We told you about our latest firmware release for The Replicator, but there’s nothing sweeter than getting good tips from a fellow user. Andrew Mazzotta has been sharing his growing MakerBot expertise with the world through a series of videos on YouTube (andrewupandabout). In the one above, he demonstrates a great process for updating to Firmware 5.5, and talks about the advantages of using the acceleration feature.

Thanks for the continued great work, Andrew!

This weekend, while Keith, Nick, Sasha, and Andrew will be on the West Coast at San Diego Comic-Con at the Toy Tokyo booth collaborating with art toy superstar Ron English, Glenn, a gaggle of MakerBot web, software and R&D staffers and I will be making the far shorter pilgrimage over the bridge into Manhattan to spend time in the company of another breed of superstar — the hacker superstars at HOPE Number 9 at the Hotel Pennsylvania!

H.O.P.E. stands for Hackers On Planet Earth (and also “HOtel PEnnsylvania,” the venue for the event) and does beg the question — are there hackers for whom this designation does not apply? (Check through the schedule to see if there is a talk on this topic: are astronauts/cosmonauts the first Hackers Off the Planet Earth?)

HOPE Biennial Conference

For those of you who have never heard of or attended 2600: The Hacker Quarterly‘s biennial conference before, you should take note: not only is this the premier east coast conference dedicated to an impossibly diverse and interesting list of talks budding off the core topics of security, privacy, computers/technology, Internet/broadcast/transmissions, associated legal/policy implications, open source development, and hackers/hacking, this series is constantly pre-saging its own imminent demise – and this might be the very last year! (Just like they said the last two times. No, really this time!)

This year’s keynote speakers William Binney and The Yes Men are unlikely to disappoint, but also take the time to sift through the entire list to learn more about what this conference has on offer. We are hoping that MakerBot’s own Rob Vincent (Rob T Firefly), part of HOPE’s organizing team, will sneak us tips about the best talks and events to attend at this rambunctious, infectious, 24-hour programming hacker conference extraordinaire. Generally the rule of thumb is that if you manage to score a badge and make your way to the event, you are bound to stumble on activities, concerts, talks and people who you will find interesting.

MakerBot @ HOPE Number 9

MakerBot has secured two-tables-worth of vendorspace at the venue where I will be setting up two BotStands featuring our latest MakerBot Replicators, 3D-printed parts, Thingiverse.com, MakerBotTV videos, and a Thingiverse data visualization that Thingiverse participants will tremendously enjoy.

The BotStands are also display cases — so anyone in the MakerBot / Thingiverse community is invited to bring over their 3D printed work to display proudly at our booth (bring a Thingitag or similar label so we can brag about who created what).

There is also a rumor that I can neither confirm nor deny that one of the tables will devolve into a Seej tournament partway through the conference. This likely depends upon whether anyone in the community can come even close to competing with the MakerBot Seej Masters.

But wait, there’s more!

Check out what the MakerBot’s software team will be up to at the conference!

• Friday 10AM @ Dennis: “Community Fabrication: Four Years Later” – talk by MakerBot’s Far McKon, a follow-up to the one he gave 2 HOPEs ago before joining MakerBot
• Saturday 4pm-6pm @ MakerBot Booth: “How to Get Hacking on ReplicatorG” – tech demo lead by MakerBot’s software team
• Sunday 10am-11am @ MakerBot Booth: “How to Get Hacking on MakerBot Community Software Early on Sunday Morning” – tech demo lead by MakerBot’s software team

A Special Note

And if someone asks to borrow your cellphone or laptop “to check something” … well … you might be about to learn a very valuable lesson in computer security practice, if not policy and assumptions made about said policies at network/computer security conferences. Don’t say I didn’t warn you: pranks are an inevitable if unofficial part of the entertainment on offer.

When members of the MakerBot Software team are running late, they don’t just send in a one-off email. Department director Far, who calls himself the Nerd Herder, established a tradition of poetry for these messages. For example, this:

A Tricolon Crescens about Traffic:
Traffic, I cant stand it,
Traffic, I hate it,
Traffic, I hope it dies in its iniquity.
- David

The team has a special affection for haiku:

incorrigible recidivist
mornings are hard for some
can haz work late
-Far

And a stream of replies:

Far is a genius
inventing poetry styles
I can haz lolku
- Joseph

seriously guys,
we are going overboard
with all these haiku.
- Ted

But we can’t stop now!
These haiku improve my day.
Keep on keeping on.
- Ben

When Far’s head was too achy for a poem, one was written on his behalf:

No haiku from Far
I will author one for him
Far will be in late
- Matthew

Prose not withstanding,
The assistance is appreciated,
With my kopfschmertz fading,
Pro Se my poem is created
- Far

Oh…pranks.

