In case you missed it, our CEO Bre Pettis and Wired Magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson had a wide ranging discussion at World Maker Faire last weekend about the Maker movement, the possibility of a new industrial revolution, and MakerBot’s place in those.

You readers of this blog over the last few weeks have been incredible in sharing your thoughts and criticisms with us. Sorry to be so quiet lately while we manage the launch of new machines, software, and a retail store. Let’s get this conversation going again. Here’s the topic:

A central part of Chris’ presentation is the analogy between desktop 3D printing (what we do at MakerBot) and desktop publishing (the explosion of word processing on personal computers). At about the 13:50 mark, Chris says that the new tools have…

made us all into designers. In the way that desktop publishing made us all into publishers…we now have access to design tools. And this means we’re going to have to get good at it. Fortunately it’s getting easy.

Chris goes on to discuss the Autodesk 123D family of applications, including 123D Catch for scanning through pictures. MakerBot owners have used 123D Catch quite a bit for capturing things in real life, and this blogger has done a few *pretty impressive* captures of fire hydrants and siamese drain pipes. It really is easier than you think.

But once you have your scan, altering it in a design program is another question. Following Chris’ analogy, the ability to create nice documents came from simple icons and menu items in word processing programs. Throwing together quick web pages became possible with programs like Adobe Dreamweaver. In the world of 3D design, what are the easy generation tools that will turn your neighbor into a manufacturer?

Perhaps there will always be some push and pull here. Programs like Tinkercad do an amazing job of walking novices through the basics of designing on a computer. If you need more proof, check out our series of Tinkercad tutorials from last week. But just as there is a big gap between your average Dreamweaver user and an expert web designer/developer, there will always be a spectrum of 3D design expertise.

So here’s my analogy: Thingiverse is the Facebook of 3D design. Back in the day of personal homepages (remember when people had their own Geocities pages?), only the motivated person bothered to make a nice page and actually maintain it. Chris says we have to get good at 3D design, but in fact, not that many people ever got good at web design. When MySpace came along, it was a big relief for those of us who didn’t want to bother with html. But MySpace was still fairly complicated, and Facebook took the stress out of compiling a personal homepage. Facebook just passed the 1 billion user mark. Anyone have a good count on personal homepages?

Thingiverse makes it easy to get designs and follow instructions, even for those people who have no interest in learning 3D design tools. I mean, they’re missing out on half the fun, but most of us miss out on half the fun of most things, am I right?

Okay, that’s all. We’ll have more on the blog now.

Last week I posted on the process of scanning one of the cables of the Bay Bridge, in preparation for designing an LED attachment strategy for the Bay Lights project. Here’s a bit more info on what we came up with.

Bay Bridge LED attachment clip test

The brief is to attach strings of high-intensity Philips outdoor LEDs to the vertical suspension cables of the bridge. Initially, the thought was to just zip tie them into place, but Philips engineers pointed out that this would damage the data and power cables. Ideally we would also come up with a solution that simplifies the work of the installation crews, by allowing for easy positioning and assembly.

A first step was to design a clip that would allow attaching pre-existing rails to the cables, and have the LEDs latch into the rail. However, this would have been expensive and unsightly. I had the idea to just use the clips to go directly onto the suspension cable. I was also able to add side channels for the extension cables that go to other segments of the LED cable. (The extension cable is the thick black one on the side). The clip is designed to clip securely to the data cable, and to guide the zip tie into the right position.

The plan is to test a strand of LEDs on the bridge this week, using 55 clips printed on a Makerbot (!). If all goes well, then we need another 25,000 of the things…

Here’s a video that describes the process in a bit more detail:

I’ve  been working on a strategy for physically attaching the lights for the Bay Lights Project in San Francisco, and we needed a section of the bridge suspension cable to test things. Chopping out a section from the bridge is naturally out of the question, but fortunately we have some really cool tools at our disposal.

Our team went on to the bridge, and photographed the cable from all sides. Using 123D Catch, I made a 3D model, and then printed out a section. Presto, we’re all set, with an accurate model of a section of cable!

The intrepid Bay Lights lighting team on-site

This short video shows how easy it was to generate the 3D model and print it. The scan needed only minor automatic repairs using Netfabb Studio Basic, and printed really easily.

