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 [↩]