Yes, it has begun.
Fully-customized, modular solar house is 3D printed prefab
A digitally fabricated house.
Future of Construction Process: 3D Concrete Printing
3D concrete printing
It makes me wonder is a Free Trader should really be carrying on-board 3D printers, or at least just transporting raw materials (metal for low-metal worlds, organics for sterile worlds, etc), instead of transporting finished products.
I think that the raw materials might be important, but in a post scarcity society the important things will be the hand crafted, artistic, small cargos. Not 100dt of electronics (unless they are hand crafted iPods…)
Raw materials will still be needed – as of now, we still need grounded metals to print metal tools, etc. And the Empty Quarter is something of a metal-poor region of the Imperium.
Even assuming that nanites become viable (crosses fingers), it’s still going to take energy to move those molecules around. It may still be more cost-efficient to just haul the stuff over.
I’ll be waiting for those handcrafted iPods!