MakerBot Industries

"Thing.stl" from Matrix Buildings by ramenspork

Here at MakerBot, we like to talk about how people who use 3D printers are committed not only to living in the future, but helping make that future possible.  So, how much more awesome is it that there are teacher out there showing how you can use high school algebra to create some seriously amazing OpenSCAD designs?

I can just picture a set of math and science curricula where the introduction to each chapter explicitly states that upon completion of that chapter the reader should know how to make a bowl, or tower, bridge, or freaking Aztec pyramid.

Also, if Thingiverse citizen and teacher ramenspork or any of their students reads this, would you pretty please put together a tutorial or lesson plan to help others learn how to create sweet printable OpenSCAD structures using linear algebra and matrices?

Matrix Buildings by ramenspork

I teach Linear Algebra to a small class of High School students. We took a few days to learn openSCAD and use the multmatrix function to explore some "real world applications". The kids in the class had no prior programming experience and I think openSCAD was a great way for them to learn some of the basics of programming. Their homework assignment was to design two objects, a building and a tree, by writing their own transformation modules using the multmatrix function (i.e. no using the built in rotate, translate, etc. functions, although union, difference, intersection were ok). Here are their buildings.

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Turkey Cookie Cutter by wstrinz

First off, I want to give a shout-out to pomalin for their Bucket Of OctopSTA and second entry in the “moregangsta” challenge.  As the first-challenge-uploader and first-to-upload two separate entries, Pomalin receives 27,000 internet points AND bragging rights^3!  ¹

Second, how about another lightning design challenge?!  Can you design and upload a turkey design² before midnight on November 24, 2011?  9000 internet points, bragging rights, and mad blog-nods to:

• First to upload
• Most realistic
• Most awesome

Please be sure and tag your entries with “turkeyday2011” so everyone can find your contribution.  Also, don’t forget to add other appropriate other tags to your designs.

Turkey Cookie Cutter by wstrinz

I made this for thanksgiving biscuits. It's not really in season now, but you could print one out for next year

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1. That’s just “bragging rights” to the power of three, not to the power of “3!” [↩]
2. With an open license please! [↩]

Steampunk Couture: CNC Goggles by gianteye

Thingiverse is full of amazing creations by some amazing designers.  What I find really interesting is what people did before they had access to a 3D printer.  I used to, and still do, enjoy origami.  I know of others that built things using cardboard, others wood, others metal.

So, I’m curious – what do you make?  How do you make it?

Part Catch Basket for Thing-O-Matic by dustinandrews

Designing 3D objects in OpenSCAD can be very quick and simple. ¹  You can create some really amazing designs by just combining cubes and cylinders in a variety of ways.  However, making a design “parametric” isn’t always intuitive.  As an FYI, a parametric design in OpenSCAD is a design that accepts parameters.

There are a lot of OpenSCAD designs on Thingiverse where the author admits their design isn’t very “parametric.”  With a little effort and a few tips, it is possible to incorporate the power of OpenSCAD parameters into your own designs.  Since I learned some of these lessons when designing an OpenSCAD pirate ship, I’ll refer back to it for examples.

1. Parameters first.  It is so much easier to make your designs parametric from the start.  Going back and making a design parametric can be as easy as find-and-replacing, but typically it is much more work than that.  If there’s any chance you might want to have a parametric version of your designs later – just design that way from the beginning.
   
2. Prioritize.  Decide on the most important parameters first.  Most designs only have a few parameters that are really important.  For example, the two most critical features of the pirate ship were the ship’s scale, as in size, and the thickness of parts.  Once these two were known, most of the other features of the design needed to be modified to fit them.
3. Dependents.  Try to make as many of the features of your designs dependent upon the initial parameters as possible.  The easiest way to do this is to design as much as possible in terms of the original parameters.  I like to do this by setting dependent objects as fractions of the original parameters.  In the example of the pirate ship, I made the largest sail on each of the masts equal to 1/2 the size of the masts themselves.  The other sails were even smaller fractions.  By making these features defined in relation to one another by fractions, they will always end up in the same appropriate locations with respect to one another.  Thus, the three sails on each mast should always line up together.  Throughout the design, I tended to design things in terms of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64.  These fractions are easier for me to manage than decimals.
4. Mix it up.  While you’re designing, change some of the major parameters.  If your model suddenly goes haywire, you know you made a mistake somewhere – either by including a feature that doesn’t rely on your parameters or by a feature that is changed by your parameters in unexpected ways.
5. Modularize.  Start by designing just one aspect of your idea at a time as a module.  Doing so will let you define whole regions of your designs in relation to one another.  For example, one of the modules I wrote for the pirate ship was for a single sail.  I wrote another module that would put together three sales of decreasing sizes and another module that added the large triangular sail and mast itself.  Yet another module collected all three sails.  Once the three sails could be created by a single module, I could move all of the sails around as a single piece.
6. Cheat.  One of the parameters for the cylinder function is “$fn”.  This basically dictates how many facets the circumference of your cylinder will have.  A cylinder with 8 facets will look like an octagon and a cylinder with 128 facets would probably look almost perfectly circular.  I cheated by making triangles by creating cylinders with “$fn=3″ or just three facets.  There are a lot of shape libraries for OpenSCAD, but this was a quick and simple way to get an equilateral triangle.  Each of the sails is actually a cylinder, turned on its side, with just three facets along the circumference.

