API Evangelist Blog
New App from the Thingiverse Hackathon
Posted on 05-31-2013
Harry Slotwiner is a 16 year old high school student at Pelham Memorial High School in New York.He was also one of the youngest and brightest participants at our first annual MakerBot Hackathon.Accessing the Thingiverse API, Harry created I Made One, a cool and useful iOS application which allows users to upload photos of 3D objects to Thingiverse directly from their phone.Making, remixing and customizing designs is at the heart of the Thingiverse community.Publishing an “I Made One” with a picture of a successful print gives props to the original designer and also empowers users to experiment.
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3D Printing Is Not Going To Change The World
Posted on 05-31-2013
BBC correspondent Peter Day says 3D printing is not—according to one of the prophets of the new personal manufacturing age—going to change the world on its own in a recent piece.
His notion parallels our thinking, and by extension, the thought process everyone must go through.Its something like this:
Day spoke with MITs Neil Gershenfeld, the inventor of the FABLAB concept, which spurred the idea of personal making.He says:
Nevertheless, something is up.Professor Gershenfeld says that its the suite of digital machines that in his words blows up industry.
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OpenCo Comes To MakerBot
Posted on 05-22-2013
For those of you who missed ticketing to our sold-out Thursday afternoon OpenCo event, follow our tweets @MakerBot for live updates. MakerBot will be joining 100+ innovative companies for OpenCo New York, an open-house for innovative companies happening across the city this Wednesday and Thursday.Billed by its founders John Battelle and Brian Monahan as a hybrid business conference and festival, the event aims to highlight companies that share a philosophy of open communication and collaboration.MakerBot will be joining a prestigious roster of companies like Google, Etsy, Kickstarter, IDEO, and other NY-based companies that are opening up their offices for OpenCo events. For fans of innovative companies like MakerBot living in London, Detroit, or San Francisco, be on the lookout for more OpenCo events coming your way this year.
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Tinkercad is back-and it’s free!
Posted on 05-21-2013
Together with so many others we were really disappointed when Tinkercad announced it’s shut down.Deep down we hoped someone would acquire and save Tinkercad.
And it happened!Autodesk signed a deal to acquire Tinkercad and blow new life into the platform.The official announcement sounds really promising for many makers:
“The shutdown plan has been rolled back and effective immediately new users are again able to sign up for the site.
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Autodesk Saves Tinkercad from Extinction
Posted on 05-18-2013
Autodesk has announced that it has purchased Tinkercad and its core technology to resurrect the browser based 3D modeling app from the dead.Several weeks ago Tinkercad killed the popular 3D modeling app, closing new users and announcing a slow death for existing users from the free to the pro accounts. Todays news that Autodesk is saving Tinkercad is even sweeter as it has unlocked all of the pro features so you now have unlimited designs as well as access to the superscripts that take the relatively simple drag and drop assembly of geometry to a greater level of 3d modeling complexity.The Autodesk team are also planning to continue to develop the 3D modeling app further with more import and export options and it may even find its way into the already impressive 123D range of apps that are perfect to design for 3D printing with Shapeways.
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NASA Developing a 3D Food Printer
Posted on 05-15-2013
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According to a report in New Scientist, NASA is funding research that could lead to 3D printed food technology.Texas-based Anjan Contractor of Systems and Materials Research Corporation obtained funding from NASAs Small Business Innovation Research Program to develop a fully functional 3D food printer.
The goal of this program is to creat te a way to produce nutritious food, while storing the ingredients compactly, during a lengthy Mars mission.We suspect another major benefit sought is to introduce variety and change into food preparations.If youre stuck in a tiny spacecraft for over a year, youd like some variety, too.
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More 3D Printing Investment Possibilities
Posted on 05-14-2013
When youre interested in investing in 3D printing, there doesnt seem to be a lot of options at first glance.The publicly traded 3D printer manufacturers are few: Stratasys, 3D Systems and most recently, ExOne.
Is that all the choice you have?No!Theres more ways to catch the 3D printing boom.
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Forme launches new 3D design library
Posted on 05-03-2013
Sourcing high resolution models for design work (and 3D printing) can be difficult and expensive.There are a fair number of free community 3D models on the web, but many are low quality or have restrictions against commercial use.That’s where Forme It, a new service that sells high resolution 3D models, comes in.Forme It’s library of 3D models is broken down into three main areas: Reference, Classic, and Modern.Reference contains models of the natural world, sorted into animal, plant, and mineral.
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3D Printing Goes Mainstream with Staples
Posted on 05-03-2013
We are proud to announce that the Cube 3D Printer is the first 3D printer to be widely available in a major U.S.retailer – Staples!Starting in June 2013 Staples will be introducing the Cube 3D printer in a limited number of stores nationwide.Customers will be able to see the Cube in action and check out a variety of print samples in stores.
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iMakr store officialy open in London
Posted on 05-02-2013
From desktop 3D printers to 3D printed designs; iMakr London has got it all.We were present at the first opening night of the store in the heart of a creative London district.For a long time the iMakr store in London didn’t want to reveil the exact adress of the store, but just a few days before we finally got the adress.As an online 3D printing service we just had to be part of it.The excitement was building up by letting the people wait a little longer then expected, but it was worth it.
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