MakerBot tipped off some of its loyal fans last week by way of newsletter, but now the Digitzer’s arrival is officially officially. The next piece of the Brooklyn company’s ever-expanding 3D printing ecosystem has been revealed piece by piece since debuting back at SXSW, and now it’s finally ready to make its way to maker hands. Well, in a few months, at least. Pre-orders for the spinning 3D scanner are open now — plunk down $1,400 (plus $150 for the MakerCare support program, if you’re so inclined), and one of these bad boys can be yours in mid-October. The device captures 3D images from objects up to eight-inches tall with help from two lasers and a camera, a system the company has, naturally, optimized for its own Replicator printers and Thingiverse 3D object catalog. There’s a press release below for those seeking more info.
The folks at MakerBot have been teasing their Digitizer desktop 3D scanner since this past March, but now they’re just about ready push it out the door. For $1,400, you too can scan all the little knick-knacks in your life and turn them into 3D schematics to print or share with others.
In case you haven’t been keeping tabs on the Digitizer, here’s how the thing works: you place an object on its central turntable and fire up the device, at which point a pair of lasers (for greater accuracy, naturally) will scan the object’s surface geometry and turn that cloud of data points into a 3D model. MakerBot says the whole process takes about 12 minutes, after which you’re able to push the file to a 3D printer of your choosing and have a grand ol’ time.
There are, of course, some limitations to be aware of. The turntable can only support objects that are 3kg (or about 6.5lbs) or lighter, and you should ideally use the thing a very well-lit room. And while the Digitizer promises to be fast and easy, at $1,400 it’s not exactly impulse buy material.
When we visited MakerBot’s new 50,000 square foot factory in Brooklyn, CEO Bre Pettis referred to the Digitizer as a “game changer” for the 3D printing movement and it’s not hard to see why. For the past two years now, MakerBot’s efforts have largely been about making the process of 3D printing as accessible as possible. With a little bit of tinkering (and some patience for the occasional screw-up), 3D printing novices can get a feel for turning the contents of pre-produced files into actual physical objects.
It’s the other half of that equation that’s so tricky — if you wanted things to print you either had to trawl Thingiverse in hopes that someone had already modeled the thing, or figure out a way to model it on your own. To put it mildly, that’s a fair bit of work. With the advent of scanners like the Digitizer though, the barrier to creating those 3D blueprints and disseminating them to the world is almost nil… as long as you can afford it.
Of course, MakerBot isn’t the only company making it easier to turn physical objects into printable data — hackers and startups have harnessed Microsoft’s venerable Kinect to do just that, there’s a sea of crowdfundedhardware projects that aim to put their own spin on the experience. Still, MakerBot is easily one of the best known proponents of the 3D printing movement, and a device like Digitizer may just be what the movement needs to make 3D printing a fixture of the mainstream.
Toward the end of June, 3D printing companies Stratasys and MakerBot confirmed what TechCrunch had already uncovered, the former would be acquiring the latter for $403 million (or 4.7 million shares) in exchange for 100 percent of MakerBot’s outstanding capital stock.
Stratasys has long been a dominant force in 3D printing, long before we were buying 3D printers for our homes. The company specializes in factory-level printing and prototype printing for designers and manufacturers.
But as is made crystal clear with the entry of companies like MakerBot, FormLabs, and other consumer-facing 3D printing companies, there is most certainly a demand for at-home 3D printing.
MakerBot was one of the first companies to offer an affordable 3D printer for your home, selling more than 22,000 MakerBots since 2009. That said, the merger truly signifies one of the first time a 3D printing firm will be offering both enterprise and consumer-facing products simultaneously.
“We are excited for the future,” said MakerBot founder Bre Pettus in the press release. “Full steam ahead!”
On the one hand, Stratasys is obviously aggressively entering the consumer space, but this acquisition is also a huge resource to MakerBot. Since 2009, the company was working in its own factory in Brooklyn off of $10 million in venture funding.
Having Stratasys’ 25+ years of experience and resources will surely accelerate innovation and growth at MakerBot.
