which are very expensive, in the $200,000-1,000,000 range [[note]]in real life you can get a plastic printer for a couple hundred and a metal printer costs thousands. And TS is still over 80 years from now.[[/note]]

* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' stores have largely been replaced with "Buyspots" where one can order something that the owning MegaCorp produces and a 3-D printer will make it on demand. Manufacturing centers can also be added to spaceships. And there's the Spontaneous Assembly Machine which is the size of a baseball and contains a bunch of NanoMachines and super-compressed foams for rapidly constructing things without moving parts in the field (like cover).

* ''VideoGame/Prey2017'' has the slightly more real-world Fabricator, and its logical counterpart, the Material Recycler. Put any kind of matter into the Recycler; cigar butts, plant leaves, soda cans, and it will spit out cubes of compressed raw material. Put those cubes into the Fabricator and upload a print plan, and it will recycle the raw materials into whatever you want: guns, bullets, medkits, and more. There are also Recycler Charges, which are grenades that recycle anything in their blast radius, including, as one unlucky researcher found out, part of a person's ''foot''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' features a variety of 3D printing devices. Fabricators (tools and supplies), Habitat Builders (buildings and large devices), and Mobile Vehicle Bays (vehicles). These allow for humans to quickly settle newly discovered worlds as long as they have the raw resources to make them. Fortunately, the player's EscapePod is equipped with a Fabricator that can build the other devices once he has the schematics. The player is also equipped with a Scanner, allowing them to scan wreckage and technology to make more schematics for their fabricators.
* In ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' (and its SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander''), your two resources are Mass and Energy. Mass is mined by specialized facilities, and Energy is produced by, what else, power plants. Factories use energy to 3-D print mass into MechaMooks and buildings. There are even machines to turn energy into mass.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': Your orbiter is equipped with a foundry, a 3D printer that takes raw materials and assembles them according to a blueprint. Blueprints for most consumable items can be re-used endlessly, while the DRM on weapon and armor blueprints makes them self-delete after a single printing.
* In the background info of ''VideoGame/AliensFireteamElite'' it is mentioned that shortly after the Hyades Revolt, Hyperdyne Systems, the UPP's largest megacorp, began to sell licenses for fabrication blueprints, [[TakingAThirdOption they took advantage of the fact]] that while most colonies in the area lacked either access to the necessary heavy industry for manufacture or to ships capable of serving as freighters, all outposts in the Hyades Cluster had general purpose commercial fabricators, meant to assist in colonization efforts. Fittingly, the design shtick for Hyperdyne/UPP weapons tends to be angular, with trapezoidal cutouts, strut-like parts and flat plastic planes, compared to Armat's [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture boxy weapons]] or Weyland-Yutani's [[EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture round, smooth and sleek designs]]. Some of them weren't even originally created by professionals but by people in order to solve an immediate problem, such the Twilight v.4 marksman rifle, of which the first version was developed by a group of rebel workers and distributed through the local planetary network, the AM-16 Gruppa, created by an engineer from [[MacGyvering spare parts and mining equipment]] to help his colony get rid of local pests and the OCAP-91 Volcan, a crowdsourced [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]] meant to aid in terraforming and agricultural work, with Hyperdyne licensing the designs to the UPP military. The ''Tientsin''-class ships used by Colonial Marines, of which the UAS ''Endeavour'' serves a PlayerHeadquarters and HubLevel, are also fitted with 3D fabricators, meant to aid in logistics by producing the necessary supplies for long voyages, serving as justification as to why the players can use weapons made by different (and sometimes antagonistic to each other) power blocs.
* ''VideoGame/{{Watch_Dogs2}}'': Marcus has access to 3D printers in the [[PlayerHeadquarters Hackerspaces]], which he can use to print gadgets, weapons, and upgrades.

