[HN Gopher] HP SitePrint
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       HP SitePrint
        
       Author : gjvc
       Score  : 137 points
       Date   : 2025-10-22 17:18 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.hp.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.hp.com)
        
       | tech4all wrote:
       | Cool! From HP! The robot only costs $1,500 but a two pack of
       | extra sharpies for it costs $48,000. Before you can use it, you
       | must install 5 petabytes of HP drivers.
        
         | profsummergig wrote:
         | Don't give them ideas.
        
         | tacticalturtle wrote:
         | Most of the 5 petabytes is a model used to determine if your
         | sharpies are counterfeit.
        
           | p0w3n3d wrote:
           | They remotely brick your Sharpies even if they are original
           | because of a bug in the software
        
         | tguvot wrote:
         | do you have sharpie that won't grind down to zero on concrete
         | after 3ft ?
        
           | tomovo wrote:
           | Not on genuine HP concrete.
        
             | tguvot wrote:
             | Hp concrete actually exists
        
           | rpcope1 wrote:
           | Hopefully they're using something like a paint pen with a
           | roller and not a Sharpie the way you're thinking of it.
        
             | tguvot wrote:
             | parent is the one who suggested sharpies.
             | 
             | i'll actually bet on some variety of inkjet/spray as it
             | will better deal with surface imperfections and won't wear
             | out
        
         | realitysballs wrote:
         | Weirdly it turns out to be cheaper/faster than paying a human
         | being to do the same thing in use cases where you have large
         | concrete slabs with complex walls/casework layout
        
         | lloydjones wrote:
         | You beat me to it!
        
         | sidewndr46 wrote:
         | Don't forget the complementary installation of Norton Antivirus
        
         | Theodores wrote:
         | Joking aside, I don't believe HP developed this product, they
         | almost certainly bought the company that makes it.
         | 
         | My hunch?
         | 
         | Seen these things before.
         | 
         | I doubt it has been DRMd to hell yet, and I doubt they upgraded
         | to show PC LOAD LETTER at all times, but why did they add this
         | to their portfolio?
        
           | juanre wrote:
           | I think they did, actually. (I worked at HP for 19 years, and
           | I know the guy in their Barcelona site who started it.)
        
         | Fokamul wrote:
         | It's cloud based, yep :D
        
       | pugworthy wrote:
       | HP gets a lot of crap for home printer quality and ink DRM, but
       | does still have some neat products like this.
       | 
       | The industrial printers for example, especially the PageWide Web
       | Press line are impressive. The T1100 is a huge beast.
       | 
       | Then there are the life science products that can do precision
       | dispensing of fluids for life sciences and drug discovery. Some
       | of them also do individual single live cell dispensing.
        
         | PaulHoule wrote:
         | (1) As much as people complain, home inkjet printers do a
         | remarkable job of printing high quality art reproductions and
         | photos at low cost relative to alternatives, (Sure offset litho
         | is cheaper... if you are running 10,000 prints)
         | 
         | (2) The key to this using quality materials. You've got to use
         | good coated paper (which is relatively expensive.). You can
         | mostly trust OEM ink although I found low-end EcoTank printers
         | use ink that fades in six months although the higher end models
         | like the ET-8550 are better. Look at forums and you will find
         | many versions of "I was trying to print borderless and all I
         | got was this inksplosion" and the common denominator is third
         | party inks. There could be testing of third party inks that
         | proves they are comparable to or even superior too the OEM
         | links but as it is there is no testing because... they target a
         | consumer who doesn't care.
        
           | curiousgal wrote:
           | It's not about the technology itself, it's about everything
           | that surrounds it, the software, the commercial side. I will
           | go out of my way to avoid HP.
        
