Motorola Mobility, a Google company, is building a 3D printed modular phone, and has partnered with 3D Systems for commercial fulfillment. More »
The Captured Dimensions pop-up studio was located in the Smithsonian Castle and featured approximately 80 digital cameras all connected to 3D software. More »
Microsoft expanded their support for 3D printing by launching a Windows 8 app called 3D Builder. It includes a library of objects you can edit and 3D print. More »
3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced the availability of the Sense 3D scanner, the first 3D scanner designed for the consumer and optimized for 3D printing. More »
With rumors circling that 3D Systems will be purchased by IBM, the stock soars. We look at why IBM might be interested in the 3D printing giant. More »
Search Results for: 3d printer
MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner Goes On Sale for $1400, Video from Bre
MakerBot’s Desktop 3D Scanner Now Available for Sale
MakerBot, the New York-based desktop 3D printer startup that was recently acquired by Stratasys for $403 million, now officially has a new product line: desktop 3D scanners.
Their first product is called the MakerBot Digitizer, and is now available for sale. The price tag: $1400, plus an optional $150 for a MakerCare Service Plan. We covered the features of the 3D scanner last week, and here are more details.
“It’s a powerful and elegant tool for turning physical objects into digital designs,” said MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis.”You put something on the turntable, and it turns. Lasers shoot at it,” Pettis explained. “It’s a powerful tool that’s going to give you a whole new way of looking at things.”
Benefits of the MakerBot Digitizer
Professionals can create 3D models without having to start from scratch. Home users can explore the frontier of 3D scanning and then print them on a 3D printer or share on Thingiverse.
You can order the MakerBot Digitizer here.
Here’s a video from CEO Bre Pettis announcing the MakerBot Digitizer.
MakerCare Service Plan
In addition to purchasing the 3D scanner, MakerBot is offering a service option, called the MakerCare Service Plan for $150. MakerCare is designed to make your MakerBot Digitizer ownership experience as smooth as possible. The plan lasts a full year from the order ship date of your MakerBot Digitizer. If anything goes wrong with your MakerBot Digitizer during that time, you can contact the MakerBot Support team to identify the source of the trouble. The Support team will provide any replacement parts necessary, or arrange for you to ship your MakerBot Digitizer back to the company for repair.
Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular 3D Printing Stories in July 2013
Here are the top 10 most popular stories On 3D Printing brought you in July 2013.
10. Poppy Kickstarter Closes in on $150,000 to Turn Your iPhone into a 3D Camera
9. NASA Tests 3D Printed Rocket Engine Injector
8. Shapeways Introduces Gold Plated Brass to 3D Printing
7. Inside 3D Printing Chicago Conference – A Full Retrospective
6. Study Shows 3D Printing Emits Ultrafine Particles; What This Actually Means
5. Student Creates LEGObot 3D Printer Made Entirely of LEGOs
4. MIT’s OpenFab Could Revolutionize 3D Printing Design Process
3. 3D Printing Iron: ExOne Announces New Metals for 3D Printing
2. IndieGoGo Campaign The Touch-Up Promises to Smooth 3D Printing
1. Arcology Now! Launches Competition for Large-Scale 3D Printed Habitats
Thanks for reading in July!
Attend Inside 3D Printing Conference in San Jose – 15% Discount
Attend Inside 3D Printing San Jose – 15% Discount
The Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo will continue its world tour in San Jose, California on September 17-18. With a new city, speakers, and exhibitors, this event is one that shouldn’t be missed by those interested in the business and applications of 3D printing.
The event’s proximity to Silicon Valley makes it an ideal place to hold the event, attracting leaders in the valley’s startup community. We’ve partnered with the event to again bring you a 15% discount: ON3D.
Carl Bass, President & CEO of Autodesk, Avi Reichental, President & CEO of 3D Systems, and S. Scott Crump, Founder of Stratasys, will deliver the conference’s three keynote addresses.
Crump will also participate in the session, 3D Printing Pioneers, which will bring together Carl Deckard, Polymer Scientist, Structured Polymers, and Chuck Hull, Co-Founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, 3D Systems. The three creators of FDM, SLS, and SLA will discuss their early technical and commercial challenges, and what it took to become successful.
