Thingiverse opens up possibilities for Developer Program.
Following last week’s milestone announcement of 100,000 3D printers sold worldwide, MakerBot, has announced that it’s opening up its Thingiverse community with a new Thingiverse Developer Program that enables developers to add new functionalities and services to the world’s largest 3D printing community.
The new Developer Program includes Thing App APIs that allow developers to create apps and services that appear directly on a Thing page, in app purchases and tips, as well as a new Thingiverse Developer Portal.
To demonstrate this, MakerBot partnered with 3D Hubs to implement their print fulfilment service on Thingiverse and also Mixed Dimensions to implement a MakePrintable app that allows users to analyse and repair 3D design files before printing them. Both apps will launch in the next few weeks.
“MakerBot has been leading the 3D printing revolution by popularizing desktop 3D printing, developing a connected experience around its printers, and growing the largest 3D printing community in the world,” said Jonathan Jaglom, CEO of MakerBot. “What makes Thingiverse special is the incredibly talented community of designers who share their work with the world. The new Thingiverse Developer Program will enable even greater possibilities in the Thingiverse community by adding new functionalities and services while giving designers full control over how their content is being used. The sky is the limit in terms of what’s possible and we can’t wait to see what developers come up with.”
"Thingiverse is the place on the Internet where everyone goes to get started with 3D printing," said Walter Hsiao, a popular designer on Thingiverse. "Allowing developers to add new functionalities to Thingiverse is a great idea. Specifically, I would love to see apps that help people transition from downloading to designing."
The existing Thingiverse API allows developers to create apps for other platforms, such as smartphones or tablets, that access data from and publish things directly to Thingiverse. Addition Thing App APIs in the new developer program extend the functionality of Thingiverse itself to enable developers to create apps that appear directly on a Thing page, including three different categories: print apps that provide print services, customisation apps that allow users to customize a thing, and tools/utilities apps that analyse, fix or modify a thing.
Designers will continue to control the distribution and use of their content by turning apps on or off for each of their objects.
In app purchases and tips for Thingiverse allow app developers and designers to charge for services they offer or receive a cut of these payments through tips. Both in app purchases and tips will only be available for things that are licensed under a Creative Commons license that allows for commercial use and designers can opt out of apps at any time.
MakerBot is also launching a new Developer Portal to provide documentation, resources, enrolment for developers and a new sandbox that allows them to test their apps.