           | crote wrote:
           | The fundamental problem with home inkjet printing is that
           | people just _don 't print that much_.
           | 
           | The average home user probably wants to print a set of 10
           | holiday pictures once a year. This means that every time they
           | want to print those ink cartridges will be dried out and have
           | clogged print heads - so they have to buy an expensive set of
           | new cartridges to replace their barely-used ones.
           | 
           | It is why laser printing is so often suggested for home
           | users: you can let a printer rot for several years and still
           | reliably print a couple of dozen pages when you finally need
           | it again. The downside is that they do a rather poor job at
           | printing photos so now there are even _fewer_ reasons to use
           | it, and you only need it once every couple of years to print
           | out a contract to sign or something.
           | 
           | I've personally given up on owning printers. They don't make
           | the rock-solid HP / Brother workhorses anymore, and I can't
           | be bothered to deal with all the proprietary "smart" crap
           | they are pushing these days. If I want something printed,
           | I'll just go to the local library.
        
             | PaulHoule wrote:
             | I'd agree the average person who wants some photo prints is
             | better off just sending the job out to Wal-Mart, some
             | pharmacy, shutterfly or one of many competitors.
             | 
             | When I got a 'free' inkjet printer I realized I couldn't
             | just make 10 anime prints and come back six monhths later
             | and make 10 more so I committed to print something every
             | day which I did for maybe 2.5 years and it turned out to be
             | quite an adventure. To feed that machine I got serious
             | about taking photographs, when that sucked up all my time I
             | fell out of the printing habit!
             | 
             | See https://www.behance.net/gallery/232344867/Life-is-
             | Better-Wit...
        
         | p0w3n3d wrote:
         | TBH my LaserJet 451dn died recently and I bought brother colour
         | 3270cdw. The quality of colours is awful, almost unbearable. I
         | remember I could print a photo with HP but the Brother fails
         | that task spectacularly for some reason - quickly colours go to
         | overdrive and bleed
        
       | PaulHoule wrote:
       | In the 1980s there were "turtle graphics" robots if LOGO wasn't
       | real enough for you,
        
         | bitwize wrote:
         | The Logo Turtle was originally a robot. The on-screen turtle
         | was added later to make Logo and its pedagogy economical for
         | the computers schools were likely to have (a _single_ Apple II
         | per classroom, if that).
        
       | ianbicking wrote:
       | I remembered hearing a podcast about a startup robotics company
       | doing the same thing; a little search and they actually have a
       | comparison page between their product and HP's:
       | 
       | https://www.dustyrobotics.com/compare/fieldprinter-vs-sitepr...
        
         | qingcharles wrote:
         | Thank you. I wondered immediately on seeing this if HP had just
         | acquired those guys.
        
         | stronglikedan wrote:
         | So Dusty is for SMBs and SitePrint is for clueless
         | Corporations, like Oracle.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | Take your pick:
       | 
       | If you give it a big job, it freezes halfway and just spins its
       | wheels as fast as it can until you unplug it.
       | 
       | It refuses to paint yellow lines when it's out of blue paint.
       | 
       | It asks you for feedback after doing any and every job.
       | 
       | It doesn't have good Linux support.
       | 
       | It has no off button. The only modes are printing, standby at
       | half power, or unplugged.
       | 
       | When you want to just print a small blue square on the floor, it
       | makes xxxjuukkktsssssruuuuukkkttt sounds for 5 minutes, pauses
       | for another 2, zooms at max speed to the location on the floor,
       | pauses for 10 seconds, and begins doing the actual job it was
       | designed to do, but does it in a shade of blueish brown.
        
         | sfortis wrote:
         | + If your subscription expires while it's printing, it freezes
         | and you have to carry it back home.
        
         | parl_match wrote:
         | epic slashdot post fellow redditor. here, have this thinkgeek
         | tshirt that says "no i will not fix your printer". le epic
        
         | Fokamul wrote:
         | ...printing is cloud based and subscription only...
         | 
         | Edit: (I was joking and it's really cloud based, omfg)
        
         | paranoidrobot wrote:
         | It gets half-way through the job, but runs out of paint. You
         | load the new paint but instead of continuing, it fills the
         | entire site with a big test print that uses 10% of the paint.
         | 
         | Randomly, it'll run a head cleaning cycle that involves
         | spraying large amounts of paint into the neighbour's driveway
         | before cleaning itself on their lawn.
        