Just a couple of months after Stratasys announced it would be acquiring 3D printing firm MakerBot, their marriage is now officially complete. Following the terms of the merger, the Israeli 3D printer and manufacturer will exchange up to 4.7 million of its shares for 100 percent of MakerBot’s outstanding capital stock. Stratasys is widely known for factory-level printing and prototyping for designers and engineers, while MakerBot signifies its entry into the consumer space. Indeed, MakerBot is almost synonymous with the desktop 3D printing movement, having sold more than 22,000 3D printers since 2009. MakerBot founder and CEO Bre Pettis said in a statement that they’re “excited for the future” and ended with a declaration of “full speed ahead!” Let’s hope this “speed” refers to future iterations that will print out that miniature dalek in minutes rather than hours.
With UPS’ incoming 3D printing service and the growing availability of consumer-ready kits, printing objects is easier than ever, assuming you actually have something ready to print. If not, don’t fret –MakerBot is on the case, announcing today that its upcoming Digitizer will be available for sale next week. The company hasn’t yet put a price on 3D scanning, but the device (seen above) is quite a bit cleaner than the prototype MakerBot trotted out at South by Southwest. “It’s the easiest, fastest way for anyone to create 3D models,” boasts the product’s announcement email (seen after the break). “We optimized the whole process to work perfectly with MakerBot’s Replicator Desktop 3D printers.”
Scanned objects can be resized, edited and uploaded to Thingiverse, and will be saved as a standard 3D design file compatible with third-party modeling programs. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some crew members to replicate.
Microsoft has to remain relevant to hardware hackers. While they are necessary – no one can dispute the strength of Windows in the business world – they have, for the past decade, fallen slowly in esteem in the eyes of designers, makers, and artists. That’s why their recent partnership with Makerbot makes perfect sense.
Love them or hate them (and I know few people who hate them), Makerbot owns most of the mindshare when it comes to popular home 3D printing. While there may be superior or cheaper solutions out there, the Replicator is the “Kleenex” of 3D printing. They are a recognizable brand and they are probably the first see you find when searching for home printers.
Because 3D printing itself is still in its infancy, Microsoft clearly sees a way to grab the CAD/CAM community early by partnering with the current incumbent. While designers tend to use Macs, most CAD/CAM and engineering software is only available for Windows. Thus there is a ready-made audience for these printers in the hard sciences and, more importantly, an opportunity for Microsoft to grab that market share while maintaining an air of technical advancement.
“Shapes and basic CAD projects are easy to design for simple 3D printers,” said Lou Bojarski, a mechanical engineer who has been building robots using CNC machines and 3D printers for years. He sees Microsoft’s move as a way for amateurs and talented designers to begin creating 3D objects.
3D printing has long been the domain of hobbyists and open source zealots. That’s about to change. With the right partnerships, I think Microsoft can grab a piece of that pie and, even if it’s a small slice, that still makes the platform relevant for thousands of hardware hackers around the world.
The charms of the patent office archives—and the hilariously insane inventions they contain—are well-known. But is it possible that a few of those failed entrepreneurs were actually onto something? New York lawyer Martin Galese thinks so—and he’s resurrecting the ghosts of patents past by offering 3D models of them online.
At some point, the world of 3D printing had to fold back onto itself, leaving us all slack-jawed and wondering when 3D printers will start printing things for printers themselves? That moment is now.
When you ask a bunch of 3D printing nerds to design a better birdhouse, you can expect some wild and wacky offering—but this thing is perhaps the ultimate avian abode.
Like The Longines Symphonette before it, Thingiverse’s army of 3D printing enthusiasts don’t rest, so when MakerBot put them to the task of building a better home for wayward birds, they naturally jumped into action. Not to put too fine a point on it, but while we’re still a ways from indoor plumbing and the like, the American Craftsman Bungalow is surely the sort of thing any upwardly mobile winged friend would want to call home. The first place winner gets (fittingly) an Eggbot, some PLA filament, display space at the MakerBot NY store and the admiration of birds everywhere. And if Hitchcock has taught us anything, it’s that you want those buggers on your side. You can download the schematics for all of the winners in the source link below, complete with the standard whistles and bells.
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