I have been spending my annual holiday week off with the family, cleaning my office and computers, as well as dipping deeper into the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker_subculture - Maker movement with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing - 3D printing . I finally received a http://www.makerbot.com/ - MakerBot 3D printer yesterday and got to learning the tips and tricks to this open source hardware. The http://www.makerbot.com/ - MakerBot 3D printer typically comes in a kit you assemble in a day or two, or you could find some pre-assembled. Mine was received with a few build issues and I had to dissemble and re assemble to trouble shoot some wiring and mechanical build issues, but that is part of the fun and experience.

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A wild New Years Eve. OK not really all too wild just geeky as I spent the evening working on a new MakerBot 3D Printer and printed “2012” in ABS plastic.

What do I have planned for 2012 on this Blog?
I will continue to the same path to cover http://www.autodesk.com - Autodesk technologies and products from A to Z like http://www.autodesk.com/autocad - AutoCAD , http://labs.autodesk.com/ - Autodesk Labs projects, http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax - 3ds Max , http://www.autodesk.com/revit - Revit , http://www.autodesk.com/inventor - Inventor , http://www.123dapp.com/123D - 123D , http://www.123dapp.com/catch - 123D Catch , reality capture, 3D printing, to general technology topics and of course my wandering off topic fun, warped humor, and photography related posts. My focus is to have a broad spectrum view on all industries and nooks and crannies where technology is used by students, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker_subculture - Makers and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIY_culture - DIY ’ers, to the professionals. This blog was started several years ago with the sole purpose to share information and knowledge. I sincerely appreciate each and every single reader of this blog and feed, and thank you for another great year. If there is a topic you want to know more about, you have something to share with a wide audience of ~25k daily subscribers, or have some comments and feedback please feel free to mailto:shaan.hurley@autodesk.com?subject=BTL Feedback - Email Me .

I am planning for a year better than any previous and hope you have an amazing new year as well. Forget about those crazy end of the world prophecies 2012 as it will be what you make of it, so make it great!

http://autodesk.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341bfd0c53ef0168e4d111f6970c-pi"> Time to get back to some 3D printed eggs on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Bird - MakerBo t to test thin walled vs solid prints, materials and feed rates, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gcode - G-code settings. I am finding some of the cheap ABS filament is not really a bargain due to diameter and quality issues. The side benefit of 3D print testing is that I am able to re-purpose my test output as a 3D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Bird - Angry Bird kit for my 10 year old daughter to have some fun.

Cheers,
Shaan

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