I’ll be posting more details of the lighting solution as it develops. Very excited that having a MakerBot made it possible to set up a realistic prototyping setup for this project in a way that would have been almost inconceivable just a few years ago.

I’m adding a MakerBot component to this fun challenge from Daniel Russell, a Google scientist who blogs about the way people use search.

Today Mr. Russell asked people to find a particular monument in Washington, DC. This is all we know:

One of the more unusual stories I heard in the past few days was about a small(-ish) monument to a man who forever changed the way naval warfare would be conducted.

I was told I’d enjoy reading his story, if only I could find the monument.

All the information I was given, though, is that the monument to him is located in a tear-drop shaped traffic island somewhere near the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington DC.

Now, it would seem that the answer is supposed to come from searching. But if someone happens to be in the area, they could even snap a few pictures around this sculpture, digitize them into a 3D mesh with 123D Catch and print the sucker out!

MakerBot’s own Tony Buser has put together this helpful video tutorial showing how he uses a variety of programs to fix 3D objects and scans to make them more printable.  There are a lot of ways for things to go wrong with a 3D object.  You could have a flipped triangle, internal structures,  or there could be a hole in the mesh.  Tony’s video provides a great overview and takes you step-by-step through the most popular 3D mesh fixing programs.  Even though this video depicts a 3D scan being fixed, the programs and methods shown could be used to fix any problematic 3D object.  Give it a shot!

The Thomas Jefferson statue from Monticello, scanned, 3D printed, reassembled, and painted bronze

Consider, for a moment, going to a museum and being told you could only see 2% of the collection.  Despite the incredible sprawling buildings devoted to showcasing the Smithsonian’s collection only this very small percentage of their 137,000,000 piece collection is available for viewing.  Now that the Smithsonian has contracted with a company to begin scanning their collection, more of those pieces tucked away in their archives will be available to the viewing public.

This is really such an exciting development.  While it would be very cool to be able to visit the Smithsonian online and examine digital scans of their collection, it would be so much more amazing to be able to download those 3D scans for printing out.  I can’t wait for the day kids can actually print complete dioramas, examine a physical copy of a feature of a statue, bring a life-size Allosaurus claw replica for show-and-tell, create a giant version of some tiny little sea creature, or a model showing the relative scales of a person and a woolly mammoth.

Museums of the near future could even use 3D scanning to augment their collections on display or traveling exhibits.  A few years ago I was fortunate enough to see the King Tut exhibit in Chicago.  The collection and presentations were amazing – but instead of King Tut himself we saw a life-sized projection of the tomb, the sarcophagus, the mummy, and his bones.  While this was interesting, it would have been more interesting still to have been able to view a life-sized replica created in the same way as the Monticello Jefferson statue.  Now that computing and internet access are nearly ubiquitous, you could even use a smartphone or tablet computer to better examine some feature of an exhibit while you were still inside the museum.¹

Thanks Slashdot!

1. What, were you expecting another post about Doctor Who or something? [↩]

Thing-O-Saurus Claw by gavinmurphy

Thingiverse citizen gavinmurphy scanned the cast from a fossilized claw of an Allosaurus from the Peabody Museum with Autodesk’s 123D Catch.

It’s interesting to think about how many generations this plastic replica is removed from the original claw itself.  The first generation would be the original claw from the Allosaurus.  Depending upon the type of fossilization, the original claw would be replaced over time by mineral deposits in the shape of the original claw left in the surrounding material.  This would make the fossil itself either a second or third generation copy. ¹  The fossil was then cast into a mold once it was dug up, making that the third or fourth generation copy.  The mold was used to cast a replica, which would be a fourth or fifth generation copy.  That replica was photographed by gavinmurphy, making the fifth or sixth generation copy.  Those photos were converted into a 3D image by 123D catch, making the sixth or seventh generation copy.  The DWG or OBJ file created by 123D would have to be converted to an STL for printing, making the STL the seventh or eighth generation copy.  The STL was then printed as you’ve seen above, making the eighth or ninth generation copy.  The photo above would then be a ninth or tenth generation copy.

