If we say no to players having access to 3D printers, the we may as well say no to auto-factories as well. That pretty much means saying no to any real form of crafting in the game beyond weapon customisation.
I am not cool with that.
...By all means limit the blueprints so that the most powerful weapons cannot be built ...
Everyone understands the term 'Blueprint'. Not everyone understands CAD file. But then us old farts don't mind waiting for your voice to break while you hit puberty...Okay man that's all good BUT Jesus Christ God please do not write or use 'blueprints' again! This form of copy of a technical drawing was popular in the freakin 19th/early 20th century nowadays its just a relic and in 2077 no one would even mention it so really please use either CAD files or simply data.... Ya old freakz !
3D printers should exist but should not be accessible to your average citizen, so players should never be able to use one. Mega corporations should use them in their factories.
They're already accessible to your average citizen, you don't need any special permit or license. And they'll be rampant 50+ years from now.
I've been reading Wildside a lot lately. It gives a very clear description of "The New Industry", (pages 78 - 79.) This is basically the use of legitimate or pirated designs to produce items in CAD-AM facilities. Every major city in 2020 seems to have a factory where the public can hire the Computer Aided Design And Manufacture equipment like autolathes and robot-operated mini factories, which can produce just about anything, even entire cars.
There are references to many small corporations using this production method as well as individuals. The disposable future doesn't provide spares for repairs. You throw the thing away and get a new one. That gets expensive and thats why so many Techies can operate in a single city. Many techies design their own stuff as well as produce spare parts in the se facilities.
It also makes it clear that production capabilities big corporations will not be rivaled or even matched this way. It's ususally cheaper to buy legitimate gear than produce it.
I see no reason why 2077 should be different in this respect.
I'm saying they would be banned and would be highly illegal if you could print weapons with it. They would still exist, but would be mostly used bu factories. Even if you could purchase such a device, it would be incredible expensive for your average citizen. In the disposable future, it would be easier to go and buy what you need rather than buying an expensive printer and making it yourself.
You can make remotely detonated explosives from household cleaning products and childs toys and they aren't illegal. It's like handcuffs in the UK, they are what we call a weapon of offense. Owning them and having them on you is fine, but if you use them it can be a crime. (I was always very careful when I used mine working as a Doorman. If I had used them in the wrong situation I could have gone to prison.)
I think that using a rented CAD-AM machine to produce illegal gear should be expensive, (either in materials or designs, or both,) and it should carry a risk of being caught out in some way. Producing illegal gear shouldn't be easy to set up either. It should always be simpler and cheaper to buy stuff.
As I said before, CAD-AM and 3D printing should be there for convenience at the expense of cost.