         | rcleveng wrote:
         | That sounds just like my HP printer at home, I wonder if it's
         | the same internals.
         | 
         | Just need to add that after being on for a day you get a blue
         | screen with some hex numbers on it.
         | 
         | If it's been on for less than a day, you have to power cycle it
         | for it to connect to apple devices.
         | 
         | Finally if you power cycle it, it complains about being power
         | cycled incorrectly and does nothing for 10 minutes.
        
       | ge96 wrote:
       | I wonder if this is in collaboration with this group
       | 
       | This one called Dusty
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pq2ZG19hGg
       | 
       | Oh nice someone else mentioned it
        
       | hollowturtle wrote:
       | Don't forget to subscribe for monthly Ink Cartridges for your
       | robot XD
        
       | slater wrote:
       | Anyone know what this thing does...?
        
         | joezydeco wrote:
         | It reads construction blueprints and prints the necessary lines
         | on the floor. Workers use the lines to assist with building
         | walls, drilling holes, all the stuff that would need careful
         | measurement before executing.
        
       | jondiggsit wrote:
       | As a high-end residential GC, I'm very interested in this
       | product. We have incorporated Leica Totalstation and BLK360 into
       | our projects. It assists confirming layouts, as-built conditions,
       | and communicating with design professionals working remotely.
        
         | realitysballs wrote:
         | We find it pencils out on jobs with large OH /pan deck slabs or
         | SOGs over 12000SF
        
         | smw wrote:
         | What are the costs like on those scanners? They look amazing!
        
         | MrMorden wrote:
         | It's easy enough to add Leica cameras to your Leica Geosystems
         | deployment, but then you need to do geotechncial work in-house
         | so that you can complete the Leica trifecta.
        
         | mmooss wrote:
         | What is the value to you of making the SitePrint automated
         | (robotic)? Would it take that much human time to push one of
         | these around? Is it precision?
        
       | matt_lo wrote:
       | Color ink sold separately
        
         | guluarte wrote:
         | Robot: $1,500
         | 
         | Refills: $5,000
        
       | silver911r wrote:
       | I see some similarities in design here.
       | 
       | https://www.rvpartscountry.com/32326-thetford.html
        
       | seemaze wrote:
       | As a specialized commercial contractor and former large format
       | printer, I won't touch HP equipment with 10 ft. pole saw..
        
       | teeray wrote:
       | I can only see this getting used by very large scale contractors.
       | Framers for your standard house are probably just going to keep
       | using chalk lines (maybe a laser line too these days). "Precision
       | up to +/- 1/32 inch" really isn't necessary in framing.
        
         | brudgers wrote:
         | Some small builders probably will because it will make business
         | sense for their specific business.
         | 
         | And others will because some builders are as attracted to gee-
         | whiz its new and shiny as in any other business.
        
         | Groxx wrote:
         | agreed, though I can see it making some sense in those specific
         | situations, e.g.:
         | 
         | > _PCL reduces cost by 86% on interior curved lines layout at
         | Vancouver airport_
         | 
         | for random bits of complicated-shape fashion in a giant flat
         | open area, I can see how it could almost immediately pay for
         | itself.
         | 
         | that said... at that point it's probably competing with "we put
         | a projector on the ceiling for a day, and went over the lines
         | with chalk". which is quite cheap.
        
       | jumpkick wrote:
       | I wonder how it avoids pipes stubbed up through the slab, or
       | electrical EMT, etc. or how it avoids mistakes made during the
       | rough-in.
       | 
       | What if the plumber missed a drain or supply by an inch? Guessing
       | the robot doesn't adjust its outline. I.e. if a sewer stub is
       | wrong by a few inches, the wall needs to be moved to fit the
       | toilet, or the slab needs to be busted up and the sewer line
       | relocated.
       | 
       | I suppose if it gets some of this wrong, it'll be obvious, and a
       | human can correct it.
        