What other suggestions do you have for someone who wants to make their designs parametric?

1. Thanks to dustinandrews for tagging their Part Catch Basket for Thing-O-Matic as with “openscadtutorial” on Thingiverse! [↩]

Just a reminder that there are only 12 days left to enter the New Museum MakerBot challenge!

Ever wished you had a device or object that doesn’t really exist? Ever used something like a bottle opener or door handle and thought you can make it better? Now is your chance, you can win a Thing-O-Matic and be featured in the New Museum Store! Now is your chance to show off your skills as a designer!

Have a look at some of the best submissions, and then get to work — only 12 days left!

Klein Bottle from simple primitives by MakeALot

First, I need to preface this by saying I can’t believe I overlooked coasterman’s low-polygon count Klein Bottle posted about a year ago.  Although created in Sketchup, this design is about as low-poly as you can get.  Now!  On to the imaginary awards show!

• First to upload that wasn’t me:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives for uploading his designs within about 3 hours of the challenge being posted.
• Fewest lines of code:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives with just 33 lines of code.
• Fewest facets:  Low poly (but still) klein bottle by aubenc with just 40 faces!
• Most resembling a traditional Klein Bottle:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives for his very curvaceous OpenSCAD designs.

Building on the work of these fine designers, can you design a Klein Bottle in OpenSCAD that uses fewer lines of code, has fewer faces, or is even more traditional looking?

Klein Bottle from simple primitives by MakeALot

A more traditional looking Klein bottle made from torus halves and tubes.

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Low poly (but still) klein bottle by aubenc

Quick, easy and dirty OpenSCAD to make a low poly klein bottle. Ehem... Quick? Not as much as I thought (1h-1h30) Easy? Easy would have been using cylinders $fn=3 instead of polyhedrons! Dirty? Yes! It looks like a parametric thing but it's NOT! Low Poly? Neither, OpenScad reports 40 faces but there's some misalignment that's adding 4 more than needed.

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OpenSCAD Klein Bottle by MakerBlock

Yes, I realize I declared this challenge and am entering it myself. ( makerbot.com/blog/2011/10/11/openscad-challenge-klein-bottle/ ) I didn't start designing this until well after I had already posted it. Since there are no real prizes, I figure you'll forgive me claiming the "first to upload", "fewest number of facets" and "most resembles either Kelsorj’s Klein Bottle ( thingiverse.com/thing:5217 ) or RotoScan’s Klein Bottle ( thingiverse.com/thing:11976 )" The bottle could be rendered with even fewer facets by just reducing the number of faces on the cylinders in the OpenSCAD file. Also, I hereby claim 9000 internet points! Mu-ah-ha-ha! Also, a shout-out to CloudSCAD is in order for letting me draft this up from my browser.

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Above is just a quick screenshot of some of the latest robot mascots to roll in to the GrabCAD challenge. With over 75 entries so far — and enough correspondence suggesting another thirty or so robots soon to debut — the competition is no longer just heating up, it is passing through a state change.

If you are still putting the final touches on your entry, make sure to check the entry deadline time and requirements carefully. With this many incredible entries, there is no chance GrabCAD will be extending the deadline. And it would be a terrible tragedy for this entry window to close with your (robotic) baby tapping its fore-limb against the porthole of the GrabCAD MakerBot Challenge airship.

