Link via NYTimes.com
After a burst of invention by three friends, the company was formed two years ago— “built on caffeine,” said a founder, Bre Pettis — and has since expanded to 32 employees and thousands of MakerBot kits sold. Three-D printing has existed for years, but the machines were cumbersome and expensive, relegated to art and engineering schools, often monopolized by specialists. The MakerBot, which tops out at about $1,300, gives anybody with a computer and an idea the same creative horsepower, and artists are beginning to take notice.
According to the MakerBot FAQ:
What’s the design process like?
It all starts with an STL file which you can make in a number of 3D modeling applications. We like Blender, Sketchup, and Art of Illusion because they are either open source or free. Practically all professional 3D Design and CAD softwares can create STL format files as well.
Once you’ve got the STL file, you slice it up in skeinforge and then import the resulting G-Code into ReplicatorG which sends the instructions to the MakerBot. Once I finish my model, it’s usually a 10 minute process for me to scale it and slice it. Then it’s printing time!
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