MakerBot® and Autodesk Partner to Bring 3D Design and 3D Printing to Everyone

AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MakerBot, a leader in desktop 3D printing, and Autodesk, a leader in 3D design software, today announced they have signed a definitive agreement to jointly market a combination of 3D design software and 3D printing hardware to engineers, designers, architects, makers, creators, and artists. The agreement will entail the resale of MakerBot® Replicator® 2 Desktop 3D Printers in connection with Autodesk's 123D membership offerings. This collaboration will enable connecting MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printers with the Autodesk 123D family of apps, making the process of realizing a user's 3D design through 3D printing on MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printers even easier than before. 

Autodesk and MakerBot will work together to help enable users to 3D print a model to their MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer after creating designs from within the 123D apps. The Autodesk 123D family of apps—which includes 123D Catch, 123D Creature, 123D Design, and 123D Sculpt—provides users with the ability to capture, design and make their ideas, and connect with other makers around the world for support or inspiration. According to MakerBot, the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer is its easiest, fastest, and most affordable tool for creating 3D prints, setting a new standard in resolution and accuracy for creating high quality models.

Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot, announced the partnership during his Opening Remarks for SXSW 2013, and the companies showcased creatures designed with Autodesk's new 123D Creature iPad app, which were printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer at SXSW Create Presented by Autodesk.   

"Software is key in showcasing the capabilities of 3D printing, and Autodesk's 123D Creature iPad app is an awesome way to highlight how you can customize a design, make it your own, and print it in 3D on a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer," noted Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot.  "MakerBot prides itself on setting the standard in desktop 3D printing, and now in working with Autodesk, we are also together, setting the standard in providing the leading 3D design software that is optimized for printing on a MakerBot."

"Our goal is to continue making 3D printing from our applications simpler and more straightforward, and optimizing the Autodesk 123D family to work with MakerBot printers delivers on this promise by enabling our community to print their creations with greater ease," said Samir Hanna, vice president of Consumer Products at Autodesk. "Our collaboration will help accelerate the next industrial revolution, and we are excited to work with MakerBot to make this happen."

About MakerBot
Founded in 2009, Brooklyn-based MakerBot has grown to be a global leader in desktop 3D printing and is fueling the next industrial revolution. MakerBot had 16 percent market share of all 3D printers (industrial and personal) made from 2009 to the end of 2011. In 2011, MakerBot had 21.6 percent market share. In 2012, MakerBot estimates that it now has a 25 percent market share of the 3D printer market.  There are more than 15,000 MakerBot Desktop 3D Printers in use by engineers, designers, researchers, and people who just like to make things.  The MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer has been named Popular Mechanics "Overall Winner" for best 3D printer and was honored as one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2012.  In addition, MakerBot was named "Best Emerging Tech" at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, won Popular Mechanics Editor's Choice Award, the Popular Science Product of the Year, and recently was awarded the Fast Company 2012 Innovation by Design Award as well as being named by Fast Company as "One of the World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Consumer Electronics." And MakerBot was recently awarded a TechCrunch Crunchies Award for best hardware start-up.  The company has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Wired, The Colbert Report, Fast Company, Engadget, Make: Magazine, Rolling Stone, Time.com, IEEE Spectrum, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, Vogue Italia and many others.  Follow @makerbot or visit makerbot.com.

About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in professional and personal 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Autodesk tools help unlock the creativity in everyone, from children and hobbyists to design and engineering professionals. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, digital art and entertainment industries, including the last 18 Academy Award® winners for Best Visual Effects, use Autodesk software, mobile apps, cloud services and communities to design, visualize, simulate and communicate their ideas. For more information follow @autodesk or visit autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD and 123D are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

© 2013 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. 

SOURCE MakerBot