Additional sessions include The 10 Principles of 3D Printing, Leveraging 3D Printing Through Innovative Design for Space Exploration, The Promise of Distributed Manufacturing, The Financial Landscape, and Local Connectivity & 3D Printing: How It Got Here and Where It Will Take Us. View the full program.
New exhibitors including Artec Group, Made in Space, Fathom, GoEngineer, will join the conference’s expo hall with the likes of Stratasys and 3D Systems. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the latest 3D printers and services and watch them in action.
PERK: Enter our discount code: ON3D for 15% off your full conference pass. For the best rates, register before August 21.
MakerBot Announces Availability of Desktop 3D Scanner MakerBot Digitizer
MakerBot Seeks Real-World Copy and Paste with Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner
3D scanners seem to be all the rage this month. First, not one but two 3D scanner Kickstarter campaigns were launched, and now desktop 3D printer company MakerBot, recently acquired by Stratasys for $403 million, has announced it will start selling its Digitizer desktop 3D scanner next week.
We first covered the MakerBot Digitizer in March when CEO Bre Pettis kicked off South by Southwest (SXSW) with a big announcement that his company was developing real-world copy and paste.
In April, we visited the MakerBot store in New York and asked Pettis what’s the next big thing he’s working on? He answered immediately, “3D scanners.”
In June, MakerBot was acquired by 3D printing giant Stratasys for $403 million. Well, Pettis isn’t letting the innovation stop just because he has cashed out.
Next week, the MakerBot Digitizer goes on sale. Here are some of the key features:
- Simple, yet sophisticated software creates clean, watertight 3D models with just two clicks.
- Get a 3D digital design file in just minutes.
- No design skills, 3D modeling or CAD expertise required to get started.
- Outputs standard 3D design file formats that can be modified and improved in third-party 3D modeling programs, like Autodesk’s free software MeshMixer.
- Easily upload your unique scans directly to Thingiverse.com.
Stay tuned for more news about the Digitizer or visit MakerBot’s store for more details.
3D Scanning for 3D Printing: How Kickstarter is Changing the Game
3D Scanning Makes 3D Printing Possible
Last week, two 3D scanning projects were launched on Kickstarter, looking to raise crowdfunding.
- Fuel3D, which bills itself as “a handheld 3D scanner for less than $1000″ rocketed past its target of $75,000 and is now over $200,000 raised with 23 days to go.
- Volumental’s 3D Scan-to-Print Web App, on the other hand, is still short of its $20,000 goal (they’ve raised about $12,000 so far).
Let’s take a deeper look.
First, why is 3D scanning important?
While the popularity around 3D printing continues to rise, sourcing good designs to print remains a challenge. Sure, you can buy a MakerBot 3D printer and download some 3D designs from Thingiverse, but what if you wanted to capture something in your home or office? That’s where 3D scanning technology comes in.
New entrants to 3D scanning
On the high end, there is expensive software and equipment used by professionals. Fuel3D is directly competing in this area of the market with a much more affordable solution.
Hardware innovation blog HackThings wrote, “Fuel3D is a handheld 3D scanner that’s capable of capturing extremely high resolution mesh (250 microns) and color information of objects in 3D, for around $1000. According to the creators, that’s an order of magnitude less than today’s commercial solutions of comparable resolution.”
On the low end, there is free software such as Autodesk 123D Catch. And MakerBot has announced plans for real-world copy and paste technology. This is the area that Volumental is competing. The web-based software connects to a depth camera, like a Kinect, and builds a model on the fly.
HackThings wrote about this solution, “It works as a combination of inexpensive sensor hardware and sophisticated cloud-based software. Log in to their web service, plug in a $300 depth sensor via USB, walk around the object you want to scan, wait for processing and then click “print” to get a clone either via an online printing service or on your own 3D printer.”
Kickstarter campaigns comparison
It might seem surprising that the higher priced solution has raised more money to date on Kickstarter, but this side-by-side comparison gives us some insight into the mentality of crowdfunding. Supporters don’t want to fund things that are perceived to be free; instead, they want to pledge to campaigns that are changing the market. Fuel3D is reducing the cost of high end 3D scanners by an order of magnitude, while Volumental is competing with free.
If you want to back either campaign, or both, here are videos and links to each project.
Fuel3D: A handheld 3D scanner for less than $1000
The 3D Scan-to-Print Web App by Volumental
