As a tool used, without exception, by industrial designers, three-dimensional physical models and the processes involved in model making are often not accorded the significance they deserve. As a key activity in Industrial design and most other design fields, model making gives artists and designers the opportunity to physically touch a model, to test ideas in three dimensions even before they are fully developed and to verify aspects that before would only be speculative. It is a highly beneficial practice in increasing knowledge and the scope for development.

Until the advent of CAD (computer-aided design) in the 1970s and the effective use of three-dimensional modelling software in the 1990s, physical models were constructed through traditional methods, sometimes by the designers themselves, or by specialist model-makers and technicians. Since then, great changes have taken and continue to take place in the practice and teaching of product design, and nowadays the use of 3D images is increasing in most creative areas, especially in product development, where a large number of designers use virtual ambience as a way of drawing or projecting design ideas.

The aim of this research is to analyse the origins of the use of 3D models as a way of physically representing and developing concepts, and the impact of new types of technology in this process. Expertise with methods such as rapid prototyping machines, CNC milling and 3D scanning has provided designers with various new possibilities, and is having an impact on product development in terms of speed, surface finishing, material diversity and geometrical construction.

This study initially set out to inform artists and designers about the potential for the use of new digital three-dimensional physical modelling, or rapid prototyping. It was intended to explore this through a study of the transition between the projected conception process using conventional and digitally automated systems. An historical understanding of the physical modelling process with a study of the implications of new forms of digital technology, was directed towards the idea that a complementary approach is preferable to simply assuming that new technologies will replace the traditional knowledge.

A survey of the use of modelling techniques beyond the design field led to a shift in focus away from industrial design to explore the application of the new technology in fetal medicine. In combination with three different scanning techniques, Ultrasonography 3D, Magnetic Resonance and Computed Tomography, allied to rapid prototyping, this study proposes a new method for the production of three dimensional models of the unborn fetus. The models, which have been produced in two different institutions in Brazil, a medical image centre (Clinica de Diagnostico por Imagem – CDPI) and the National Institute of Technology, and one in the UK, in collaboration with Professor Stuart Campbell, Consultant and Director of Ultrasound from the Create Health Clinic, are proposed for didactic or diagnostic purpose or for parents to be.