Printing plates for Mr. Maker by ErikJDurwoodII

Yesterday I spent some time organizing the parts in the MakerBot mascot entry “Mr. Maker” by ErikJDurwoodII into printing plates.  Afterward, Erik asked how I did this.  While I had posted some tips on creating printing plates earlier, I didn’t really give a decent step-by-step guide.  I like using OpenSCAD to orient the parts, but I’m sure there are other ways.  Here’s my process:

1. Orient.  Make sure all STL parts are centered and flat on the build surface.
1. The easiest way to ensure this is to open the STL in ReplicatorG, click “Move” in the bottom right corner, then “Center” in the right panel.  Matt demonstrates how to do this in MakerBot TV episode one @ 2:56.
2. Sort.  Sort all STL’s by the number of times each part needs to be printed.  I like to put them into folders labeled “1″, “2″, “3″, etc.
3. Make a Plate.  I use a simple OpenSCAD command to create a transparent representation of the build area.  I like to use an 80×80 mm square so that I can be sure everything is going to fit.  Here’s the command I used:
1. % cube([80,80,0.01],true);
4. Practice Moving/Spinning.  Using just the OpenSCAD translate and rotate commands, you’ll be able to move, spin, and place any part.
5. Plan for Multiples.  Looking at all of the parts that need to printed multiple times, see if you can place them together so that printing a single plate more than once will give you the proper number of parts.
6. Biggest Parts.  The largest parts that can’t be included with other large parts will essentially determine the number of printing plates you need.  Place each large part onto it’s own plate.
7. Medium Parts.  Once you have a general idea of the number of plates you need, as determined by the biggest pieces that can’t be combined with other parts, try to fit the medium pieces in and around other parts.  If you can’t fit them around the large pieces, you’ll need to create a plate of medium parts.
8. Small Parts.  The smallest parts can be sprinkled in and around all the large and medium parts.
9. Pro Tips:
1. If you have a part that needs to be printed an odd number of times, consider putting a single occurrence of this same part into a plate that needs to be printed only once.
2. Sometimes it helps to have extra parts, so printing an even number of a piece that you need an odd number of isn’t actually very wasteful.
3. Consider mirror-flipping a part if it won’t fit.  Some parts won’t fit onto a plate unless they’re flipped, but are just as functional either way.
4. Consider printing small parts multiple times if you can fit an extra instance onto a plate.  Small parts can rip off the build platform, get deformed, break, or get lost.  Printing an extra small part along with larger parts doesn’t add that much time or plastic and will probably save you a lot more time down the road.
5. Save yourself some heartache and make sure you use a Stepper based extruder that will allow you print without a mess of strings between all the parts.
6. Always include the individual STL’s for parts even if you’re uploading printing plates.  Sometimes people just need to print or reprint one little piece and it can be a real pain to carve one out of a printing plate.
10. Rock Star Tips:
1. Some parts such as complex gears or external pieces can better benefit from high resolution, slower printing, or different infill ratios than other simple or internal pieces.  Consider organizing the parts so that certain pieces that need similar resolution/speed/infill ratios are printed together.  Thanks to Bobbens for including this tip in his Mini servo gripper plate.
2. How about creating the entire GCode setup for printing everything using an Automated Build Platform?
3. If you’ve got a MK7 Dual Extruder setup with soluble support material, you could stack parts on top of one another.  This means you could turn a multipart print into one single long print task, print everything as one big chunk of plastic, drop the result in water, let the PVA dissolve, and pull out all of your parts.

Do you use production or printing plates?  What program do you use to make them?  What additional tips do you have?

Showcasing the endless possibilities of the Thing-O-Matic, the New Museum MakerBot Challenge is open to the entire creative community. Embodying the New Museum’s mission of “New Art, New Ideas,” this interactive and experiential Challenge aims to push the concept of the “derivative,” by improving on or personalizing established design conventions. From the banal toothbrush to complex bicycle gears, how can 3D printing help to develop the world around us?

Prizes

The winning design will be printed on a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic on display in the New Museum’s window. The winning designer will receive a New Museum Deluxe membership ($400 value), a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic® Kit ($1299 value), and a special invitation to the New Museum MakerBot Challenge launch party.

Five runner-ups will have their designs printed by MakerBot and sent to them.

How to enter

- If you are not already registered, sign up for an account at Thingiverse.com

- Upload your 3D files, and tag them with NewMuseumChallenge by October 31st, 2011

- In the description, write a statement about your design. What is the design a derivative of? How does it improve on or challenge existing design conventions?