         | realitysballs wrote:
         | You have adjusts due to its detectors and it has a prism on it
         | and is being continuously tracked by a total station.
         | 
         | It can correct course due to deviations in floor surface or
         | obstructions pretty well.
        
           | brudgers wrote:
           | The concern is not the course, but the ability to adjust a
           | layout due to deviations from the plan due to normal
           | construction errors.
           | 
           | For example a pipe might not be in the location shown on plan
           | for many reasons ranging from simple human error to a delta
           | between the plan location when the pipe was layed and the
           | time the robot got its data...keep in mind that when the pipe
           | went in there was only dirt, not anything to accept ink.
        
             | uqual wrote:
             | And it's good to catch that error ASAP.
             | 
             | But at that point it's back to engineering to figure out
             | what to do (leave the pipe where it is and adjust around it
             | _or_ move the pipe - possibly cutting concrete and perhaps
             | untensioning/retensioning post-tensioned cables at
             | substantial delay/cost) or move the piece of equipment that
             | the penetration is serving.
             | 
             | One nice thing about automation like this is that the "as
             | built" plans are more likely to be accurate because the
             | only way to get "the computer" and "the robot" to stop
             | squawking is to change the plans they are operating off of.
             | 
             | If this can't handle dirt surfaces, future
             | generations/models probably will if there's demand. Perhaps
             | such models would use spray paint/stencils or driving pins
             | into the ground for marking purposes (or something more
             | practical - I'm a software guy and this sounds like a
             | hardware problem!).
             | 
             | My experience is with small residential builds but I would
             | hope on large projects the location of each "unmovable"
             | pipe/conduit etc that will end up penetrating a slab is
             | already carefully verified before the next step is taken
             | (such as placing concrete). Hopefully this is done with a
             | total station rather than guys with chalk lines and tape
             | measures. But a solution like this could reduce manual
             | checking mistakes (of course, it's less likely to result in
             | an experienced subcontractor noticing that the plan must be
             | wrong because there's no reason for a conduit for 1KV
             | electrical cables to come up 2cm away from a toilet trap in
             | a multi-stall public bathroom - GIGO).
        
               | brudgers wrote:
               | _each "unmovable" pipe/conduit etc that will end up
               | penetrating a slab is already carefully verified before
               | the next step is taken (such as placing concrete)_
               | 
               | My experience is as an architect.
               | 
               | The CAD file isn't the building no matter how much
               | everyone might wish it were.
               | 
               | Even if the plans were the building odds of everybody
               | using the same plan revision all the time is just about
               | zero.
               | 
               | And most of the time, nobody is gonna pay for a super
               | accurate as-built BIM. Because the point of the exercise
               | is a certificate of occupancy.
        
         | brudgers wrote:
         | I think the market is more towards industrial scale sites like
         | data centers and Amazon warehouses and factories where
         | equipment installation is happening right behind JIT layout.
         | 
         | Places where high precision matters and services aren't
         | connected to the endpoint at the slab. That's not most
         | construction because progressive refinement is how most things
         | are built.
        
         | LeifCarrotson wrote:
         | Realistically, if the plumber missed a drain or supply by an
         | inch, it's probably fine to just move the wall by a few
         | inches...but it ought to go back to engineering to verify
         | that's so, and engineering can redraw the prints for the robot.
         | 
         | It's almost certainly not the layout guy's job to decide that
         | the bathroom can be 3" larger than it was and the lobby 3"
         | smaller.
         | 
         | I deal with this relatively often in a machining context -
         | People complain that they'd rather just make simple parts on
         | the Bridgeport manual mill rather than a CNC, because they can
         | adjust on the fly with the manual mill but have to get the CAD
         | changed so that CAM can adapt to the modifications. But when
         | they make it manually, and a year later we need to ship out a
         | replacement part or develop an ECO... if you did it by updating
         | the CAD then the replacement part will fit. If you just
         | freehanded it, the part will not fit.
        
