3D Printing News

A roundup of the top 3D printing news from August 19 to August 25:

Tuesday, August 20

• Win a Solidoodle 3D Printer at 100% Design Competition in the UK
• 3D Systems Acquires UK-Based Rapid Prototyping Firm CRDM

Wednesday, August 21

• 3D Printing LIVE Tradeshow Announced for Santa Clara in November

Thursday, August 22

• MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner Goes On Sale for $1400, Video from Bre

Friday, August 23

• Give Your Dog Some 3D Printed Magic: Silver Dog Bone Tags

Sunday, August 25

• College Kids Design Desktop 3D Printer to Be Crowdfunded and Sold For Under $500

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.

3D Printing News

A roundup of the top 3D printing news from August 12 to August 18:

Tuesday, August 13

• Artist Joshua Harker Designs Unique Cover for Fuel3D 3D Scanner

Wednesday, August 14

• MakerBot Announces Availability of Desktop 3D Scanner MakerBot Digitizer

Thursday, August 15

• Attend Inside 3D Printing Conference in San Jose – 15% Discount

Friday, August 16

• Stratasys and MakerBot Complete Merger

Saturday, August 17

• Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular 3D Printing Stories in July 2013

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.

MakerBot Store in NYC Drives 3D Printer Sales

This past week at the Inside 3D Printing conference, the On 3D Printing team was invited to a special event at the MakerBot Store in NYC, along with other industry press.

We asked MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis what’s the next big thing he’s working on? He answered immediately, “3D scanners.” MakerBot announced its Digitizer product at SXSW and has a booth where you can digitize your own head. We gave it a try and our 3D printed profile is on order. See the photo below of one of the visitors scanning his head in the booth.

MakerBot’s motivation to open the store is to give potential customers a chance to see 3D printing in action. Does it increase sales of printers? “Absolutely,” one of the MakerBot employees told us. There is a certain magic to seeing a 3D printed robot or digitized head. You can immediately imagine what you might 3D print yourself.

We met some great entrepreneurs at the event as well, including the founder of Square Helper who prints his products on MakerBot 3D printers.

Below is a photo gallery from our visit.