Announcing PreForm Update 0.8.1

Form Fans,

Three weeks after our initial release, we have our first software update for you! PreForm 0.8.1 is ready for download.

Our software team has been hard-at-work so we can quickly get you new updates, features and fixes, rather than making you wait for major releases. If you already have PreForm installed, the next time you open it, you will be notified that there are updates available for download. Otherwise, head over to our software page and grab the latest build.

PreForm 0.8.1 Improvements:

First, we’ve significantly enhanced print quality by improving the way in which we generate paths for self-intersecting and multi-body parts. Take a look at the before and after images below, showing the improved path performance. This change will help your Form 1 generate even smoother prints.

Before self-intersecting and multi-body path improvements:


And after our latest update: 

In addition to that, we’ve made a number of other improvements:

• - Minimized the visible “seam” that was sometimes seen from the top to bottom of a print 
• - Better text and icon rendering 
• - Reduced auto-generated support-structure collisions - More intelligent handling of models in different units or scales 
• - More natural view rotation when model is selected 
• - Multiple UI and other enhancements 

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Clear Resin is in the Form Store!

Form Fans,

Today we’re excited to offer Clear Resin for sale at the Form Store for $149 per liter. To make it easy for you to stock up, you can purchase more than one bottle at a time, and we’ll consolidate up to four in a box. We will also consolidate up to three additional bottles of Clear Resin for those of you who wish to purchase more on top of the liter already included with the Form 1. We will prioritize resin shipments to customers who have already received their printer, or soon will. 

Kickstarter backers, in appreciation of your support early on, you will be able to purchase at least one bottle of resin for $129 each month, as promised. We will send you a personalized discount coupon to use in the Form Store. You’ll be able to use the coupon three times over a three month period before it expires. Every three months we’ll send you a new coupon, so keep an eye on your e-mail for the coupon and more information.

We hope you enjoy Clear Resin and we can’t wait to see your amazing prints. Make sure to show off your creations on our community website.

Form on!

- The Form Team

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The Form 1 is Shipping!

Form Fans,

The Formlabs journey began early 2011 through conversations among a group of designers and engineers. Just like you, we saw the power of 3D printing but were frustrated by the complexity and enormous price tags that come with high-end professional machines. And so, we started to dream of a digital fabrication tool that was intuitive, powerful and affordable all at once.

Today that dream is here -- The Form 1 is shipping -- thanks to YOU.

We are proud to say that today we shipped the Collector’s Edition Form 1 printers and half of the Initial Formation tier of pledges. Kickstarter backers will be printing by the end of next week!

When we unveiled our prototypes last year, many of you showed your support in our efforts and backed it with pledges and orders. The Form 1 was truly created by a community, which makes you, our Kickstarter backers and our preorder customers, an integral part of the Form Team.

We especially appreciate your patience and encouragement as we fell behind our original delivery schedule. Fortunately, the hard work and many extra hours from the Formlabs team will make the average Form 1 only a few months late. This despite the complexity of a project that aimed to build precision hardware, develop desktop software, engineer high-quality materials, produce thousands of units, and ship them globally.

We will ship Form 1s as they are produced, fulfilling Kickstarter rewards and preorders by priority. As our production ramps and we have accurate data on our steady state production capacity, we will share more precise dates for each group of printer deliveries. (You will receive a personal confirmation e-mail the day your unit ships).

In the meantime, thanks again! And do drop by our booths at the Maker Faire in the Bay Area or ICFF in New York if you are around. Make sure to give the team a high five. They deserve it, and so do you!

We can’t wait to see what you create on your Form 1!

- The Form Team

P.S. For all you makers out there who want an inside look at the Form 1, check out hacker-extraordinaire (and Formlabs advisor) Bunnie Huang’s great tear-down blog post. (Note that opening the machine can be dangerous and may void your warranty)

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Form Team Recognized by Ars Electronica

As part of our development process, we’ve already been lucky enough to work with two incredible designers -- Marcelo Coelho and Skylar Tibbits -- our Formlabs’ Artists-in-Residence.   We’re happy to announce that Hyperform, a joint collaboration between Marcelo Coelho, Skylar Tibbits, and Formlings Natan Linder and Yoav Reches, was recently recognized by Ars Electronica and has won the 2013 “[The Next Idea]: Voestalpine Art and Technology Grant.” 