       | hmartin wrote:
       | Anyone know of a small DIY equivalent for e.g. room sized layout?
        
       | nevi-me wrote:
       | I could have benefited from this in the construction of our
       | house. Riddled with inaccuracies, the engineer signed off on the
       | foundations, but we found out when the walls were up that the
       | builders used the internal dimensions as exterior dimensions. So
       | our house is smaller by ~250mm on each side.
       | 
       | We had to make so many compromises and wastages as a result.
       | Bathrooms now smaller if we want to keep other rooms the same,
       | bathtubs couldn't fit, aw man.
       | 
       | Then when the house went up to 2nd and 3rd levels, the staircase
       | was narrow and wasn't connecting between the levels. That alone
       | delayed us by 3 months as we had to get the architect to build a
       | 3D model of the affected area so we could figure it out. We have
       | to hoist furniture up through balconies as it can't fit through
       | the stairs.
       | 
       | I think having some machinery that minimises human error would be
       | very helpful.
        
         | muppetman wrote:
         | Ok and I thought having our inground pool installed crooked was
         | bad. Where you able to get any legal/financial clawbacks
         | because of all the hassle?
        
         | pavel_lishin wrote:
         | Translating for folks not natively familiar with millimeters -
         | this is 25cm, or about ~10 inches.
         | 
         | Doesn't sound like a lot, but you're losing a foot and a half
         | across a dimension of a house. That's very easily into the
         | "Bathtub doesn't fit" territory.
        
           | LeifCarrotson wrote:
           | It's probably the thickness of the foundation wall.
        
         | TheSoftwareGuy wrote:
         | That's awful. I hope you were able to recover damages from the
         | builders
        
         | asibahi wrote:
         | I am an architect who worked as a contractor and as a
         | consultant and I made an account here just to comment on this.
         | 
         | When you found out the builders did that, what you should have
         | done is stopped the work and have them correct their mistake on
         | their own dime. This is an unforgivable mistake and a team of
         | professional should never make something like that.
         | 
         | Obviously I am not in your shoes, but this is insane to me. Any
         | supervisor or consultant or surveyor visiting the site
         | should've caught that.
        
           | jvanderbot wrote:
           | This seems like the just-world response. But how can one
           | force this? If they just say "No" you end up taking them to
           | court and delaying the construction of your house. You
           | endanger the contracts for downstream work.
           | 
           | I had a landscaper screw up just about everything they could
           | building a retaining wall, and they couldn't even get me an
           | extra bag of grass seed after the fact.
        
             | kiddico wrote:
             | Surely, a delayed house is better than a house built
             | incorrectly, no?
        
               | ghurtado wrote:
               | Something something Nintendo video games....
        
             | segmondy wrote:
             | so what? delay it. as you see the house is messed up,
             | that's going to be an issue when it's time to sell. many
             | people will notice a very narrow stairwell or tiny
             | bathrooms. when we were house shopping there were many
             | houses we passed because the stairs were too narrow, or too
             | steep or the bathroom was tiny or some room was so tiny it
             | didn't qualify as a bedroom in our mind or the ceilings
             | were too low. all those tiny flaws cost the seller serious
             | money and reduced the number of buyers.
        
               | nevi-me wrote:
               | To add more context, the staircase is within local
               | building standards minimums. Our architect at least was
               | able to enforce that.
               | 
               | The bathrooms have slightly smaller tubs, though we
               | scratched one of the larger tubs while trying to fit it
               | in, and the supplier wouldn't accept it. It's still in
               | our garage lol.
               | 
               | We were building on a contract where we paid for material
               | at cost, and the contractor made their fee on the labour.
               | They were inexperienced, I'd obviously never use them nor
               | recommend them. We made them pay for most of the damages
               | that we could quantify, and for things like crooked
               | walls/non-90deg corners we couldn't really do much.
               | 
               | To an untrained eye, the house is not bad, but we know
               | where all the mistakes are.
        
