An invention starts as creative ideas in an inventors mind before it can hit the market. It still has to go through a lot of different processes in order for an inventor to have it produced.
An inventor needs a license for his invention to be produced and sold in the market. For him to get a license for it, he has to prove to those who grant licenses that his invention would indeed work as he describes it. Telling people about what he has in mind would not grant him a license. He has to show them. He has to prove to them that his invention is worth the license by making use of a prototype. Invention prototypes are used to present invention ideas and prove the inventor's description.
When modern technology was not yet as good as it is now, inventors used to make prototypes out of papers, metals and other materials that they have to manually mold into their invention model. This old process takes a lot of time to finish. The release of licenses takes a lot longer than any inventor today could possibly imagine.
Now, with the use of more modern technology facilities, a prototype for an invention can now be made a lot faster. This is by using a rapid prototyping process to make a prototype. Invention prototypes can now be made with the use of 3D CAD, stereolithography and other processes that make use of a computer.
With the several different rapid prototyping processes that are being provided by a lot of prototyping services providers, an inventor's invention can definitely be issued with a license at a lot sooner time and can therefore hit the market sooner as well.
Making prototypes out of these rapid processes does not risk any of an invention's qualities at all. They can present as accurate details as what inventor's have in mind. They also require a lot lesser materials which makes it affordable enough even for new inventors.
Instead of manually making a prototype for your invention out of whatever resources you have, you can choose to have it done through a rapid prototyping procedure which would take very little time but would show as accurate details as a handmade does. You can be issued a license to have your invention produced and sold in the market a lot sooner.