I suppose “smoke and mirrors” isn’t exactly how this 3D effect is created – but it’s not entirely inaccurate either. Using a combination of cold fog and a laser projector the makers of DisplAir can achieve a decent looking and interactive 3D projection system. 1 The implication I find the most interesting is the possibility of an interactive 3D display for use with 3D modelling. Such a system would seem like it could be a very intuitive way for anyone to design 3d models.
I made a playlist on YouTube so you can watch all of season one of MakerBot TV in one sitting!
Revisit your favorite episodes and make sure to leave comments so I know what you liked! And don’t forget to subscribe to MakerBot TV on YouTube or iTunes so that you don’t miss the launch of Season Two!
The November issue of the MakerBot Newsletter which we launched last Friday morning offered a very special set of coupon codes, valid for “Black Friday” until the end of “Cyber Monday” (Nov 28th). A coupon, in fact, that we’ve never been able to offer before: tremendous discounts on our flagship MakerBot Thing-O-Matic fully-assembled and user-assembled kits. This discount was so popular over the weekend, that we have decided to extend it to all of our community, even those who have not yet signed up for our newsletter.1
While the coupon codes were created solely for those who signed up for the newsletter, these codes will work for anyone who uses them in the coupon code part of checkout in our online shopping cart. This deal is only valid until midnight EST (“New York”) time, so those interested should jump on this now before these discounted kits sell out or the window on the coupon code closes. Feel free to share these coupon codes as widely while they still function! We want everyone possible to take advantage of this extremely unusual discount.
As the dust settles from our epic Black Friday sale-tacular, we’ve been able to take stock of the situation and re-evaluate some estimates for ship dates. And there’s some very good news: most previously-ordered bots have already shipped, and this weekend’s order should be out in time for holiday delivery!
Furthermore, we’re now estimating that the Thing-O-Matic will ship with a 1-2 week lead time – which means there’s still time to order for Christmas delivery. Here are our best estimates for the order cut-off dates for each type of shipping:
Ground Shipping: order by December 12th
3-day service: order by December 16th
2-day service: order by December 19th
Next Day Air: order by December 20th
Note that these estimates are for domestic orders only — as customs times vary greatly for international shipments, we can’t offer estimates for foreign delivery.
Better support for international number formats? Check.
Temperature info right in the Machine Status Bar? Check.
Squashed some small user reported annoyances? Check.
If you do a lot of 3d printing you’ll love the new updates in ReplicatorG. The Pre-Heat system will speed up printing on older bots. The ‘Print from STL View’ will make it easier to just click ‘print’ and go. Plus with temperature info in the Bot Status Bar at the top of ReplicatorG, gone are the days of wondering ‘Is that Bot at temperature yet?’
Overall this update doesn’t add any crazy new features. It just makes printing a little faster, a little easier, and a little more fun. But why take my word for it? Why not go download it for yourself.
NY Post visited the home of our intern, Nick DeJesus to get a look at all the awesome things that can be MakerBotted–from chopstick holders to whistles. Pick up today’s issue to see the article for yourself, or view it online here, to see why the NY Post calls MakerBot the “invent of the season.”
Thingizen deeeep conducted a Project Shellter workshop at TEDxYouth@Flanders last week. The enthusiastic kids envisioned all sorts of fantastical shells for hermit crabs. Now they need to be modeled so they can be printed and introduced to the crabitats!
Will the Karshellians like a multi-room shell? Will Paris Shellton dare to wear a shell adorned with wings? There’s only one way to find out: empirical science!
Are you a Blender ninja or a Sketchup wizard? Maybe your Maya-fu is legendary. If you’re looking for a unique challenge please consider helping out by modeling one of the drawings produced at the workshop.
Drop a comment here if you take on the challenge then upload a finished model to Thingiverse and tag it with shellter.
The kids and crabs thank you!
Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter:
On Sunday 20th November 2011 we did a workshop for 30 kids about 3D printing and while they were there we asked them to draw out their ideas for a shell for the hermit crabs.
Some amazing designs came in, but we had no people available with CAD skills to convert these sketches into 3D models.
My appeal to all of you in the thingiverse community is to see the sketches and convert some of them into workable printable 3D models, so that we can have them printed and put in the East and West coast Project Shellter aquariums.
This would mean a lot to the kids who poured their imagination onto paper to help out the hermit crabs!
Some other ideas were put up by some participants whose drawing skills were not as rich as their imagination: one girl wanted a shell in the shape of a plant-pot, which could grow seaweed for camouflage, another shell was in the shape of a piece of coral reef so that when the crab hides it looks like coral reef debris.
Also look at thingiverse.com/thing:14046 for a rendition by MagicDan...
iPhone dock created in Shapesmith and printed on Thing-O-Matic
How can I model the thing I want to print?
