If you use Rhino3D or Solidworks for preparing your 3D models you might have heard of T-Splines. It’s a special plug-in that permits easy creation of organic shapes and thus greatly extends the usefulness of Rhino3D and Solidworks, at least for some designers. But that may change abruptly. The other week 3D software giant Autodesk… Continue reading T-Splines Eaten by Autodesk
Corporate
Dozens of MakerBot Jobs!
Popular 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot is hiring. And boy, are they ever! A recent check of their jobs list revealed a startling number of required positions in wildly different roles. It’s almost as if MakerBot suddenly gained a ton of money and started recruiting for every job they felt they needed. But then, that’s exactly… Continue reading Dozens of MakerBot Jobs!
A Tour of Buildatron
PC Magazine took a tour of a Brooklyn, NY-based 3D printer manufacturer, and it wasn’t MakerBot. It was Buildatron, an up and coming personal 3D printer operation whose signature feature is a stunning metal case. What did they find? They found a tiny manufacturing space, likely very similar to most other personal 3D printer… Continue reading A Tour of Buildatron
Printrbot Hits The Jackpot
Projects appearing on the Kickstarter public venture funding service sometimes surprise everyone with their success, but Printrbot’s results seem to make all others look bad. Their concept for a personal 3D printer was presented on Kickstarter in hopes of raising enough cash to produce a number of units and launch their business. But get this… Continue reading Printrbot Hits The Jackpot
Stratasys Drifting Away from HP?
In early 2010 big-time 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys signed an agreement with even-bigger-time 2D printer manufacturer HP to market 3D printers. The deal involved Stratasys producing HP-labeled printers that would be marketed through HP’s massive reseller networks. They started sales in Europe later that year. Now we see this arrangement may not be proceeding as… Continue reading Stratasys Drifting Away from HP?
3D Systems For Investors
We managed to get a peek at a 3D Systems investors presentation. This is a rather large slide deck with plenty of investor-related data as most investor presentations tend to be, but there were also lots of very interesting statistics and information. We read through the entire piece and found the interesting tidbits for Fabbaloo… Continue reading 3D Systems For Investors
MakerBot’s Christmas Strategy
Retailers must plan around the holiday season. In fact, for some retailers that season is the “make or break” portion of the year’s revenue. Like any good retailer, MakerBot is doing the same by offering their 3D printers at a number of New York City shops, including AC Gears, Wired, GizModo Gallery and the New… Continue reading MakerBot’s Christmas Strategy
Massive News: 3D Systems Acquires ZCorp!
In an almost unbelievable announcement today, 3D Systems has apparently acquired ZCorp, one of their major competitors. In addition to ZCorp, 3D Systems also picked up Vidar, a leading manufacturer of medical film digitizers. The cost of these two simultaneous acquisitions puts a USD$137M dent into 3D Systems’ wallet, which will be refilled by a… Continue reading Massive News: 3D Systems Acquires ZCorp!
Tinkercad Gets Funding
First it was MakerBot with a USD$10M injection, and now it’s Tinkercad, that friendly online 3D modeling service that practically anyone can use. They’ve just received a boost of USD$1M from True Ventures with angel investment from Eghosa Omoigui, Taher Haveliwala, Jyri Engestrom, and Joshua Schachter. This is huge news for the small startup… Continue reading Tinkercad Gets Funding
Investing in 3D Printing?
You’ve been reading many articles about 3D printing, or perhaps you’ve seen one. You think (like us) that 3D printing is going to be a Big Thing one day. You want a piece of the action. But how do you do that? Normally you’d select one or more likely companies and simply buy their… Continue reading Investing in 3D Printing?
DesktopFab Partners with 3D Systems
Some time ago we wrote about a small Texas-based operation called DesktopFab that resold PP3DP’s Up! personal 3D printers in the USA. We hadn’t heard much from them for quite some time. And then suddenly… They issued a press release describing their new partnership with 3D Systems. No longer are they selling PP3DP’s in… Continue reading DesktopFab Partners with 3D Systems
3D Systems Acquires Huntsman Technology
3D Systems continued its acquisition strategy this week by picking up not a company but a technology. They’ve recently been acquiring whole companies related to 3D printing, but this one is slightly different: they’ve purchased what appears to be the USD$7M/yr revenue rapid prototyping arm of Huntsman, a very large chemical conglomerate. The specifics… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires Huntsman Technology
MAKE Talks with Bre
There’s a very long interview with MakerBot Chief Bre Pettis in MAKE magazine that we encourage you to read. We went through it looking for clues to MakerBot’s future plans, especially after their recent gigantic infusion of an astonishing USD$10M from investors. Here’s what we noticed: Bre is still very pumped about MakerBot as… Continue reading MAKE Talks with Bre
Stratasys Expands
3D printing industry giant Stratasys has been spending some money lately – on a new 90,000 sq. ft production facility in Minnesota. The new facility, which is actually a refit of an existing building in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, actually doubles their capacity for building their line of 3D printers. Evidently Stratasys believes there’s a… Continue reading Stratasys Expands
3D Systems Acquires Kemo
Mark down another acquisition for 3D Systems, who this week announced they’ve picked up Belgian 3D print service Kemo B.V. Modelmaker. This Belgian firm adds to the significant number of 3D print services now under the vast 3D Systems umbrella. Kemo focuses on on-demand custom parts for industry, similar to other services that 3D Systems… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires Kemo
Free 3D Printers!
