Items tagged with MakerBot
A class action lawsuit filed against Makerbot and its parent firm Stratasys alleges a "fraudulent scheme" to knowingly ship shoddy 3D printers. According to the lawsuit, Makerbot and its employees were aware that the company's 5th generation Replicator 3D printer was full of problems, but went ahead and shipped them anyway in order to maintain an artificially inflated stock price. As the allegation goes, the scheme backfired, resulting in a deluge of customer complaints, product returns, and warranty service. Sales then plummeted, and the company's stock price followed suit, leaving both investors and owners of the 5th generation Replicator in a bad place. "In pursuit of an aggressive...
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Readers of HotHardware are no doubt aware of the impact that 3D printers are having on the world, as well as the fact that they're rapidly growing in popularity. The layman might not understand this, though, so when a big chain store decides to bring some units into select locations, and start selling them online, it's a pretty big deal. MakerBot's Replicator Desktop 3D Printer The focus of the latest deal is Home Depot, which has begun selling MakerBot's Replicator online, along with a number of accessories. In addition, 12 stores located in California, Illionois, and New York, will soon be seeing a kiosk like the one below: The purpose of this kiosk isn't to allow people the ability to...
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MakerBot announced a new line of 3D printers at CES that run the gamut from smallish and more affordable to large (and less affordable, for the average Joe). The latter is now shipping, and MakerBot believes that it’s more than just a big 3D printer. “This is a massive scale for a 3D printer and comparable to 3D printers that cost tens of thousands of dollars more,” said MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis in a press release. “We believe that the MakerBot Replicator Z18 is going to disrupt the industry in that it enables 3D printing of large-scale and complex prototypes and models that were previously out of range for the creative community.” MakerBot Z18 That community, he...
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MakerBot has a whole new line of 3D printers, and the littlest sibling in the bunch, the MakerBot Replicator Mini Compact 3D, is now shipping. “As soon as we announced the MakerBot Replicator Mini, we received calls and orders from customers who couldn’t wait to purchase this easy and affordable 3D printer,” said Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot, in a press release. “We see the MakerBot Replicator Mini as a turning point in the 3D printing industry.” Specifically, Pettis sees the Mini Compact 3D as a true home 3D printer instead of the larger devices that are better-suited for the office or workshop. The Mini Compact 3D costs $1,375, and you can get your own from Makerbot’s...
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Makerbot’s making them both big and small these days. Just weeks after beginning orders for the Replicator Mini Compact 3D printer, Makerbot announced that the big brother of its new line of 3D printers, the Z18, is available for purchase. Whereas the Mini Compact offers a petite build volume of 10x10x12.5 inches, the Z18 can handle 2,592 cubic inches of build with dimensions of 12x12x18.5 inches. The Z18 is Makerbot’s largest 3D printer to date, and it comes with an optional Makerbot Cart ($1,250) for moving it around and Makerbot Filament Case ($750) that holds XL and XXL spools to ensure that you have enough PLA for each large print job. “We believe the MakerBot Replicator...
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The smallest member of MakerBot’s 3D printing platform, announced at CES, is now available to order at MakerBot’s website or at one of the company’s three store locations in New York, Boston, and Greenwich, CT. The Replicator Mini Compact 3D Printer (the build volume is 10x10x12.5 inches) is designed to be easy to use with features such as One Touch printing, plug-and-play capabilities, a no-leveling build plate, and included free software. The printer offers a 200 micron resolution and is optimized for MakerBot PLA filament (available in 17 colors) and connects easily to Thingiverse and the MakerBot Digital Store for plenty of printable 3D designs. It’s also designed...
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MakerBot brought the noise as well as the funk, as it were, to CES this year. The company, which is now a subsidiary of Stratasys, announced a trio of new 3D printers as well as new apps and a digital online store. With its 5th generation of 3D printers, MakerBot is bringing three machines to market with the MakerBot Replicator Mini Compact 3D Printer ($1,375), Replicator Desktop 3D Printer ($2,899), and Replicator Z18 3D Printer ($6,499). MakerBot 5th Generation 3D Printers All three use the new MakerBot Replicator 3D Printing Platform, which includes an easily swappable Smart Extruder, an onboard camera to monitor (and share) your progress, and a 3.5-inch full-color LCD display (except for...
