April 28, 2013
Printcraft is the world's first 3D printing multi-player Minecraft server that lets Minecraft players convert their Minecraft creations into stl for 3D printing.
"Printcraft started as a project with my children." said Printcraft's creator Paul Harter.
I have a share in a Thing-O-Matic 3D printer and they wanted to build things to print on it, but most CAD applications are quite hard to learn at eleven or eight years old. However they are both adept at Minecraft. So I wrote a script to create printable 3D models from within Minecraft. It worked well so I have put it online in an easy to use web service. Several groups around the world now regularly use Printcraft to build and play."
This week Harter has released his latest version of his Minecraft server with the added ability to capture your creations and turn them into STL files for 3D printing.
First you need to open Minecraft and login to a Printcraft server, eu1.printcraft.org or us1.printcraft.org.
There are over 100 virtual build platforms on his multi-player Minecraft server that users can claim a build platform and start designing 3D printable objects using standard Minecraft tools and resources.
Once you have built something cool in one of their building plots, you can head over to the signpost and press the PRINT button to capture your model and open a Printcraft model page. From there you can download the stl. file for 3D printing. PrintCraft has teamed up Makerbot to bring Thingiverse support to your creations. Using Thingiverse's developer API you can now upload the 3D design to your Thingiverse account.
Printcraft has also partnered with i.materialise that if you don't have access to a 3D printer you can still have your 3D model printed using i.Materialise's service.
The PrintCraft is an open and free service, if your kids love Minecraft, this is definitely a great way to introduce them to 3D modeling and 3D printing.
(Images: Printcraft)
Posted in 3D Software
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