A couple of the guys in Software thought it would be fun to mess with our CTO, Adam Mayer. Far, our head of software, first thought to model up a fake keyboard and replace the one on Adam’s desk. Joe suggested a mouse instead, MakerBotted in black ABS.

That cord is just a string of black ABS. The joke really threw Adam for a minute, who finally flipped the mouse over to see what the problem was. Of course he realized immediately what had happened, and just so everyone could share in the fun, there was a smiley face staring back at him.

Kudos to Todd for designing this thing, and I’m further impressed that Far and the others were able to wait patiently until the next morning to watch this unfold.

So now you know what MakerBot software guys do for fun.

UPDATE! The mouse model by Zenix is now up on Thingiverse. Go get it and mess with your favorite/least favorite coworker today.

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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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We constantly get great ideas for additions or improvements to ReplicatorG from our users. They range from the fantastic to the fantastical. Almost always it’s hard to tell someone: “No, sorry, we can’t work on that right now.” Since our hardware and software are Open Source, it’s possible for people to add their own features to it, but it’s not always practical.

I’m sure many of our readers know that what Open Source is, but I want to take this paragraph to explain as a refresher. While there is some lawyering as to the exact definition of Open Source, the general idea of Open Source is: Users get the design docs as well as the product, so they can understand and modify what they use. For MakerBot that means our hardware designs as well as our Source Code are available on the web for our users (and anyone else) to inspect, mutate, or just ponder. A great example of how open source super-charges innovation is some of the great work Rob Giseburt has done to tweak his own setup, and support the MakerBot community. Because we open our designs to the community, Rob has been able to create nifty hardware add-ons as well as some great software updates.

We’d like to make this kind of innovation easier for MakerBot users, to help them expand, tweak, and improve their own setup. To that end, we are hosting a “Tinkering on ReplicatorG” class for the New York MakerBot User Group and other makers. It will be an introduction to updating and changing ReplicatorG. The class will be on December 8th, from 6:30 to 8:30PM, at the MakerBot Workshop (314 Dean St in Brooklyn). Hosted by MakerBot’s own Software and Support folks, it will be an hour of setup, tutorial, and discussion, followed by an hour of DIY workshopping. We will have experienced ‘botters on hand to answer questions, help out, and give suggestions.

If you every said “Geez, it would be really cool if this window did X” or “Wow, if only I could make the program also Y” this is your chance for some hands-on help doing that. All you need to bring is a laptop that has a USB port and runs Windows, Mac, or Linux. Well, that and some curiosity and creativity!

The Skinny:
Tinkering on ReplicatorG Class
Dec 8th, from 6:30PM to 8:30PM
@ The MakerBot Workshop
314 Dean Street (between 3rd & 4th Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Autodesk, the developer of Maya and 3DS Max, is helping out the 99% with their improved Assistance Program.

The program has always been available to students and educators, but they’ve expanded it to include veterans, and unemployed architects, engineers and designers.

Awesome, Autodesk!

This guest post is part of Project Shellter.

Tip o’ the hat to Blake at CG General Store!

Those of you who got a chance to stop by Maker Faire this weekend (or read our earlier blog post) are probably wondering when you too can experiment with dual extrusion heads. The answer is: now! We’ve integrated tools into ReplicatorG that simplify the process of creating a two-material print. They’re not in the released version of ReplicatorG yet, but they are available in a git branch for experimenters who want to get a jump start on the future. And who doesn’t want to get a jump start on the future? Details for the bold below!

Read the rest of this entry »

With projects like the MakerBot Zoetrope animation appearing at the Detroit Maker Faire and a few 3D artists jumping feet first into the world of modeling for 3D printing, the 3D graphics and animation world now recognizes the value to a digital artist offered by a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic on a designer’s desk.

Check out this great article in the latest issue of 3D Artist Magazine from the UK, introducing MakerBot and Thingiverse to their community. (And we encourage you to check out other great 3D modeling, painting, lighting, and rigging articles in the rest of the magazine!) MakerBot looks forward to more cross-pollination between DIY fabbers and those who have until now have worked exclusively in the digital realm.

Welcome to the physical world, friends! We can’t wait to print out your Yodas and Octopi and anything else you dream up to share with us on Thingiverse!

Edit: Please note, the group photograph in the bottom left of the page above was taken by Richard Allen and appears in our blog with his kind permission. David Neff, our general manager who is also a professional photographer, is responsible for the other MakerBot-related images.  We apologize for the confusion.