Getting Started with MakerBot

Chapter 10. Becoming Part of the Thingiverse Community

Wherein the MakerBot Operator earns citizenship in a ribald community. To be accepted as a true MakerBot Operator, one must share designs on Thingiverse, but all are welcome to reap the bounty of shared digital designs for physical objects. Allowing others to modify your design sets your design free to fly like a bird from the nest.

What is Thingiverse?

Thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/) is a website where users from all over the world come together to share digital designs for making physical objects. For this reason, it’s sometimes called the "Universe of Things". User-contributed things have files of all kinds, from 3D files that you can build on your MakerBot to 2D files for laser cutting or CNC milling, to circuit board designs that you can order online or build yourself at home. In addition to the files themselves, each thing has computer-generated renderings of those files, pictures of physical copies of the finished thing, instructions for how to assemble the thing, and a discussion section where users can collaborate, suggest improvements, or even just show their enthusiasm for the work of the thing’s creator.

Even better, Thingiverse is built around a culture of sharing, learning, and remixing. Most of the designs you’ll see are licensed by their creators under Creative Commons licenses (http://creativecommons.org/) which, depending on the license chosen, allow you to make physical copies from their design, create ...