MakerBot Industries

Who has been rocking Thingiverse and doing cool and amazing stuff?  The Thingiverse All-Stars!

Most Liked Thing - 3D printed full size makerbot by Webca

It probably won’t come as a surprise to many people that the most liked, and therefore the most popular, Thing on Thingiverse is the the 3D printed full-size MakerBot designed and printed by Webca.  This is quite likely the most epic design and print on all of Thingiverse.  His printed MakerBot Cupcake CNC case is made up of more than 150 individual pieces.  There’s no much I can say to add to the glowing praise and admiration shown in the comments to this incredible work.

Who has been rocking Thingiverse and doing cool and amazing stuff?  The Thingiverse All-Stars!

Most Commented Thing - The Mendel inspired x and y carriage lowrider by twotimes

Twotimes, the MakerBot upgrade designer extraordinaire and design challenge winner and judge ¹ , has the distinction of being the originator of the Thing with the most comments on Thingiverse.  His Mendel inspired X and Y carriage lowrider is an incredible engineering feat.  With one of these you get more build height, better build quality, and a quieter Cupcake CNC.  Although I’ve only had the honor of meeting twotimes once, at Botacon, I would venture to say the man is a perfectionist.  He wasn’t content to upload just one version of his lowrider.  As you can see from the comments on this Thing’s page, he uploaded a version, considered and incorporated the comments and suggestions of the commentators, and uploaded revision after revision.

1. Not at the same time… [↩]

Who has been rocking Thingiverse and doing cool and amazing stuff?  The Thingiverse All-Stars!

Most "I Made One"'s - JohnA

Thingiverse Citizen JohnA has made, at least, 81 Things from Thingiverse!  Let’s put this in perspective: JohnA has made more unique things than the most prolific designer on Thingiverse has uploaded.  Uploading, sharing designs, and remixing is all well and good.  But here, where people are actually making things, is where the rubber meets the road.  If this is just the number of unique things JohnA has uploaded, how many more things has he printed?

Who has been rocking Thingiverse and doing cool and amazing stuff?  The Thingiverse All-Stars!

Most Things Uploaded - Zach "Hoeken" Smith

Thingiverse and MakerBot co-founder Zach “Hoeken” Smith has the most uploads to Thingiverse with 80 separate Things.  (MaskedRetriever was a very very close second with 79 Things).  Another great thing about Thingiverse is that you don’t actually have to have any tools other than a computer to contribute.  There’s no reason why you couldn’t snag this top spot tomorrow.  Just start looking at the world around you, think of all things you could replicate, improve, or invent, create the design file, and share it on Thingiverse to help everyone else too!

Who has been rocking Thingiverse and doing cool and amazing stuff?  The Thingiverse All-Stars!

Most Derivatives - Syvwlch

Thingiverse citizen Syvwlch has uploaded an amazing 13 derivatives works.  The ability to make, remix, and improve upon the hard work of others is part of what makes Thingiverse and open licensing great.  Without the original designs, perhaps Syvwlch wouldn’t have thought to make some of his derivatives.  And, without Syvwlch we would have far fewer choices of things to print out from Thingiverse.

When we first started MakerBot, we were most interested in what individuals would do with access to a 3D  printer. Thingiverse shows everyday that amazing things are possible with this new tool. The question I’ve been asking myself is what can a community of 3000 MakerBot Operators do together? Last night on my personal blog I made some predictions for 2011 and two have to do with MakerBot Operators.

1. The community of more than 3000 MakerBot Operators will do something on a global scale. I’m not sure what, but I feel it coming.
2. Someone will upload a digital design to Thingiverse that will have an impact on lives in places where there isn’t a daily postal service. Not sure what, but got a feeling about this one too.

My predictions are pretty vague, but I can feel the potential energy of the community. I just know that the MakerBot community is going to do some special things in 2011. Got any ideas for giant collaborative or world changing projects? Post them in the comments!

This morning Joris over at i.materialize posted eleven predictions about 3D printing on TechCrunch.