* ''VideoGame/PhantomBrigade'' The BaseOnWheels used by the titular group comes with a large-scale 3D printer, meant initially for large-scale mining equipment but repurposed to create weapons and parts for the mechs by the Brigade. With enough upgrades, it is possible to have several printers functioning simultaneously to create an entire mech (the mech's inner frame, torso, legs, left and right arms) from scratch.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom''. The ancient spell Autobuild allows one to use Zonaite to reproduce structures and vehicles, something very alien to the generally medieval setting of post-Calamity Hyrule.
* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': Many of the ancient data files have references to the society of late 21st-century printing just about everything from prefab housing to food (though there are many comments that it never tastes as good as the real thing). [[spoiler:This is also one of the reasons the Faro Swarm was so unstoppable, as the Horus-class Titans had onboard manufacturing capabilities and so were essentially able to mass print new fighting units to replace anything human forces managed to destroy and then produce more.]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''In Webcomic/AMiracleOfScience'', Mars gives most of the major nations of the Sol system "Autofactories" that can produce nearly anything from basic raw materials.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[http://www.futuretimeline.net/ Future Timeline.net]] predicts that 3-D printers will be a mainstream product by [[http://www.futuretimeline.net/21stcentury/2015.htm#3d-printing 2015]] ([[IWantMyJetpack not quite, sadly]]), to be supplanted by nanofabricators in [[http://www.futuretimeline.net/21stcentury/2060-2069.htm#nanofabricators 2062]] and true matter replicators circa [[http://www.futuretimeline.net/22ndcentury/2150-2199.htm#matter-replication 2190]].
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLifeStaticCling'': Upon returning to Earth after 20 years, Rocko finds that his old workplace, Kind Of A-Lot-O Comics, has been replaced with a kiosk that can 3D-print comic books in seconds.

* ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Rimuru is a living take on this trope, as he has [[MinMaxing a synergistic combination of skills]] that allows him to dissolve and analyze any object he eats and make exact copies from stored materials. He can also refine what he consumes into directly usable and highly potent resources.

* The Neo-Korean, UsefulNotes/McDonalds-like Papa Song's is shown rapidly 3D-printing food from sophisticated spray nozzles in the 2144-set part of ''Film/CloudAtlas''.

* ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': Rimuru is a living take on this trope, as he has a [[MinMaxing synergistic combination of skills]] that allow him to dissolve and analyze any object he eats and make exact copies from stored materials. He can also refine what he consumes into directly usable and highly potent resources.

** In the penultimate episode one of the Posthumans hacks a food printer on an American submarine [[spoiler:to make herself a RemoteBody for hijacking the sub and its' nukes.]]

* Dubbed fabricators in ''Fanfic/WorldWarEtheria'', a RationalFic of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' are products of the [[{{Precursors}} First Ones]]. Like many examples mentioned here they're treated as very sophisticated 3d-printers and as such are restricted to base materials on hand such as needing to make circuit boards out of sand and appropriate metals as need be, with the added caveat that they "pattern crystals" for the various sophisticated projects they can do. With this out of the way they can create sophisticated prosthetics, armor, weapons, vehicles even more versions of itself. Later shown that properly equipped ones can create edible organic food too, even beer, interestingly this can extend into creating organic replacements for limbs.
** Having access to these is a major industrial leveler for the Horde, once they find a way to reliably power them, when they're up against the magical OneManArmy that are each individual Princesses.

* Early on ''Film/JurassicParkIII'', Billy prints the resonating chamber of a ''Velociraptor''. Dr. Grant [[ChekhovsGun later]] uses it to confuse a pack of ''Velociraptors'' in order for the group to escape. It's notable for the fact that the characters refer to the printer as a rapid prototyper, as 3D printers were not commonly know by the average person when the movie was released in 2001.

* The ''Literature/StarCarrier'' series uses nanotechnology to achieve this. ''Deep Space'' has a scene of a character ordering a coffee and having it basically 3D-printed by nanites. Starships are "grown" in record time by grabbing a nearby resource-rich asteroid and unleashing nanites on it. They strip-mine it and use the materials to quickly build a ship. [[{{Arcology}} Arcologies]] are "grown" the same way on Earth. It's pointed out that the reason the SpaceNavy can't replace old model {{Space Fighter}}s with new ones quickly isn't because they can't produce them fast enough. They can. It's just that the pilots' neural hardware and software is designed for the old models and needs to be adapted, and the pilots themselves need to be retrained. It's easier with new pilots, who simply get the latest implants and training. It doesn't help that they introduce new models, sometimes, mere months after the previous one. This is also why there are no big cargo ships prowling the space lanes. With nano-growing, it doesn't make economic sense to lug physical things light-years away. Instead, trade ships specialize in information.