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As we mentioned earlier today, Microsoft is really on board this whole 3D printing thing, loading Windows 8.1 with native 3D printing capabilities and working closely with MakerBot to develop a driver for the latter’s Replicator 2 3D printer, but that’s not all. Microsoft also now has an app called 3D Builder that lets users more easily set up a design for 3D printing. 3D Builder, which is available for free in the Windows Store starting today, lets users manipulate existing designs stashed in the app’s library or upload their own designs made in other applications. Features include the ability to scale, arrange, rotate, and adjust objects and even stack or push designs together...
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When Microsoft announced its eagerly anticipated Windows 8.1 update, the company promised native 3D printing support. MakerBot worked with Microsoft to develop its own 3D printer driver for the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D printer, which is now available via the Windows Update Service. The MakerBot 3D Printer Driver will enable users to print in 3D from within capable software applications just as you’d print any document. MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis said that the company worked closely with Microsoft to produce a driver that would be plug-and-play ready. It sounds like Microsoft got something out of it, too. “Working with MakerBot on creating the 3D printer driver has been a great...
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Makerbot is ready to make the push beyond hobbyists, makers, and engineers and into the schools, exciting and educating the next generation of kids about 3D printing. The company, which is now owned by Stratasys, announced an initiative to put a MakerBot 3D printer in every school in the country. The MakerBot Academy initiative is a partnership with America Makes and Autodesk, and the group has lofty goals in mind--namely, ensuring that the next industrial revolution happens in the U.S. and is driven by the innovations of 3D printing. MakerBot cited President Obama’s call to action in the State of the Union address, when he said, “3D printing has the potential to revolutionize the...
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For consumers, the 3D printing market is developing rapidly, and recently one of the vectors for growth has been on the 3D scanning side of things. Industry mainstay MakerBot and upstart Rubicon have both announced consumer-oriented 3D scanners in the last few months, and now 3D Systems (maker of the Cube 3D) has one, too. The Sense 3D Scanner presents a totally different approach to 3D scanning than MakerBot and Rubicon; while the other two have users place an object on a rotating disc, the Sense is a handheld device that you can pass over just about anything, from a small object to a full-size person to really anything 10 feet by 10 feet in size. 3D Systems is spinning it as “physical...
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It was not very long ago that most people had never heard of 3D printing, but suddenly 3D printing retail locations are beginning to crop up on street corners here and there. It was just last year that MakerBot opened a retail location in New York City, and more stores are coming. For example, there’s Deezmaker 3D Printers & Hackersapce in Pasadena, CA; The 3D Printing Store in Denver, CO and Englewood, CO; GetPrinting3D in Evanston, IL and Dayton, OH; and HoneyBee3D in Oakland, CA. That’s not to mention iMakr and several locations of The Color Company in the UK and iGo3D in Germany. HoneyBee3D retail store (Credit: Makezine) Certainly, more and more of these stores will be opening...
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MakerBot debuted its Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner, an intriguing machine that costs $1,400, but an upstart competitor is working on a device called the Rubicon 3D Scanner that will cost a mere $200. The Rubicon uses a webcam (which is not actually included with the scanner) that takes a series of photos with the device’s lasers on and off; the turntable rotates 0.45 degrees 800 times to get the full image, and the whole process takes about 3 minutes. It can accommodate objects as large as 160mm in diameter and 250mm in height. The fellow behind the project, Robert Mikelson, appears to have run everything on Windows, so its unclear if there will be support for Linux or Macs. He’s raising...
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A company called AIO Robotics announced that it will be launching a Kickstarter campaign on September 4th to raise money for a 3D printer that also offers 3D “copying” (i.e., 3D scanning), and 3D faxing. (Yes, 3D faxing, as in you could “fax” someone a 3D file that would automatically print on their 3D printer. The use case on that seems quite narrow, although we suppose that if it’s perfected, it could have some benefit over time.) The printer may be given the name “Zeus”. More notable features of this prototype include that it will run on its own ARM-based onboard computer that you can navigate with a 7-inch touchscreen. Thus, it wouldn’t need...