1. Makerbot will sell more than 10,000 3D printers in 2011.
2. Bre Pettis will appear on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine in 2011.
3. A designer will have revenues of over one million US dollars with a single 3D printed product in 2011.
4. Both Stratasys and Objet will release $5000 desktop 3D printers at Euromold 2011.
5. Zcorp & EOS will be the only major 3D printer manufacturers not to offer a desktop 3D printer in 2011.
6. 3D Systems will launch a 3D printing service for consumers in 2011.
7. At least five 3D printing startups aimed at consumers will launch during 2011.
8. Adobe will buy Autodesk in 2011.
9. Microsoft buys Dassault Systemes in 2011.
10. 3D modeling software vendors will start to offer “light 3D printing” versions of their products
11. 3D printed products will win at least two Red Dot Design Awards in 2011.

In 2009, we sold 750 MakerBots and in 2010, we’ve sold 2300 MakerBots. 10,000 more MakerBots is a pretty wild prediction, but it might just happen if 3D printing keeps going the direction it’s going! Joris’ predictions match up with my feelings that 2011 will see a lot of action in the 3D printing space!

I’d love to hear what your 3D printing predictions for 2011 are. Drop a note in the comments!

Hey MakerBot Operator! We’ve made up a survey and we need you to fill it out so we can know how to serve you better!

Gnome by CreativeTools

Yesterday Thingiverse citizen CreativeTools was rocking Thingiverse with twenty-four (24!!!) brand spanking new holiday themed printable designs!  And, all of these designs were uploaded within about a two hour span.  Google Translate tells me that these were made freely available through CreativeTools’ own website as a kind of 3D printable advent calendar.

Each of CreativeTools’ uploaded designs is an excellent example of the Platonic ideal of a great Thingiverse shared design:

1. Original design files.  Including the original design files to makes it easy for people to create their own derivatives of your work.  After all, derivatives are the highest form of flattery.
2. STL file.  STL files are the industry standard for printable files.  If someone doesn’t have the ability (or inclination) to open your original design files, they can always just print directly from your own STL’s.
3. Picture.  The Thingiverse STL renderer is really cool – but it does have its limitations.  It displays a green monochrome image of the STL file from a somewhat unpredictable angle and distance.  A clear picture of either a design screen shot or a printed copy of the finished design will help people visualize your work.  It’s especially useful to show a picture of a finished and assembled multi-part object.
4. License.  Obviously you’re free to select your own license.  However, you probably wouldn’t have uploaded your designs to Thingiverse if you weren’t interested in sharing with everyone.  CreativeTools uploaded their designs with an open license under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike.  This means you and I can download one of these files, mix and mash them up in ways no one has ever thought of before, and create something awesome and new!

CreativeTools – thank you for sharing your excellent designs!

Missed the holiday gift-giving and want to make it up to that special someone?
Do you have a friend that deserves this awesome machine?

Share the love of 3D printing by extending this “friends of Makerbot operators” exclusive time-limited offer to the friends, family, coworkers, students, and fellow creation enthusiasts in your life.

Forward this link and tell them to use the coupon code “MAKERBOTFRIEND” so they can pick up a Makerbot Cupcake Ultimate kit for just $697—everything needed to turn their desktop into a thing-generating factory.

That’s a whopping $202 savings on your friends’ very first MakerBot—they’ll thank you forever, and who knows, maybe they’ll even share their special creations with you!

This is just a limited time offer good just for friends of MakerBot operators until 11:59 PM January 5th, 2011.

Don't let your digital designs go to waste!

This New Year’s Eve 12/31/2010 has been declared¹ National Orphan Design Day!²

What does this mean to you?  As someone who has ever fired up a 3D drawing program, you probably have lots of designs lying around that haven’t been uploaded to Thingiverse.  These designs have been hidden in some lonely directory on your hard drive long enough.  Tomorrow is the day to give those orphan designs a home where they can roam free, frolic and play with other like-minded digital orphans.  There are a lot of reasons you may not have uploaded these designs yet.

• Perhaps you don’t own a 3D printer?  Maybe someone who owns a 3D printer would love to make one.  Heck, they might even be willing to send you a copy.
• Perhaps it is unfinished?  If you upload your Thing with an open license, others might be interested enough in your work to finish it up!
• Perhaps you thought it would only interest you?  Probably not!  Even if that Thing only suited your purposes, someone else might be able to modify it to suit their problem.

I’ve got several things sitting on my hard disk at home.  Little one-off toys, fixes, half-finished designs, and small proofs-of-concepts.

What abandoned or orphaned works are you going to upload to Thingiverse tomorrow?

1. By me [↩]
2. Photo courtesy of Paolo Magari [↩]