Custom optical elements have traditionally been expensive and impractical to produce due to the manufacturing precision and finishing required. Recent developments in 3D printing technology have enabled the fabrication of high resolution transparent plastics with similar optical properties to plexiglasTM. One-off 3D printed optical elements can be
designed and fabricated literally within minutes for significantly less cost than conventional manufacturing; greatly increasing accessibility and reducing end-to-end prototyping time. 3D printed optical elements also afford new optical
form-factors that were not previously possible, such as fabricating structures within other structures, printing multiple
materials within a single optical element, and combining mechanical and optical structures in the same