Rules

- Designs may be one single part or multiple parts that are each smaller than 4 x 4 x 4 ¾ in (100 x 100 x 120 mm) and printable on a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic.

- Different parts can be made in white, yellow, orange, red, UV reactive red, UV reactive nuclear green, camping green, blue, black, and glow-in-the-dark.

- The design may require multiple builds, however no more than three builds are allowed.

- Designs may include other parts like screws or LEDs but keep in mind the jurors will be looking for designs that utilize 3D printing’s ability to empower everyone to download, print and use the design.

Who’s in the jury?

A team from both MakerBot and the New Museum will select the final designs. The jurors are looking for designs that utilize the unique ability of 3D printing to personalize and improve on the world around us.

And last, here are a few existing Thingiverse items that we think belong in this challenge:

Earbud holder by arkatipe

I made this specifically because my brother wanted something that wasn't easily molded with an injection molding machine. The undercuts on the bollards and the jack port should make it impossible, if not unrealistically expensive to make that way. The picture is pretty self explanatory. Put earbuds in, wind and then push the jack end into the hole provided. EDIT: This only seems to work with the new iPod / iphone earbuds with the volume control buttons on the cord. Thanks to all those who tried with other earbuds.

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Soap Dish by TrevorLaw

The instructions for this soap dish are embedded into the part itself.

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Reddit Upvote/Downvote Button Enclosure by TheNewHobbyist

These are the files for the Reddit Upvote/Downvote Button Enclosure I built to fit a project I was working on. This is just barely big enough to fit a Teensy development board and a couple of buttons. I've included the code and better instructions on the project itself on my blog here: thenewhobbyist.com/2011/07/am-i-doing-this-right-reddit-upvote-button/ I've also included in the images for this thing my wiring diagram if you'd like to take a shot at making your own. Being able to print a project box to my exact dimensions was as expected, awesome. Here's a video of it in action:youtube.com/watch?v=yNkKHRwk3MA&feature=player_embedded New Museum Challenge Notes: The ability to 3D model and print the enclosure and buttons for this project allowed me to make design decisions that would not have been possible using conventional methods. The arrow buttons for example, are not available through any distributor I could find commercially. Additionally the enclosure itself is the exact size (down to the millimeter) to fit my electronics. I believe the conventional idea of using off the shelf parts and fitting your designs into them is coming to an end. The ability to translate my vision for this project to a physical object would not be possible without access to a 3D printer.

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Bar Hairclip - NyanCat and Slim by Bioluminescence

Iterating on the previous 'plain' hairclip (see comparison image), this new SLIM version disposes of the need of a 3rd spring, and trims down the size significantly without reducing strength or function. I personally find this version to be even more secure to wear, but feedback on how it fits on other people's hair would be very welcome indeed! This particular rainbow version, I printed using a welded-together string of several colo(u)rs of ABS - coming to a total of 79cm (31") of 3mm filament. The Nyan-Cat add-on, can be printed separately, painted, and glued on with hot glue. Nyancat YouTube video: youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4

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MEG-i-PHONE!!!!!!! by zgbot

i modified the original by making the cone snap in and out as well as chopping off the hard corners. print it with exterior support this is still a work in progress, it works but i can make it better the large cone i printed failed half way through so i glued it to another cone i had to make a super mega phone cone. the straight one with the small cone is pretty damn loud i drilled out the hole so its not the correct size for slip in fit. this is a video of the sound differenceflickr.com/photos/zgbot/5516445973/

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Northrop Grumman RQ-4 UAV Drone - (the coolest drone photo I could find!)

Using a 3D printing technique for nylon laser sintering engineers at the University of Southampton designed, printed, and flew a printed unmanned aerial vehicle¹²

No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using ‘snap fit’ techniques so that the entire aircraft can be put together without tools in minutes.  The electric-powered aircraft, with a 2-metres wingspan, has a top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour, but when in cruise mode is almost silent.

With no need for special tools, tooling skills, equipment and no extra expense or time “penalty” for complex structures, they were able to produce wing structures that would have been extremely expensive and difficult to manufacture in any other way.  This is a truly amazing demonstration of the versatility of 3D printing and snap-fit designs.

Via Slashdot

1. Think drone airplane. [↩]
2. Photo courtesy of gordontour [↩]