Hyperform is a design and research effort to identify computational and material folding strategies that will allow desktop 3D printers to create large-scale objects by efficiently using the full volume of the 3D printer.   Look for the Hyperform team to present at the 2013 Ars Electronica Festival!

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Announcing Clear Resin!

Form Fans,

When you helped launch Form 1 production on Kickstarter, we had planned on launching with a grey resin. At this point, however, grey requires further development to reach the material qualities we think you deserve. 

Fortunately, after a year of development and literally hundreds of formula iterations, our materials team has come up with another resin so good, that we just have to get it to you first. We are proud to announce our flagship print material: Clear Resin!

In recent months, Clear has dramatically improved for excellent tensile, impact, and green strength, which allow for immediate use after printing. At 15 cents per cubic centimeter, it’s affordable and fantastic for a wide-range of applications -- from highly-detailed and complex models to fully-functioning prototypes.

Clear is also an excellent color for your prints, especially when playing with lighting. We’ve even had beautiful success painting our prints, which expands the color spectrum as much as you need to (yes, that mouse was printed with Clear. We'll tell you more about that later). Clear Resin will be available in the Form Store for $149 per liter as our first printers begin shipping.

The process to create Clear (and other materials) is a delicate balance of countless variables that range from chemical to mechanical to computational to safety. Different resins, for example, require a range of laser power settings to properly activate the photoinitiators. Yet material formulas also interact differently with the Form 1 itself. Mark, our Research Scientist, constantly confronts the challenge of improving resin properties while ensuring there is no adverse effect on the hardware. Next, we must optimize software settings for each and every resin formulation. Finally, the print material must be as safe to handle as common household chemicals (download the MSDS here).  

For those of you still hungry for Grey, we’re working on overdrive to get it to you. You can purchase it in the Form Store when ready (or let us know if you’d like to be placed later in the Form 1 ship queue for when it’s available.)The great thing about materials development is that we can upgrade your Form 1 capabilities without changing your hardware. 

The Form Team is excited and up to the challenge of developing the best form creating technology possible. 

You might want to stay tuned for more exciting updates.

-The Form Team

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Announcing PreForm Software!

Form Fans,

We’re thrilled to announce the preview release of PreForm Software! The software team has taken the package to new levels to make printing easier and faster. We can’t wait to make PreForm even better with your input after you take it for a test drive.

Since Kickstarter, we’ve overhauled the UI to make it simpler, sleeker, and more intuitive to use. You can import any .STL file, prepare it for printing, and send it to your Form 1 printer. With a few mouse clicks, you can import one or more models, scale and orient them for optimal printing.

We’re especially excited about two powerful core features. Our blazing-fast custom slicer reduces model prep time so your software load is only a small fraction of the process. PreForm also automatically generates support structures for more complex print geometries. Our unique algorithm makes the supports do their job while printing but easy to remove upon completion.  

PreForm is currently Windows only, though we’re hard at work on a Mac version. Download the preview release here. 

We’ve got more exciting features in the pipeline, like mesh repair capabilities and improved support structures.  PreForm will notify you when an update is ready.

Feel free to suggest new features on the Form Fan Forums and help us stomp out bugs by reporting them with the subject line “PreForm bug”. Your input is invaluable to making PreForm even better for the arrival of your Form 1. Enjoy!

- The Form Team

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The Form 1 at Maker Faire

The Form Team is attending the 8th Annual Bay Area Maker Faire in California on May 18 and 19 to show off the Form 1 at “the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth”!

Join the Form Team at booth 304 in the 3D printing area to see what we have been up to since our last Maker Faire appearance in September. We’re sure you will be excited about the results. 