* In ''Literature/WeAreLegionWeAreBob'', molecular 3D printers are used. As with the Literature/TroyRising example mentioned above, if you have the correct raw materials (asteroid mining) and a ton of power (onboard fusion reactors), you can build any object molecule-by-molecule. Basically, if you have the correct raw materials ([[AsteroidMiners asteroid mining]]) and a ''ton'' of power (onboard fusion reactors), you can build any object molecule-by-molecule. The process isn't quick, and it only nets you parts of complex devices or structures, which must then be assembled the old-fashioned way. Food can't be replicated (not yet, at least, but Bill is working on printing organic matter). Still, this tech is essential to the success of the [[RecursiveCreators Von Neumann probes]]. The Heaven-series probes are equipped with several autofactories (an autofactory is basically a 3D printer with accompanying "roamer" robots used to deliver raw materials and assemble items from printed parts). However, in order to build something large, it usually requires the upscaling to a large autofactory. For instance, in order to build colony ships for humans (each colony ship holds 10,000 people in cold sleep), Riker and Homer first have to gather raw materials or salvage debris (which is actually better, since the materials are already refined), then start building smaller autofactories, then scaling them up to a full-sized shipyard. Finally, the shipyard can start building colony ships. How long? About ten years until the first colony ship comes off the production line, and that's an optimistic projection.

** ''Series/CSIVegas'': In "[[Recap/CSIVegas01E03 Under the Skin]]": the killer prints a pair of knifes and a mask in order to kill a coworker and frame another.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': The B-plot of "[[Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS6E14TheCooperKripkeInversion The Cooper/Kripke Inversion]]" revolves around Howard and Raj, frustrated at the fact that a pair of action figures meant to resemble them end up being completely different of they ordered (Raj's figure was made [[RaceLift black]] and Howard's has a GagNose), deciding to buy together a $5000 3D-printer to make their own. While Howard initally mentions the several applications for work, they end up just printing a whistle and pair of figures, with the length of process being [[PlayedForLaughs played for laughs]] and at the end Bernadette makes him sell his half of the printer to Raj in order to pay the debt he has incurred, since he used her money.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has Standard Template Constructs (STC). Extremely powerful replicators, able to create anything from kitchen utensils to buildings to gigantic, artificially intelligent robots. The STC themselves are capable of scanning any environment it is placed in and listing what schematics could be made with the resources available. These were given to human colonies tens of thousands of years before the start of the franchise's timeline, allowing humanity to easily colonize any world it settled on. STC now are considered the most valuable and important parts of ''LostTechnology'' by the Adeptus Mechanicus, as having a fully functional STC and a fully completed database of schematics would allow humanity to easily reconquer the galaxy has they had many eons ago. To put it in persepective: two IG scouts discovered an STC schematic for a slightly different combat knife. They were given a ''planet'' as thanks. Each. However, there's a massive case of DependingOnTheWriter of whether they are this trope or outright replicators, making them now EarlyInstallmentWeirdness.

** "New" economies, which run on favors and formalized reputation scores, don't restrict their public nanofabs, they just give everyone a daily ration of raw materials, and blueprints are crowdsourced and open sourced to the public. This doesn't come without its own set if problems, since items requiring rare elements or huge allotments need to be paid off with favors and rep. Particularly dangerous items or components will alert the authority analogues, and the user could face some serious consequences if they can't answer some awkward questions.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Lancer}}'', "Printers" are a key component of Union's PostScarcityEconomy. Simple objects like disposable tools, hard cover panels, and replacement blades can all be "flash-printed," while an entire mech, complete with a full complement of weapons and wargear, can be printed from scratch over the course of 10 hours. This allows a lancer to replace a destroyed mech at no in-game cost, but upgrades require licenses that act as the game's ClassAndLevelSystem. Printing technology in the setting is essentially 3D printing on crack, and explicitly doesn't adhere to normal physics, but it still has its limitations such that they're not magic create-anything machines.