             | pjerem wrote:
             | Depends on the country. In France, and I think in Europe,
             | you have 4 (IIRC) legally mandated visits during the
             | construction. At each one of those visits, you have the
             | right to suspend the next payment (you pay a legally
             | mandated percentage of the house after each one of those
             | visits).
             | 
             | I also had measurements issues and a contractor that tried
             | to force it to me. I just said I will not pay until it's
             | fixed. The next week everything was fixed.
        
             | jedberg wrote:
             | You tell the inspector. Point out that the hallway is 25cm
             | short of code. I'm assuming since they are using metric
             | they aren't in the US, but at least here the contractor
             | can't say no the inspector without losing their license.
        
           | nevi-me wrote:
           | We discovered/noticed this when the exterior walls were 2
           | meters high. They had to move around interior walls but that
           | didn't help much.
           | 
           | My wife and I concluded that we got what we paid for, and
           | you're right that in hindsight we should have taken legal
           | action against the contractor. I don't know how breaking down
           | the whole exterior of a house to fix it down to the
           | foundation would feel though. At some point we thought of
           | selling the partially completed structure.
        
             | MrMorden wrote:
             | > I don't know how breaking down the whole exterior of a
             | house to fix it down to the foundation would feel though.
             | 
             | Not your problem.
        
               | mattmaroon wrote:
               | Well, it definitely is. Now you've probably got to wait
               | for a lawsuit to settle and then the work to be redone.
               | Even in the absolute best case, this puts the project
               | behind by months, and that's if they don't contest it.
        
               | kbar13 wrote:
               | yes but a built house is a lifelong thing. multiple
               | decades. a few months here is not worth decades of pain
        
             | tw04 wrote:
             | Honestly from what you're describing it should not have
             | been that big of an issue. Exterior walls and trusses are
             | very easily taken down and put back up again.
             | 
             | The foundation would be a pain in the ass but ultimately,
             | as others have stated, that's kind of not your problem.
        
         | dom96 wrote:
         | Did you consider adding some buffer to your plan's measurements
         | to account for exactly these kinds of screw ups?
        
         | sidewndr46 wrote:
         | Did you use a contractor for this build? The neighbors of my
         | parents ran into this, but somehow the foundation team added
         | around a foot in all dimensions. The owner of the property
         | refused to accept anything other than a new foundation. The
         | contractor refused and from what my Dad told me the home owner
         | was forced to sell to the contractor by the courts as their
         | recourse.
         | 
         | This story also seems a litle off unless the contractor didn't
         | allow inspection. It'd be found in 10 seconds with a single
         | usage of a tape measure.
        
           | nevi-me wrote:
           | We used a contractor yes. Oddly, the civil engineer signed
           | off on the foundations. I think what happened is that the
           | foundations might have been correct, but when they started
           | laying bricks, they used the internal dimensions.
           | 
           | The foundation is normally 500-600mm wide.
           | 
           | Another funny story is that we have a concrete column in the
           | living room that was meant to be 250mm x 250mm. The
           | subcontractor decided to box it in and pour it before we came
           | to inspect. He made it 450mm x 450mm.
           | 
           | So we have this giant concrete thing in the passage.
           | 
           | If some of it wasn't as embarrassing, I'd blog about it with
           | photos.
        