Whether nine or ten generations, this awesome claw is pretty much a must-print item if you’re looking to show off what a 3D printer can do.  (Oh, you want a dinosaur?  How about a life-sized dinosaur claw?!) ²

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1. Second generation if the original claw became a fossil directly.  Third generation if the fossil was created as minerals took the shape of the claw from the surrounding material.  Also a third generation copy if the original claw disintegrated leaving a claw-shaped depression in the material around where it used to be. [↩]
2. Do you remember that bit from Jurassic Park where the kid calls the veloceraptor a six foot turkey?  I now finally have a good reason to memorize Sam Neill’s awesome response. [↩]

The Smiths by Tony Buser

MakerBot’s own Tony Buser has been scanning and sharing his family on Thingiverse with quite possibly the most creative use of the new “multiple derivative” feature yet!  (Each person was scanned separately and then arranged together into the picture above.)  Tony has thoughtfully memorialized his family and friends with these scans.

The possibilities opened by cheap ubiquitous 3D scanning technology are nearly endless.  A 3D printed family portrait, a movie of 3D scans morphing from one month to the next showing how a person grows, replacing the pen marks on the door jamb for marking height, or maybe even a way to easily assemble as seamless family portrait without everyone being in the same location at the same time.¹

1. Also, who will be the first to upload a Tony BuSta? [↩]

Amy Buser Reconstructed

People have been using the Microsoft Kinect with 3D printing for a while now using excellent programs like Kyle McDonald’s KinectToStl.  However, until recently, most programs can only capture one side of an object which creates a kind of relief sculpture.  To get around this limitation, you could take multiple scans and manually merge them. (hard)  Others like the blablabLAB calibrates and positions multiple Kinect sensors around a scene. (expensive) Last year Microsoft demonstrated something called Kinect Fusion that allows you to carry the Kinect around and dynamically capture all angles of a scene in real time.  Unfortunately, they did not release any software.  Profactor has just released a beta version of free software called ReconstructMe that works a lot like Kinect Fusion.

I’ve scanned a number of things so far, check out the reconstructme tag on Thingiverse!  ReconstructMe works a lot like the Polhemus scanner we used to scan Stephen Colbert where you walk around and wave the Kinect across a scene to capture all sides.  Although the resolution is lower, at least you don’t have to dust your hair in corn starch!  As a matter of fact I’ve found the best way to scan a person is to have them sit in an office chair, point the Kinect at their head, and then slowly spin themselves in a circle.  Once you have a raw scan, I suggest using the free version of NetFabb Studio Basic to rotate it, Cut away the parts you don’t want, and then Repair it to make it solid and suitable for 3D printing on your MakerBot.  The Ponoko blog has an excellent video explaining the process.  You can also place objects on a turntable, like a lazy susan and spin it by hand.  Just make sure that anything ReconstructMe sees within it’s scanning area all rotates in the same way.

There are some limitations to ReconstructMe.  It is Windows only.  In order to do real time reconstruction, you need a fairly powerful video card as it does the calculations on the GPU.  There is an offline recording option that allows you to record on a slower computer and then process it later using a more powerful computer.  However, you don’t get the realtime feedback alerting you when you move too fast or go out of alignment.  Due to the low resolution of the Kinect camera, it’s not that great for scanning small things.  For that, you might want to try something like Spinscan.  However, for scanning large objects like people – it’s awesome!  So go download ReconstructMe and be sure to tag anything you make on Thingiverse with the reconstructme tag.

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There’s been some excitement recently about a clever (and effective) way of turning objects into 3d models from photographs: Autodesk 123d Catch.  MakerBot Support’s own Brian Stamile has used it to get some very good results, and has even spawned a project idea (in a tweet):

Shopping for fun items to scan at Goodwill. Buy it, scan it, print it on a #MakerBot, donate it back. That’s the plan. Project Scancycle.

Here’s how it works: take photos of your item on a neutral background.  Rotate around the object, snapping a photo every 15 or so degrees, from a few different heights: above, below, from the side.  It’ll take about 40-75 photographs for 123d Catch to create a good 3d model.  It doesn’t work well with objects that are very shiny.  You’ll also want to open the resulting .obj in your favorite 3d modeling program (MeshLab, MeshMixer or Blender, perhaps) to clean it up and export to .stl.

123d Catch is currently a free beta, so try it out now…unfortunately it runs only on Windows at this time.  If you want to participate in Project Scancycle, just tag your Thingiverse item with “Scancycle” and/or tweet it with the hashtag #Scancycle.

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