* ''VideoGame/{{Watch_Dogs2}}'': Marcus has access to 3D printers in the [[PlayerHeadquarters Hackerspaces]], which he can use to print gadgets, weapons and upgrades.
* ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol'': REFORGE Stations are large on-site fabricators which can be used as shops to buy and sell supplies, weapons and upgrades. The designs are quite [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture boxy, angular and utilitarian]] and upon purchase the machine [[TechnologyPorn will print out the object in full view of the player]], ready for use.
* ''VideoGame/PhantomBrigade'' The BaseOnWheels used by the titular group comes a large scale 3D printer, meant initially for large scale mining equipament but repurposed to create weapons and parts for the mechs by the Brigade. With enough upgrades it is possible to have several printers functioning simultaneously to create an entire mech (the mech's inner frame, torso, legs, left and right arms) from scratch.

* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': Many of the ancient data files have references to the society of late 21st century printing just about everything from prefab housing to food (though there are many comments that it never tastes as good as the real thing). [[spoiler:This is also one of the reasons the Faro Swarm was so unstoppable, as the Horus-class Titans had onboard manufacturing capabilities and so were essentially able to mass print new fighting units to replace anything human forces managed to destroy and then produce more.]]

* [[http://www.futuretimeline.net/ Future Timeline.net]] predicts that 3-d printers will be a mainstream product by [[http://www.futuretimeline.net/21stcentury/2015.htm#3d-printing 2015]] ([[IWantMyJetpack not quite, sadly]]), to be supplanted by nanofabricators in [[http://www.futuretimeline.net/21stcentury/2060-2069.htm#nanofabricators 2062]] and true matter replicators circa [[http://www.futuretimeline.net/22ndcentury/2150-2199.htm#matter-replication 2190]].

** [[Recap/FuturamaS7E17FortyPercentLeadbelly "Forty Percent Leadbelly"]] achieves this using a highly advanced 3D printer to make fully-functional replicas of any object using complex layers of nano-plastic. The input source can be as simple as a digital photograph; Bender snaps a picture of a guitar and is able to make a facsimile that's identical down to sound quality. [[spoiler:After the program is accidentally left running without severing the wireless link to Bender's internal "folk song directory," the printer starts churning out functioning versions of ''fictional characters from a folk song Bender is working on,'' meaning that an entire crowd of robots he falls in with to generate material for his songwriting all turn out to have been manifested by the printer based on his lyrics. Because he added a vengeful version of Fry to his song to make it up to Fry for a dispute between them, the printer even creates a [[RobotMe replica of Fry]] good enough to fool Bender himself, and it's only the duplicate Fry's OutOfCharacter behavior that tips Leela off to what's going on.]]

* In Amsterdam a steel temporary bridge was 3D printed and placed over the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in 2018 and remained there until it was [[https://nltimes.nl/2023/02/05/3d-printed-bridge-red-light-district-will-soon-removed removed in 2023]], replaced by the repaired original one.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** [[Recap/FuturamaS7E17FortyPercentLeadbelly "Forty Percent Leadbelly"]] achieves this using a highly advanced 3D printer to make fully-functional replicas of any object using complex layers of nano-plastic. The input source can be as simple as a digital photograph; Bender snaps a picture of a guitar and is able to make a facsimile that's identical down to sound quality. [[spoiler: After the program is accidentally left running without severing the wireless link to Bender's internal "folk song directory," the printer starts churning out functioning versions of ''fictional characters from a folk song Bender is working on,'' meaning that an entire crowd of robots he falls in with to generate material for his songwriting all turn out to have been manifested by the printer based on his lyrics. Because he added a vengeful version of Fry to his song to make it up to Fry for a dispute between them, the printer even creates a [[RobotMe replica of Fry]] good enough to fool Bender himself, and it's only the duplicate Fry's OutOfCharacter behavior that tips Leela off to what's going on.]]