The CAD for Prusa Research’s INDX system seems to have been reverse-engineered.
Prusa Research’s flagship product these days is the INDX version of their CORE One+ 3D printer. The INDX technology enables the use of up to five different filaments within the same print job, while not generating very much purge waste. Compared to traditional filament swapping systems, INDX saves a considerable amount of material, lowering printing costs overall.
Clearly, the INDX system is key to Prusa Research’s future. Low-waste systems are going to dominate in the future.
Then I read a very intriguing Reddit post from NoDoubt424, who seems to have produced a CAD design of the INDX technology.
But how would you produce this design without copying the proprietary Prusa CAD files? The answer is quite amazing. NoDoubt424 writes:
“Prusa released a poorly obfuscated printable version of INDX as a novelty desk item. But they left most of the CAD in. So I extracted that, converted it from 3MF to STEP, and finished the CAD. It was originally licensed by Prusa under CC BY-SA 4.0. They since pulled down the model.”
It seems that Prusa Research mistakenly posted a semi-usable version of the CAD for INDX publicly — with a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. That is a highly permissive license that allows one to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
This could be a big “oops” by Prusa Research, as it could allow others to now use the open-source INDX-like design to produce competing products. Of course, this is just one major component of the INDX system, but others can be developed to fill in the gaps.
There may be an interesting legal situation that could develop in the future due to this release. It may be that Prusa Research (or Bondtech, the original designers of INDX) have patented portions of the INDX system. How does it work if a patent owner/licensee then publishes the design as open source later? That could be the scenario we’re looking at here.
NoDoubt424 has posted the CAD files on GitHub and MakerWorld — but curiously not on Printables.
Via Reddit, MakerWorld, and GitHub
