What this means:  MakerBot’s mission remains the same and will continue to operate as a separate subsidiary within Stratasys, once the transaction is complete.

The last few years have been incredibly inspiring and exciting for us.  We have an aggressive model for growth.  Partnering with Stratasys will allow us to supercharge our mission to empower individuals, and lead the Next Industrial Revolution.  We are excited about the opportunities this combination will bring to our current and future customers.

MakerBot is an innovation company.  We innovate so others can innovate, and we believe 3D printing is fueling the Next Industrial Revolution. We have been a pioneer in desktop 3D printing – which provides affordable 3D printing access to individuals, from engineers, architects, designers, entrepreneurs and educators, in addition to hobbyists and makers.

We are very excited about this opportunity and hope you join us in fueling the Next Industrial Revolution!

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Since the MakerBot arrived, Thomas has used it to create everything from beer holders to a hot sauce dispenser to a bicycle storage system for an iPhone 5 with an external battery pack.

Want to share your own MakerBot Replicator 2 story for a chance to win $250? Find out how here.

As part of the Robohand Project, one of MakerBot’s lead designers, Michael Curry, worked with Rich and Ivan to refine the assembly instructions. Together, they were able to make the assembly easier and make a derivative Robohand almost entirely 3D printed without hardware.  While Michael’s snap-together version might not be quite as durable as the original Robohand, it is pretty amazing. Moreover, Michael Curry’s version demonstrates the power of 3D printing and the 3D printing community who work together to make lives a little better. You can check it out on Thingiverse.

“The goal of this is to be a point of departure for experimentation,” says Michael Curry. “I want to see designers create better, more ambitious Robohands.” Check your local listings for the show’s airtime on a NPR station near you.

Birds need houses, and you, the 3D printing community, can be the ones to help. Enter the Thingiverse Birdhouse Challenge by designing a creative and functional birdhouse to shelter the newly-hatched!

PRIZES | First Place Prize: One Eggbot, the open-source art robot that lets you draw on spherical or egg-shaped objects. The winner will also receive a spool of True Black MakerBot PLA filament. The winning design will be featured on Thingiverse and the MakerBot Blog, as well as printed out and displayed in the MakerBot store at 298 Mulberry St. in NYC. Second Place Prize: A spool of True Blue MakerBot PLA filament. Third Place Prize: A spool of True Red MakerBot PLA filament.

TIME OF CHALLENGE | Thirty days. Monday, June 17 through Tuesday, July 16 at 11:59 PM ET. We will announce the winning entry on the MakerBot Blog on Friday, July 19!

HOW | You upload a design for your unique birdhouse and the printing instructions to Thingiverse. Tag each of your entries with “Birdhouse.” Once you’ve uploaded, encourage others to like and make your design.

JUDGING | Our panel of judges will subjectively pick a winning design based on functionality, printability and creativity. Enter as many designs as you want! A first place, second place, and third place winner will be selected. Get started with Thingiverse today. The race is officially on!

Please read the OFFICIAL RULES.

When any of us in the Thingiverse community prints something from someone else’s design, it’s important to give credit where it’s due. To make attribution easier, we’ve decided to follow user whosawhatsis’ lead and utilize his “Thingitag” inside the Thingiverse ecosystem. That means that every time a community member makes a new Thing, they’ll have the option to quickly print a Thingitag. This should prove useful when displaying prints of others’ designs.

Have a question about Thingitags? Let us know at support@makerbot.com.

We are excited to see Amazon embracing 3D printing and devoting an online store to the technology.  To learn more, click here.

NEW TO THE FAMILY
You’ve asked for them, and now they are here. Introducing MakerBot’s True Blue, True Black, and True Purple PLA Filament. We have loaded these colors into the Replicator 2s in our office, and the results are gorgeous.

We love PLA for the MakerBot Replicator 2 because it is luscious to work with. It performs well with minimal peeling, curling or shrinking; it’s an environmentally friendly, renewable bioplastic made from corn; and it smells nice! Our entire Filament library is now fully stocked, with no lead time on shipping. Take a look and order today.

VOTE!
Since the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer launched last September, requests for new Filament colors have gone through the roof.  We’re developing a range of new colors to meet this demand and want to hear from you! Cast a vote for the colors you want to see, and we’ll follow your lead. Happy 3D printing.

We’ve grown a lot through many inflection points in the past 4 1/2 years as we’ve transformed from a small garage-built project into a 274 person innovation company in Brooklyn. From the beginning we have been dedicated to building tools that empower people to unleash their creativity. We’re growing really fast right now and so I recently sat down with my leadership team to take a snapshot of the way we work now as we evolve. “The MakerBot Way” is what we came up with and it embodies the spirit of the way we work at MakerBot.

In order to continually optimize the MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner, the MakerBot team tests objects to see the results. We found a feline friend at our thrift store trip last week, and decided to take him on a journey through our 3D scanning workflow.

STEP 1: FIND YOUR OBJECT
The first step in scanning an object is finding an object with the right specs to scan well. This friendly feline has a matte texture that is perfect for scanning, as glossy surfaces can overexpose the camera’s light sensor, making surfaces difficult to capture.

STEP 2: DIGITIZE YOUR OBJECT
Our cat fit within Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner’s size parameters, as it can scan objects up to the size of an 8″ by 8″ cylinder.

STEP 3: PRINT YOUR OBJECT
At last, we can print our 3D object on a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer. There are many ways to scan a cat, but the best option is with the MakerBot Digitizer 3D Scanner.

OPTIONAL: REFINE YOUR OBJECT
The advantage of 3D scanning an object is the ability to spend your time tweaking a design instead of starting from scratch. If we weren’t in such a rush to show off our scan to the MakerBot community, we would’ve refined our model by adding more texture, or increasing the level of detail on the cat’s tail. Softwares like Autodesk’s Mudbox or 123D can be used to refine your design.

The tax project was scrapped, and at the end of April, President Hollande extended an olive branch to entrepreneurs by proposing a 65% reduction in capital gains tax for French entrepreneurs. Vive Le MakerBot!

Want to share your own MakerBot Replicator 2 story for a chance to win $250? Find out how here.