MakerBot and it’s popular website, Thingiverse.com, a place for anyone anywhere to share files and instructions for making things, is holding a Hack-A-Thon April 6 and 7^th at its Brooklyn, N.Y., headquarters.  Developers interested in stretching their programming muscles are invited to the two-day event to develop cool new apps in Thingiverse.com’s new API, which was just launched in January.  Those interested in participating must register in advance at thingiverse.eventbrite.com by April 3^rd.

Developers will work in small teams to program interesting uses of the Thingiverse API.  Currently, Thingiverse.com offers the popular Customizerapp, which allows anyone, regardless of their design skills, to customize certain 3D printable items housed on Thingiverse.  The app has become one of the most popular features on Thingiverse and MakerBot is encouraging its community to help develop some other cool new appsThingiverse.com can offer.

The MakerBot Thingiverse Hack-A-Thon will run from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m., Saturday, April 6, and from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., Sunday, April 7^th.  Meals will be provided.  Participants will receive tours of MakerBot’s new office space at One MetroTech Center in Brooklyn and will have access to MakerBot® Replicator® 2 Desktop 3D Printers for making objects during the Hack-A-Thon.

“We have always had a very involved 3D printing community on Thingiverse,” noted Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot.  “To be able to bring in some developers that can create cool new apps that make it easier to make things and print them out in 3D is really cool.  We are super excited to see what they come up with.”

Entries will be judged at the end of the day on Sunday, April 7^th, by MakerBot employees, including Justin Day, CTO; Tony Buser, Web Warrior and MakerBot; Joey Neal, Thingiverse Evangelist; and Bre Pettis, CEO.  Apps will be judged on creativity and best user experience.  Cool prizes will be awarded.

Thingiverse was created even before MakerBot introduced its first desktop 3D printer to create a universe of things that could be downloaded, and made or printed in 3D.  The site has become so popular that it is home to more than 40,000 designs that have been downloaded more than 10.8 million times.

In 2012-2013, MakerBot Thingiverse went through an evolution with several new updates to improve user interaction, including launching its first API with the MakerBot Thingiverse Customizer App.  The MakerBot Thingiverse Customizer lets users customize 3D designs right inside their browser.  The MakerBot Customizer is so simple and easy to use that you no longer have to be a designer to create amazing 3D designs and print them in 3D. 

The MakerBot 3D Ecosystem including Thingiverse.com, makes designing and printing in 3D even easier.  The MakerBot 3D Ecosystem includes MakerBot Replicator 3D Printers, the MakerBot Store, Thingiverse.com, the MakerBot Photo Booth, MakerWare, MakerCare, the apps inside Thingiverse, including the popular Customizer app, the recently announced MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner, Bre Pettis’ book “Getting Started with MakerBot,” and partnerships with other 3D design and like-minded companies, such as Autodesk, Adafruit, and Nokia.

About MakerBot

Founded in 2009, Brooklyn-based MakerBot has grown to be a global leader in desktop 3D printing. 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 has numerous awards, including being honored as one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2012; “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 a TechCrunch Crunchies Award for best hardware start-up; and 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.” The company has been featured on the cover of WIRED, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Inc., Worth, The Colbert Report, Fast Company, Engadget, Make: Magazine, Rolling Stone, Time.com, IEEE Spectrum, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, Vogue Italia and many others.