       | simlevesque wrote:
       | ## How it works         ### CAD preparation         1. You need a
       | 2D CAD file. If you have a 3D model, convert it into a 2D .dxf
       | CAD file.         2. Insert additional printing information and
       | instructions and use the HP Plug-in to get a robot-ready file.
       | 3. Save the 2D .dxf CAD file into the cloud. Maintain version
       | control and share revisions with field operators.         ###
       | Site Preparations         1. Clear layout area as for manual
       | layout. No need for a broom-swept floor.         2. Make sure
       | that control points used for Robotic Total Station setup are
       | accurately marked. The layout is as accurate as the control
       | points.         ### Solution setup         1. Set up the Robotic
       | Total Station and shoot the control points.          2. Lock the
       | Robotic Total Station to the robot tracking prism.         3.
       | Connect the Robotic Total Station wirelessly to HP SitePrint
       | through the user interface (tablet, phone, laptop, etc.).
       | ### Job execution         1. Open the CAD file on the control
       | panel, select the print area, and submit the job.         2.
       | Maintain a line of sight between the robot tracking prism and the
       | Robotic Total Station.          3. Choose between different inks
       | for different types of layouts.         4. The robot avoids
       | collisions with obstacles.          5. HP SitePrint is robust
       | enough to work on rough and bumpy surfaces.         ### End-to-
       | End management         1. HP SitePrint cloud allows sharing of
       | the latest CAD files with all stakeholders, so you can monitor
       | job progress from the office and manage accounting reports.
        
       | saltcured wrote:
       | I was almost expecting to see a 3D printer with very expensive
       | cement cartridges.
        
       | airtonix wrote:
       | Not sure what the point of this is.
       | 
       | 3d printed houses are here and make this irrelevant
        
       | rkagerer wrote:
       | I saw the title and hoped someone had finally built a tool that
       | can correctly print websites with fidelity.
        
       | bitwize wrote:
       | Logo Turtle: Enterprise Edition.
       | 
       | Can only be used with special DRM'd HP pencils. Must download and
       | register with the app after it draws 25m of lines to continue
       | use.
        
       | jonplackett wrote:
       | Yeah but how much does the ink cost...
        
       | junaru wrote:
       | From the "How HP SitePrint works" video:
       | 
       | > Uploading to HP SitePrint _Cloud_
       | 
       | No thanks.
        
       | Hackbraten wrote:
       | I read the marketing blurb twice but still have no idea what this
       | is for.
       | 
       | It draws on the floor for construction projects? Why?
       | 
       | Either there's no building or there's a building. If there's no
       | building, then where does it draw on? If the building is already
       | there, then what's the drawing for?
        
         | crote wrote:
         | It's for the phase where there is _part_ of a building.
         | Specifically, when your building looks like [0] - so basically
         | just an empty concrete shell.
         | 
         | With a lot of commercial buildings it is up to the tenant to
         | install the interior walls, as everyone will have slightly
         | different requirements. The Twin Towers were a great example of
         | this: all of the structural support was done in the exterior
         | walls and the center core, so you had a huge empty space you
         | could fill in however you wanted.
         | 
         | The robot draws on the bare concrete floor, so all the
         | carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and hvac technicians will
         | install their stuff in the right place. Turns out having to
         | rework your plans because someone installed a big expensive
         | pipe in the wrong place is a _huge_ hassle...
         | 
         | [0]:
         | https://as1.ftcdn.net/jpg/09/64/72/08/1000_F_964720843_sLWAm...
        
       | hoistbypetard wrote:
       | This looks like a physical manifestation of a the "Logo"
       | environment we had in our elementary school computer lab.
       | 
       | https://logothings.github.io/logothings/AppleLogo.html
        
         | Karliss wrote:
         | Drawing turtle bots have a history almost as long as Logo
         | https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/05/03/the-history-of-turtle-b...
        
       | Lammy wrote:
       | The landing page and FAQ heavily imply that HP's cloud service is
       | the only way to control the thing. Spec sheet shows the robot as
       | having "Connectivity: Bluetooth, 4G, WiFi", so it can connect to
       | the cell network directly:
       | https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/getpdf.aspx/c08982823.pdf
       | 
       | Landing page sez "How HP SitePrint works: Use the HP plugin to
       | get a robot-ready file ... Save the 2D .dxf file into the cloud".
       | FAQ agrees, under "How do I control the robotic layout solution?"
       | https://www.hp.com/us-en/printers/site-print/layout-robot/fa...
       | 
       | If HP cloud is the only way, is there a Privacy Policy for this?
       | Would HP store the DXF beyond the time the layout gets uploaded
       | and the robot finishes printing? Are they storing data from other
       | sensors? Data from RTS? If they are storing anything, are they
       | also selling them, or selling conclusions drawn from them?
        
