3D Systems, headquartered in Rock Hill, South Carolina, is a company that engineers, manufactures, and sells 3D printers, 3D printing materials, 3D scanners, and offers a 3D printing service. The company creates product concept models, precision and functional prototypes, master patterns for tooling, as well as production parts for direct digital manufacturing. It uses proprietary processes to fabricate physical objects using input from computer-aided design and manufacturing software, or 3D scanning and 3D sculpting devices.
MakerBot Industries, LLC was an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Project. It was acquired by Stratasys in June 2013. As of April 2016, MakerBot had sold over 100,000 desktop 3D printers worldwide. Between 2009 and 2019, the company released 7 generations of 3D printers, ending with the METHOD and METHOD X. It was at one point the leader of the desktop market with an important presence in the media, but its market share declined over the late 2010s. MakerBot also founded and operated Thingiverse, the largest online 3D printing community and file repository. In August 2022, the company completed a merger with its long-time competitor Ultimaker. The combined company is known as UltiMaker, but retains the MakerBot name for its Sketch line of education-focused 3D printers.
Lucidchart is a web-based diagramming application that allows users to visually collaborate on drawing, revising and sharing charts and diagrams, and improve processes, systems, and organizational structures. It is produced by Lucid Software Inc., based in Utah, United States and co-founded by Ben Dilts and Karl Sun.
Thingiverse is a website dedicated to the sharing of user-created digital design files. Providing primarily free, open-source hardware designs licensed under the GNU General Public License or Creative Commons licenses, the site allows contributors to select a user license type for the designs that they share. 3D printers, laser cutters, milling machines and many other technologies can be used to physically create the files shared by the users on Thingiverse.
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of a surface of an object in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, and polygons in a simulated 3D space.
500 Global is an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai. The fund admitted a first "class" of twelve startups to its incubator office in Mountain View, California in February 2011. They expanded to a second class of 21 in June 2011 and a third class of 34 in October 2011.
Shapeways, Inc. is a global, 3D printing marketplace and service, publicly traded company. Users design and upload 3D printable files, and Shapeways prints the objects for them or others. 3D printing resources are available for university students, faculty, and educators with an .EDU email
Sculpteo is a French company specialized in 3D printing in the cloud. Sculpteo offers an online 3D printing service, for rapid prototyping and production using technologies such as laser sintering, stereo lithography, Multi Jet Fusion, FDM, Polyjet, DLS, DLP/LCD, SLM/DMLS or Binder Jetting. The company was founded in June 2009 by Eric Carreel, Clement Moreau and Jacques Lewiner. Sculpteo offers online 3D printing services, particularly in Europe and North America The company was acquired in 2019 by the German multinational chemical company BASF.
Sketchfab is a 3D modeling platform website to publish, share, discover, buy and sell 3D, VR and AR content. It provides a viewer based on the WebGL and WebXR technologies that allows users to display 3D models on the web, to be viewed on any mobile browser, desktop browser or Virtual Reality headset.
A 3D printing marketplace is a website where users buy, sell and freely share digital 3D printable files for use on 3D printers. They sometimes also offer the ability to print the models and ship them to customers.
Formlabs is a 3D printing technology developer and manufacturer. The Somerville, Massachusetts-based company was founded in September 2011 by three MIT Media Lab students. The company develops and manufactures 3D printers and related software and consumables. It is most known for raising nearly $3 million in a Kickstarter campaign and creating the Form 1, Form 1+, Form 2, Form Cell, Form 3, Form 3L, Fuse 1, Fuse 1+ and Form Auto stereolithography and selective laser sintering 3D printers and accessories.
3D publishing concerns the production and distribution of content for 3D printers. 3D publishing holds the promise of an industry for the creation and distribution of files for the production of 3D objects, or physibles.
This article contains a list of 3D printers.
3DLT was a Covington, Kentucky based 3D printing marketplace for 3D printing as-a-service. Users of 3DLT designed and uploaded 3D printable files and 3DLT worked to print and sell those products. The company was formed in 2012 and ceased operations at the end of 2015.
Upverter is an electronic circuit design system delivered in a web browser, which enables hardware engineers to design, share, and review schematics and printed circuit boards. It additionally features the ability to generate a bill of materials, Gerber files, and a 3D rendering. Upverter provides web-based tools for editing schematic diagrams and for laying out printed-circuit boards. It does not require payment for open-source projects.
AstroPrint is a cloud platform and application marketplace designed for consumer 3D printing by 3DaGoGo Inc., a private San Diego-based technology company.
AIO Robotics is a Los Angeles, California-based company that produces 3D printer and 3D scanner technology.
CGTrader is a 3D model marketplace for VR/AR and CG projects, and professional 3D designer community. It was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania. CGTrader has attracted funding from Practica Capital, a seed and venture fund based in Vilnius, as well as from Intel Capital.
OctoPrint is an open source 3D printer controller application, which provides a web interface for the connected printers. It displays printers' status and key parameters and allows user to schedule prints and remotely control the printer.
The Polar Cloud is an American software platform for 3D printers that is owned and operated by Polar3D, LLC. The platform was launched in March 2017 and is now home to over 500,000 users in 160 countries. The platform is home to several programs and initiatives, including the Boys & Girls Club of America, GE's Additive Education Program, and a recent COVID-19 Mask Making effort.
