It’s that time of year again when people who make things and people who make things that make things come together in a giant festival of fun and education. Maker Faire!

This year, we at MakerBot are thrilled to share space with one of the hands down leaders in 3D design software, Autodesk. Our partnership was first announced at SXSW, where we showed off 3D printed figures that were masterfully designed in Autodesk’s 123D Creature app and made with a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer. This month, the integrations and collaborations deepen, and Maker Faire is the place to see it all.

Come join us at the Autodesk booth, #120, to see what’s new. There will be a showcase “Fix It” wall of some everyday things designed with Autodesk software and printed on MakerBots. You’ll also see a special edition MakerBot Replicator 2, with a custom faceplate and build plate designed exclusively for sale through Autodesk. It looks awesome!

MakerBot and Autodesk products have gotten closer, too. Now you can design something in Autodesk 123D Design, 123D Make, or 123D Catch and use the “Print to MakerBot” button right inside the app. This is a huge step for a 3D modeling program. We’re excited it will be even easier for people to design great things and hold them in no time.

Autodesk is offering sweet membership packages for the 123D apps that include discounts on a MakerBot purchase, or even the custom MakerBot Replicator 2 shown above. Here’s how the memberships break down.

123D Premium membership – Buy a membership to the 123D app suite and get a promo code toward purchasing a MakerBot Replicator 2 via 123Dapp.com.

1 year membership, includes $40 promo code toward MakerBot purchase – $99.99
2 year membership, includes $90 promo code toward MakerBot purchase – $189.99

123D Premium membership Bundle – Bundle your 123D Premium membership with the custom Autodesk edition of the MakerBot Replicator 2, and get additional MakerBot PLA filament with your purchase.

1 year membership, includes MakerBot Replicator 2 and one additional 1kg spool of PLA – $2,249.99
2 year membership, includes MakerBot Replicator 2 and three additional 1kg spools of PLA – $2,299.99

Get started here: www.123Dapp.com

It’s on! We are at the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo today and tomorrow and there are a couple good reasons to come check out our booth #105.

1. We have free t-shirts with a special design just for this conference, and it’s super easy to get one. Just tweet, Facebook, or Google+ with the hashtags #3DPrintConf and #MakerBotMe, and show us your post in person. We’ll give you the t-shirt.

2. If you share a photo of yourself on social media wearing your free t-shirt at the Inside 3D Printing Conference, we’ll enter your name to win a large-scale print of the famous Stanford Bunny! Here’s the whole process.

3. We also have really sweet bunny lapel pins to give away. They’ve been heat-polished, and they look fantastic.

4. Get all the info on our after party! We’ve got some fun stuff going on tonight, and we’d love to have you there. Stop by booth #105 to get the details.

The results are in! We called a close on Friday to the MakerBot Customizer Challenge, and before you read down to see the winners, you have to know one thing: this Challenge was outstanding.

Everyone who participated rocked our socks off, including those of you who were already doing great stuff with parametric design and adapted your files to work with Customizer. The participation was also huge. There were hundreds of entries spread out among the three categories (Useful, Artistic, and Wearable), and the quality of the designs made judging much harder than we expected.

So, huge kudos to the winners, who have each won a new MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer, and all the runners-up, who are fast becoming Thingiverse celebrities. Results after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

We started off Austin’s SXSW Interactive in a big way on Friday with Bre’s opening remarks, revealing to the world an early prototype of the newest addition to our 3D ecosystem, the MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner. Since then we’ve continued to bring the MakerBot magic to the SXSW community at a number of locations throughout the city. If you’re here enjoying the Austin madness be sure to come by and see us at one of these spots. We’ll be here Sunday March 10th and Monday March 11th.

SXSW Create presented by Autodesk
101 Red River St. Austin, TX 78701 (right next to the Austin Convention Center)
Open 11:00am-6:00pm through Monday March 11th
Free and open to the public!

#FEED powered by Twitter
700 Congress Ave. Austin, TX 78701
Open 10:00am-6:00pm each day of the conference
SXSW badge required!

The Turner Lounge
303 Red River St. Austin, TX 78701
11:00am-6:00pm through Monday March 12th

Tonight we’ll be enjoying a 3D printing meetup with our friends from Shapeways. Be sure to stop by at Craft Pride (61 Rainey St. Austin, TX) between 6:00pm-7:00pm on Sunday March 10th to have some fun. Use this link to RSVP.

The MakerBot Customizer Challenge has over 200 entries and over 100 participants, and there are still eight full days to go. Whoa. It’s the home stretch with just over a week left, so let’s have an update and make sure everyone gets the chance to enter.

If you’re just hearing about the MakerBot Customizer Challenge for the first time, get some background information here. We’ve seen a ton of great activity for this challenge. It’s great that MakerBot Customizer has given a lot of you who were already being awesome with OpenSCAD a chance to spread your designs a bit. Big shout out to you parametric veterans.

It’s also encouraging people with no experience in this kind of design to jump into the game, and quite a few of you have uploaded your first thing to MakerBot Thingiverse just for this Challenge. Score!

IMPORTANT

●  You have a week left to enter. Enter as many times as you want.

●  There will be a winner in each of three categories: Useful, Wearable, Artistic.

●  We’re announcing the winner during SXSW in Austin, Texas.

●  See all of the entries here!

Questions and Answers after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine the year 2040. What will we eat or wear? What will Congress argue about? Where will we get our cat pictures?

Most importantly, how will we get around? That’s what we asked the participants in the GrabCAD 3D Printer Challenge to consider in designing the vehicles of the future. The entries sort of blew us away, and we’re thrilled to announce the winners.

MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis, a huge car enthusiast, says judging a vehicle design contest was harder than usual. We were pretty excited to sponsor this challenge with GrabCAD, and are especially excited that the Winner and the Runner-Up will both be MakerBot users now. Think of what they’ll make!

Okay, time to ogle.

1st Place –  Alpha by user Omega from Germany

This entry from user omega includes a great synopsis of a future just a few decades from now where our technological breakthroughs make space travelers of us all. First, though, we need to get off the ground. The Alpha  pod takes traffic above the roads and into three dimensions. We asked entrants to optimize their models for printing on a MakerBot, and we can confirm the Alpha looks amazing. The prospect of omega owning a MakerBot is very exciting.

2nd Place – 2040 Direct Drive Vehicle by user Gabriel Ortin located in Canada

Gabriel Ortin presented one of the most detailed car models we’ve ever seen (left), and it looks incredible when printed on the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer (right). You’re asking yourself right now whether this was printed in one piece. Nope! This does require assembly, but as you can see, the effort is very worth it. Gabriel calls the 2040 Direct Drive Vehicle the “rugged automobile concept for the year 2040 is designed for individuals that can’t live without a fundamental driving experience.”

3rd Place — Personal Hot Rod by user Matthew Gueller

How cool is this single-person hot rod from GrabCAD user matthew gueller? It’s beautiful and classic, but the minimalist body suggests there will be some pretty interesting changes to car engines in 2040. Great work, Matthew!

4th Place — Firanse R3 by user Luis Cordoba from Mexico

GrabCAD user Luis Cordoba envisions a car that’s totally customizable, since you could simply print out the components you want. And not to worry: ” if something is broken it can simply be reduced to its original material and reprinted again.” We like the sound of that. Kudos, Luis!

Something rad happened recently on Thingiverse when the mobile device company Nokia uploaded a design for the shell of a Nokia Lumia 820 that can be downloaded and 3D printed. Killer!

We saw this at MakerBot and took the liberty to adapt the design to work perfectly on the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer. The result is impressive and a perfect fit for this phone.

Now Nokia is holding a 3D printing challenge to let designers from anywhere join in the action. Here’s what they say about the challenge.

Express to impress

There are a couple of things you need to take into account to impress the judges. Firstly, you should consider how to make an aesthetic and artistic design, which most appeals to smartphone users. Secondly, you should try and consider the practical aspects as well. For example, perhaps you might want to create a shell that allows for a bigger battery or one with a heavy-duty speaker. Go crazy and let wishful thinking and imagination combine.

The fantastic five

Your idea will be judged on very clear criteria, broken down into five categories, each of which will have equal representation in the final decision.

• Clear articulation of designs in written language and visuals where possible
• Real life possibility of being made into a mobile phone cover
• Aesthetic design and creativity
• Likelihood that mobile consumers will take interest in your design
• Community support for your idea

We’re thrilled that our own design master Matt Kroner will be involved in the judging! Go to Nokia’s announcement post to get all the details. Good luck!

If you haven’t explored the MakerBot Customizer, the tool that lets basically everyone be a designer on Thingiverse, check it out! Customizer is an app built on the 3D design program OpenSCAD that designers use to upload customizable designs. When designers with the OpenSCAD know-how upload these designs, any Thingiverse user can take the basic template and customize it to suit their tastes. Read all about it here, or login to Thingiverse to get started. Read on to find out how this new tool can win you something even more awesome.

Now for the fun part! The MakerBot Customizer Challenge is a chance for those of you who know how to use OpenSCAD, or are excited to learn, to upload amazing new customizable designs that the entire MakerBot Thingiverse community can use and be inspired by.

PRIZE One MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer to the winner of each category.

CATEGORIES Useful, Wearable, and Artistic.

TIME OF CHALLENGE January 23-March 8, 2013, 11:59 PM ET. We will announce the winning entry at the giant annual arts and technology festival SXSW, and make sure the press knows about the winner and other great participants. We want to make you a star and famous 3D designer!

HOW You upload a design that works with MakerBot Customizer. You can learn about that process here. Tag each of your entries, with “Customizer,” “Customizer Challenge,” and the category you are submitting into (see below). Once it’s uploaded, encourage people in your social networks to use your design to create their own custom things. The more times it’s used, the more points for you, so get the word out!

JUDGING Our panel of judges will pick a winning design in each of three categories: Useful, Wearable, and Artistic. Enter as many designs as you want! Designs will be considered subjectively by the judges and objectively by the number of times people use your design to create new things. There will be one winner per category.

Get started with MakerBot Customizer today. The race is officially on!

UPDATE! You can see all the entries here.

MakerBot just got back from an incredible trip to CES in Las Vegas, but there’s no rest for the weary. This weekend, part of our crew is headed down to Orlando, FL for SolidWorks World, a chance to learn the 3D design program SolidWorks in hands-on sessions. Attending the conference would also give you a chance to talk to SolidWorks partner companies like us!

Here’s something cool: the good people of SolidWorks want to offer MakerBot customers a deal. If you fill out our form (it’ll take you two seconds), we’ll send you a code that gets you into the SolidWorks World Exhibit Hall for free. That’s a $250 value! Just use the code that we send you through email to register for the event.

Hope to see you in Orlando!

UPDATE! We’re so glad you guys enjoyed this special offer. It’s closed now, so there’s no link on this blog post anymore.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chris Hardwick, and MakerBot! Here are a few interviews from the Howard Stern’s Show’s Baba Booey during New York Comic-Con. Our very own RJ Wafer shows off the MakerBot Replicator 2. Thanks for the awesome company, Nerdist!

A huge shout out to TheNewHobbyist for his killer Eleventh Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver design. Nick (from MakerBot) made this on the Replicator 2, and you can see in the video how much Chris Hardwick liked it.