We wrote about a mysterious program from MCOR in which they hinted they’d be giving away 3D printers at no charge. Certainly this deserves some investigation, and it turns out it’s actually true! MCOR now no longer sells their paper-fuelled 3D printers. Instead they simply give them away! But there’s a catch, of course.… Continue reading Free 3D Printers!
Bullish Outlook for 3D Printing
Financial analyst Andrea James of Dougherty & Co. recently upgraded their recommendations for Stratasys from “hold” to “buy”, predicting that stock could hit as much as $28 from its current $20ish level. She also predicts a 15% compound growth in 3D printing for at least five years. Um, if our math s correct, 15% compounded… Continue reading Bullish Outlook for 3D Printing
3D Systems Acquires Formero
Continuing their sweep across the world acquiring 3D print services, 3D Systems has now absorbed Formero, and Australian 3D print service. Formero focuses on the Asia-Pacific market from their Melbourne base of operations. With this acquisition 3D Systems now has stretched its global reach quite a bit farther, at least in terms of 3D… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires Formero
MCOR Gets a New Chair
MCOR, makers of the very unusual paper-based 3D printer, have announced they’ve appointed a new chair of their board of directors. The Irish-born Ryan has had a very long career in California in the electronics industry and now acts as an industry advisor for start-up companies – and now will provide advice and guidance to… Continue reading MCOR Gets a New Chair
3D Systems Acquires … Jim!
Jim Smith of Grass Roots Engineering has been working on 3D printing technology for quite a while, building such amazing machines as shown in the image at left. But now he’s made a big announcement: Since I started this website in December 2010, it has received a lot of attention, especially from my NPR… Continue reading 3D Systems Acquires … Jim!
MakerBot Is Hiring (Again)
MakerBot, that Brooklyn, NY-based 3D printing startup that always seems to be in the news is hiring again. We noticed a post recently in which they are trying to recruit yet another worker bee, this time a Customer Support Tech: You’ll be responsible for eloquently representing a growing DIY 3D printer and technology company… Continue reading MakerBot Is Hiring (Again)
MakerBot’s $10M Challenge
MakerBot chief Bre Pettis made a very big announcement yesterday: They’re taking in the staggering amount of USD$10M in a special investment round! The sixteen listed investors, led by Foundry Group, obviously have huge confidence in MakerBot’s future. MakerBot has come a very long way from their modest start in early 2009, growing to… Continue reading MakerBot’s $10M Challenge
More on the 3D Systems’ BotMill Acquisition
We were a tiny bit surprised last week when we learned that up and coming 3D printer manufacturer and marketer BotMill was snapped up by industry giant 3D Systems. At the time there was not a lot of information available about this move, so we contacted 3D Systems VP of Global Marketing to clarify the… Continue reading More on the 3D Systems’ BotMill Acquisition
BotMill Acquired by 3D Systems
Buzz on the interwebs last night indicated another 3D Systems acquisition has taken place. This time they’ve scooped up Florida-based hobby 3D printer manufacturer BotMill. While there doesn’t seem to be an official announcement or press release on this event yet, there is a very telling indication from the graphic on BotMill’s site, as… Continue reading BotMill Acquired by 3D Systems
Autodesk Acquires Instructables
3D software giant Autodesk, makers of Maya, Revit, 3DS Max and AutoCAD announced they’ve acquired Instructables. Instructables provides do-it-yourself instructions for a wide variety of projects, some of which involve 3D printing. Instructables chief Eric J. Wilhelm says: Autodesk gives us the scale and support to grow and improve Instructables, build some great apps, and… Continue reading Autodesk Acquires Instructables
3D Systems Catches Alibre
Big announcement from 3D Systems this morning: They’ve acquired CAD/CAM software manufacturer Alibre. Alibre current markets several versions of their 3D modeling software for pro’s and hobbyists, as well as reselling several of 3D System’s 3D printers as software/hardware bundles – so obviously there was a strong existing relationship between the two parties. … Continue reading 3D Systems Catches Alibre