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How much would you pay for a desktop 3D scanner that let you recreate, via your 3D printer, anything that could fit on it small turntablet? MakerBot thinks you’ll be willing to cough up $1,400, plus another $150 for its MakerCare service and support program, to have a MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner on your desk. For hobbyists, that might be stretching it too much, for makers and designers, it sounds like a bargain--at the end of the day, the machine only costs as much as a well-appointed laptop. The Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner works by using a camera and two lasers to capture a rotating object and creating a 3D file out of it using the included MakerWare software. It’s designed...
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The MakerBot Digitizer that the company teased as a prototype back at SXSW earlier this year is coming, and soon; MakerBot says that the Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner will be on sale starting the week of August 19th. That’s next week. The MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner is designed to make it easy for the average at-home user to scan an object, create a 3D image of it, and then print it on a 3D printer. MakerBot says that the software should let users create 3D models with just two clicks and produce a digital design file in minutes. Bre Pettis demoing Digitizer 3D Scanner prototype (Image credit: Mashable/Emily Price) Users won’t need any special design skills such as CAD, and...
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We’re seeing 3D printing incorporate itself into the mainstream rather quickly, from a sudden presence on Amazon, eBay, and Staples to driver support in Windows 8.1. The latest indication that 3D printing is the Next Big Thing is the fact that Microsoft is carving out space in its retail outlets to showcase MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D printers. 18 total Microsoft stores in states including California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Washington are now offering a “MakerBot Experience” that lets customers see 3D printing in action. You can buy a Replicator 2 and the filament you need right...
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Once in a while there's a sort of early confluence in technology, where the writing is on the wall for all to see and the opportunity so obvious that the big guns turn their sites to it. Back in the heyday of 3D graphics there were more manufacturers clamoring over each other in the space than you could shake a dynamically-lit, bump-mapped stick at. From chip suppliers to board partners and software developers, the market was teaming with growth and opportunity. We're about to turn the corner on the birth of a burgeoning new market and eventually everybody will want in on the action. 3D Printer support, native for Windows 8.1 When Microsoft stepped out and offered native support for...
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In the 3D printing world, MakerBot is as strong a brand name as there is on the desktop side of the industry, and now it’s been acquired by Stratasys, a company that’s made its mark on the heavier-duty side of things such as additive manufacturing. The deal is worth $403 million in a stock-for-stock transaction. MakerBot will become a separate subsidiary of Stratasys, and CEO and nerd quasi-celeb Bre Pettis will remain head honcho of the MakerBot group. Even better, the company will retain all of its exciting partnerships with the likes of Autodesk, Adafruit, and OUYA, as well as industry behemoths Nokia and Amazon, and Thingiverse.com will continue to thrive under the new ownership....
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It was just this past autumn that MakerBot opened a 3D printing retail outlet, and the New York store was a first of its kind (a novelty, or a marvel) for those who are into this emerging technology. Staples also recently added Cube 3D printers to its inventory, and suddenly, things have gotten significantly more mainstream for 3D printing, as Amazon opened up a 3D printing section of its online megastore. The “3D Printers and Supplies”page is actually nestled under the Industrial & Scientific--> Additive Manufacturing Products subsection, but the whole area is dedicated to 3D printers, their parts and accessories, and print media. There are 29 printers in the stable as of...
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Last year, we caught wind of a one-man operation called Defense Distributed run by Texas law student Cody Wilson that was developing a 3D-printable handgun. At the time he was thwarted from prototyping the weapon as the company that leased him the necessary 3D printer, Stratasys, promptly reclaimed the printer. Even so, plans for 3D-printable gun parts such as ammunition magazines and receivers were proliferating online; 3D printer manufacturer Makerbot noticed this trend and purged all gun-related blueprints from its Thingiverse database. The Liberator - Image credit: Forbes In response to Makerbot’s takedown, an undeterred Wilson launched his own online repository for 3D-printable weaponry...
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From the first time any of us saw a replicator on Star Trek, we’ve been dreaming of the day when we could just dial up whatever we wanted and watch it magically appear in front of us thanks to a powerful machine. We’re obviously a ways off from that reality even with the advent of 3D printing, but according to Gartner, 3D printing capabilities are going to skyrocket in the near future, even as prices drop. To put a number on it, the research firm believes that enterprise-class 3D printers will be available for a price tag under $2,000 within three years’ time. Still, it’s reasonably affordable even now. “The hype leads many people to think the technology is some...
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