       | reaperducer wrote:
       | PC LOAD LUMBER
        
       | ghshephard wrote:
       | About 20 years ago I was working in IT, and I was responsible for
       | the physical build out (from a shell) of 599 North Mathilda,
       | Sunnyvale - The foundations and outer walls/roof were up - but
       | nothing inside.
       | 
       | I had responsibility (working with consultants who did this for a
       | living) to work with the project manager, and architect/GC. All
       | of the datacenters (back when companies put data-centers in their
       | buildings), IDFs, MDFs. The MDF in particular was complex as it
       | combined the floors IDF + the buildings MDF/telco connections,
       | punchdowns, and a massive Nortel Option51c set of cabinets. We
       | carefully laid out the room - measuring the minimal possible
       | distance for cable techs to get in between the racks. Everything
       | was designed down to the 1/4" in the room.
       | 
       | I showed up (mostly randomly) with a tape measure during
       | construction - internal walls were up - and they were off by
       | almost 14" - which would have made the internals almost unusable
       | for their original purpose. They had to tear down their framing,
       | pull everything out - thankfully before any electrics/racks/hvac
       | had been put in place.
       | 
       | Having something like this would have greatly reduced that
       | possibility. Bet they end up on every site (if they aren't
       | already).
        
         | jedberg wrote:
         | Hah, I briefly worked in that building! Never dealt with the
         | MDF/IDF though, was just doing software at that point.
        
       | brcmthrowaway wrote:
       | Just use a drone with a laser
        
       | Krasnol wrote:
       | After my professional experience with their printers, I won't
       | touch anything coming from that company ever again.
       | 
       | I can very well imagine how they can build in massive amounts of
       | new enshitification methods to make you pay even more.
        
       | Fokamul wrote:
       | HP lol, yeah sure. I wouldn't touch anything HP with 100m long
       | pole.
       | 
       | I imagine soon they could implement something like this...
       | 
       | "Robot error, you've reached wear & tear limit on your left
       | wheel: 1 mile. Please buy a new wheel from HP shop, Price: $2999"
       | 
       | "Robot error, looks like your new wheel is not compatible with
       | your old right wheel. Please buy a new right wheel..."
       | 
       | "Robot error, you've reached recharge limit of 50 cycles, on your
       | internal robot battery..."
        
       | mikeiz404 wrote:
       | > Enjoy a pay as you go model... No matter how big or small your
       | business is. HP SitePrint has bundled a comprehensive support
       | contract into a _pay as you go usage rate_ , so you only pay for
       | what you use.
       | 
       | It sounds like HP is continuing to go the subscription route to
       | use one of these "printers".
        
         | joezydeco wrote:
         | It's a workable solution to a large problem with these devices.
         | Do you spend $75,000* on one of these when you only use it once
         | a week or once a month?
         | 
         | (* just a wild ass guess. I have no idea what this thing costs)
        
       | mikebonnell wrote:
       | Gotta love /s how inconsistent they are with punctuations.
        
       | paranoidrobot wrote:
       | It's really amazing to see how far HP has fallen. They used to
       | make brilliant printers that were top-quality, easy to service,
       | and overall met the whole "Just Works" thing.
       | 
       | Then some time in the late 90s/early 2000s they let the bean
       | counters at it, and they've become the poster child of terrible
       | product design optimised to extract the maximum revenue at all
       | costs from customers.
       | 
       | I honestly don't care how revolutionary or awesome a product is -
       | if it's from HP I'm staying away, and would recommend everyone
       | else to do so. The company deserves to die.
        
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