Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Introduction 1

How Does a MakerBot Work? 1

The MakerBot Cupcake CNC, Thing-O-Matic, and Replicator Series 2

What Can a MakerBot Make? 3

2 The House That MakerBot Built 5

Make a Better Mousetrap: Inventing Things with a MakerBot 6

No, Really, Make a Better Mousetrap 7

With This Thing, I Thee… 8

MakerBot in the Bathroom 9

MakerBot in the Kitchen 10

Close the Door/Open the Door 12

Project Shellter 14

Your MakerBot-Enabled Closeup 15

Bounce Back From a Bear Attack 18

Moving Physical Objects into the Thingiverse 19

What Will You Make? 20

3 Growing Up with MakerBot 23

MakerBot Heroes 23

MakerBots in the Classroom 28

Middle School Technology Club MakerBot Build 30

First MakerBot Projects for Kids 30

4 Before You Get a MakerBot 33

Think About What You Will Replicate 33

Connect with the MakerBot Community 35

Become Familiar with the Necessary Software 35

Prepare Your Home 36

Prepare an Area for Your Bot 36

Social Implications 36

5 Meet the MakerBot Replicator 2 39

Capabilities 39

Facts and Figures 39

The Frame 42

The Gantry 44

The Extruder 46

The Electronics 46

Evolution of the MakerBot Design 47

6 Getting Started Printing 49

The LCD Panel 50

Leveling Your Build Platform 51

The Leveling Process 52

Loading Filament into the Extruder 54

Your First Prints 61

Making from MakerWare 62

Installing MakerWare 62

Thingiverse to Thing 63

Making the Object in MakerWare 66

Advanced Settings 70

Troubleshooting 72

Maintenance 73

7 Your First 10 Things to MakerBot 75

Hello, World 75

Getting a Little More Fancy 76

Something Tall 76

A Little Something for Your Bot 77

Multi-Part Printing, Part 1 78

Multi-Part Printing, Part 2 78

Overhangs 79

Your Own Personal Army 80

A Parametric Model 80

Art 81

You're Ready to Create 82

8 Designing for the MakerBot 83

General Design Considerations 83

Equipment Capabilities 83

Overhangs 84

Water Tight 86

Corner Warping 86

Friction Fit and Moving Parts 88

Designing a Part to Be Dimensionally Accurate 87

Surface Finishing 87

How Large? Thinking Outside the Bot 88

Material Strength 89

Sizing and Scaling Models 89

3DTin 90

Tinkercad 96

Autodesk 123D 110

SketchUp 117

Exporting STL Files from SketchUp 128

Installing SketchUp to DXF or STL via the Command Line 130

Going Beyond 131

9 Scanning in 3D 133

What is 3D Scanning? 133

Limitations 135

123D Catch 136

123D Catch Tips 137

Taking Photos with 123D Catch 138

Uploading Your Photos to the Cloud 142

Downloading Your Mesh 144

ReconstructMe 146

Installing ReconstructMe 147

Tips for Reconstructing Yourself (Or Someone Else) 148

Cleaning and Repairing Scans for 3D Printing 150

netfabb 151

Autodesk MeshMixer 151

Meshlab 152

Pleasant3D 152

Repairing Most Scans 153

Repair and Clean Up in netfabb 153

Smoothing Out the Surface of Meshes 158

Removing Bumps and Blobs with MeshMixer 160

Final Cleanup/Repair in netfabb 160

Print Your Model 160

Repairing Relief Scans by Capping 161

Fixing Holes, Non-Manifold Areas and Disconnected Components 161

To Close Large Areas of Missing Mesh 166

Scan Your World 174

10 Becoming Part of the Thingiverse Community 175

What is Thingiverse? 175

Becoming a User of Thingiverse 176

User Profiles 176

Finding Things 177

Things 177

Uploading a Thing 179

Upload the First File 179

Enter the Details 180

Add Other Files to Your Thing 180

Add Tags and Ancestry 181

Publish Your Thing 182

Dashboard 183

Tips and Tricks 184

Use Collections 185

Take Good Photos 185

Write Good Descriptions and Instructions 185

Derivative Works 185

A Suggested Reading and Resources 187

B Glossary 189

C OpenSCAD 193