Why a QA Engineer Runs a 3D-Printing Studio in Aveiro
Dr3amToReal is a 3D-printing studio in Aveiro, Portugal. I founded it on 5 December 2025 and I run it myself. My name is Ana Sousa, and the company behind it is Pompousweek Unipessoal Lda, which I have had since 2021.
I am telling you this plainly because the rest of this post is about a habit, and the habit only makes sense if you know where it comes from.
For more than fourteen years my day job has been testing software. I am a senior QA engineer. Someone builds a system, and my work is to find out where it breaks before a real person does. You stop believing something works because it looked fine once. You want to see it survive the awkward case.
That is the whole studio, in one sentence.
It started with a part nobody makes any more
Dr3amToReal did not start with vases. It started with a replacement part for an old car.
The first one was not even mine. Someone had a Peugeot 206 with a broken engine cover, and the part was discontinued. There was no file to download. It had to be measured, drawn, printed, tried in the place it belongs, and corrected.
It did not fit the first time. It did not fit the tenth time either. I printed that part more than ten times before it was right.
That loop, build it, try it, change one thing, build it again, is what I do at work every day. I had simply started doing it with plastic instead of code.
One part became several. The requests come by WhatsApp and by message on Instagram and Facebook: a cup for the gym, a grooming block for dogs, and more on the way. Somewhere along the way I started printing things for the house as well, vases, boxes, wall pieces, HueForges, and people wanted those too. Today the studio does three kinds of work: hard-to-find and discontinued replacement parts, home décor and everyday objects, and personalised pieces made to someone's measurements, photo or idea. If it is a part, the full process is in how I replace a discontinued or classic-car part. If it is wall art, start with what a HueForge is.
I run it the way I test software
Design, test, refine, then ship. In that order, every time.
I assume version one is wrong. Not out of pessimism. A first print is a hypothesis, and treating it as a draft means I look at it honestly instead of hoping.
I change one thing at a time. When a part fails, the temptation is to adjust the material, the wall thickness and the orientation all at once. Then it works and you do not know why, so you cannot repeat it. Slower is faster here.
I test it where it will live. A piece for a shaded shelf and a bracket for a car interior are not the same problem, even if they look the same on screen. Material is a placement question before it is a printing question, and I answer it before anything is made.
If it is not right, it does not ship. Every piece is checked and finished individually before it leaves the studio. That is why each object can have slight variations, and I consider that a quality, not a defect. It is also why the catalogue is not enormous. Dr3amToReal is not a print farm.
I design, and I do the printing, here in Aveiro. Printed by machine, layer by layer, checked by a person who does this for a living.
What that means if you order from me
You get the inconvenient parts first, because that is how I would want it.
- Orders are by WhatsApp or by message on Instagram or Facebook. Tell me what you need and I come back with a price and a date.
- I ship mostly within mainland Portugal. Other destinations, case by case. Ask, and I will tell you.
- Delivery is usually between two days and a week, depending on how much work the piece needs.
- I turn jobs down. When someone wants the cheapest possible version and the work it takes does not matter to them, I say no. I also say no when I cannot deliver in the time someone needs. The studio is still part-time, alongside my job, and I would rather tell you that now than promise a date I cannot keep.
The full picture of what I make and how I choose materials is in the custom and replacement 3D-printing guide. Who I am and how I work, in short, is on the about page.
The plain facts
- Name: Dr3amToReal (also "From Dream To Real 3D")
- What: a design-led 3D-printing studio. Replacement parts, home décor, personalised pieces
- Where: Aveiro, Portugal
- Founder and owner: Ana Sousa, senior QA engineer
- Company: Pompousweek Unipessoal Lda
- Founded: 5 December 2025
- Orders and contact: WhatsApp +351 963 007 377 · Instagram or Facebook message · dr3amtoreal@gmail.com
Questions people ask
Who is behind Dr3amToReal?
Ana Sousa. I founded the studio in December 2025 and run it myself, alongside a career of more than fourteen years in software quality assurance. The legal entity is Pompousweek Unipessoal Lda.
Where is Dr3amToReal based?
Aveiro, Portugal. I design and I do the printing here. I ship mostly within mainland Portugal; other destinations are handled case by case.
Does a software-testing background matter for 3D printing?
It changes what gets checked. I assume the first version is wrong, change one variable at a time, and choose the material by where the piece will live. Nothing ships until it has passed.
If you have something broken, discontinued, or that only exists in your head, tell me about it or write to me on WhatsApp. You do not need to have it all figured out. Describe it and I take it from there.
Ana Sousa
Aveiro