As the population of 3D printer operators continues to grow, answering that question will become more important than ever. Combining parametric modeling and a clean UI, browser-based Shapesmith hopes to provide an open source answer.
The developer, MakerBot operator, and Thingizen Benjamin Nortier tells us all about it.
Q: Who are you and what is Shapesmith?
I’m a software developer with an Engineering background and I’m also a 3D printing enthusiast. Shapesmith is a browser-based 3D modeling tool that I’ve been working on, and am very excited about. It is aimed at users who want to create high-quality parametric models for 3D printing, but who don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on expensive 3D CAD software.
I wanted to design an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) after being inspired by DIY Drones. I realised that it would be very attractive to 3D print aeroplane parts and I was using tools like Blender and Sketchup to design some airfoils or wings.
Because I had worked on a 3D CAD tool for electromagnetic simulation earlier in my career, I was very dissatisfied by the free design tools that were available. This dissatisfaction was reinforced when I bought a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic and started to design some models. So I decided to try and make something better.
MakerBot Industries collaborated with The New Museum Store to construct a very different kind of holiday window display than you’d find at Macy’s. A sci-fi fanatic’s fantasy, the window display is a science-fiction-meets-holiday-window mashup. Little green elves in Star Trek-like outfits fight with lightsabers while automaton snowmen resembling the Daleks out of Dr. Who scan the horizon. Another pair of elves circle a gigantic stack of presents (shaped like the silhouette of the New Museum) on the back of a train powered by an Iron Man-inspired arc reactor, pushing a DeLorean time machine. 3D-printed gifts burst from a New Museum-edition MakerBot Thing-O-Matic right into the back of a Cylon-Santa’s sleigh, pulled by X-Wing reindeer.
The printed elements from the New Museum window will be documented at our MakerBot Workshop page and available for free download at the beginning of December from MakerBot’s online community website, Thingiverse.com, where users can post digital design files, document their designs, and collaborate on open source hardware. MakerBot Operators can download and print their own sci-fi holiday scene!
Visitors to New York wishing to see the window should head over to the New Museum at 235 Bowery this holiday season to check it out.
Buy all 3 of the brand new MakerBot Projects today and drive your own 3D printed RC car, generate electricity, and conquer the world with your windup robots!
Today we’re launching MakerBot Projects with 3 fun projects. The MakerBot Wind Up Walkers, The MakerBot Dynamo, and the MakerBot Botmobile Remote Control Car. (Store Link)
MakerBot projects is an ongoing collection of kits to make everything in your world with your MakerBot printer. We’re on a mission to give every MakerBot owner the parts and instructions for making everything in their lives.
The MakerBot Botmobile is the first open source remote control car. MakerBot’s own designer Michael Curry, took everything he learned from creating the Turtle Shell Racers which were featured on the track at Maker Faire, and created the Botmobile kit. All you need to do is get the kit, print out the parts from thingiverse and you’ll have your own RC car. It’s got a great 12 volt motor, a 2 channel radio controller, a tiny servo for steering, rubber racing tires; all rolled into a a ready-to-go kit. The BotMobile kit requires no soldering, all the parts snap together – It really is a perfect weekend project. The body design is a slick dune buggy – and it’s already on thingiverse (link), ready to be printed. You want to change it or customize it? The design files are open source and are ready for you to turn it into a hot rod.
The MakerBot Dynamo is a wonderful project that shows how hand motion is converted into electrical energy. The kit comes with a toy motor, 3 metal screws and 3 large bright LEDs – you print the big gears and a handle on your MakerBot (thingiverse link). Simply put it all together following our assembly instructions to make a simple science project that showcases some basic principles of engineering and energy production. We can’t keep our hands off this thing at the office, and have put in 100s of hours of electricity generation while fidgeting in meetings.
The MakerBot Windup Walker was inspired when Bre declared: “everything on Thingiverse should be able to walk”. The Windup walker pack comes with 5 barebones windup feet, ready to start walking. They’re cool, but they’re mostly soulless and require your creativity to bring them to life. Need a robotic posse? Fire up the MakerBot and start printing them out! Elliot Cohen here at MakerBot modified R.Maker for you to get started (thingiverse link), but we expect a flurry of windup walker designs to start popping up on thingiverse as soon as you start designing the next greatest wind up toy.
Today and through end of day Monday we are offering a limited time special deal. Buy the Botmobile and the Dynamo, and get the windup walkers for free (Store Link) – We know you’ll like them as much as we do!
Procedurally-generated panpipes for 3D printing. They really whistle, but they aren't particularly accurately tuned. OpenSCAD file included.
It'll theoretically play a chromatic scale (12 notes to the octave) but it's too squeaky to know for sure! …