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See the Form 1 at ICFF in New York

Join the Form Team at the 25th Annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) on May 18-21 in New York City.  Formlabs and furniture designers from Rich Brilliant Willing are teaming up to show other designers how the Form 1 can transform their iterative design process. You can see Rich Brilliant Willing’s new design, the Monocle Lamp, come to life through a detailed series of 1:1 scale models all printed on the Form 1, along with a demonstration of our production Form 1, all  at booth 1936!

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The First Form Spaces

The Form Team just crossed two big milestones.

Beta Shipments

First, we quietly shipped our first 15 printers two weeks ago to beta test users (who are printing as we write)!  These shipments are primarily in the Boston area so that we can closely observe the first few Form 1s in the wild, but a few are in different cities and countries. (Thanks to them for the test drive of the customs process.) With their help, the Form Team has been able to quickly identify issues while having the capacity to address them head on. The data is invaluable to test software and hardware, not to mention to prepare instructional material for the thousands of users we will eventually support. Check out some of the awesome Form Spaces and prints below. 

Support Site

Next, we are proud to unveil our support site at support.formlabs.com! The information there is just a small start to what will soon be a large knowledge base for 3D printing. You can also check out our new video (below) to see the Form 1 print experience from beginning to end. 

Of course, having started on Kickstarter, we understand the power of community. This is why our support site is built with the long-anticipated Form Fan Forums! We can’t wait for you all to try the site, post in the forums, and help us make support.formlabs.com the new home for this global community. Team members and test users have already started some threads, so feel free to join in the conversation. (Use the same login you created at formlabs.com)

We know that you all are eagerly awaiting word on shipment of your own printers, and we plan to update you soon. We have learned that a product launch is better determined by quality than a deadline, and we appreciate your understanding. 

We look forward to showing off a few more things we’ve been working on soon...

-The Form Team

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Gyro Cube Update

As you can imagine, printing 425 gyro cubes requires a bunch of printers. Since most of our prototypes have been tied up in final production testing we are behind schedule. Luckily, engineers like Craig (pictured below) have been hard at work getting the production line in order. (The Form Lab just got a lot more orange with the first batch of printers!)

Craig also happens to be our Lead Gyro Cube designer, having been inspired by the original Gyro the Cube by Virtox. He has taken the gyro through many iterations, including the three shown below. Each concentric sphere must closely fit within the next to stay in place, but not too tight to limit a good spin. Eventually he decided the four spheres weren’t enough to put the Form 1 to use. So he added a suspended butterfly for good measure.

Armed with a good design and our very own growing “printer farm”, we’re ready to start shipping out the first gyros next week. Of course, given the large number to print, fulfillment will take several months to complete. We hope you understand our focus on readying Form 1 production, and we appreciate your patience. When they do arrive, we hope you don’t lose too much productivity being mesmerized by your gyro cube!

P.S. Make sure to check out the full production machines in New York next week. 

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Inside 3D Printing in NYC

Join the Form Team on April 22-23 to explore the 3D printing industry at the first Inside 3D Printing conference and expo in New York City. See our full production machines for a 3D printing light show that only a stereolithography printer can provide. We’ll be at booth 214.

Use this link for a 20% discount!

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The Form 1 at Design & Manufacturing New England

Join the Form Team in our backyard at the Design & Manufacturing of New England trade show in Boston. The show is actually three in one, including the BIOMEDevice and Electronics New England shows at the Boston Convention Center. 

We’ll be showing off our first full-production Form 1 units! Join us at booth 224 on April 10th and 11th. Use the link below to waive the normal admission fee. See you there!

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Packing the Form 1

When we first began plans for the Form 1, we received some advice: “don’t leave packaging to the last minute.” We thank those wise advisors. Here’s some things that went into packaging:

10+ cushioning iterations

Many unlucky Form 1 prototypes suffered cracks, bruises, and breaks thanks to numerous drop tests (performed by our tallest team member, Jason). Designs ranged from foam-filled boxes to bolting the Form 1 to a piece of plywood. In the end we settled on what turned out to be the most reliable protection and (luckily) most visually appealing. Two inserts with sheets of tough plastic create a cushioned bed, allowing you to see through to the Form 1 at rest.

5 graphic design reviews

The packaging team (which borrows members from almost every other team in the company) focused on every detail to create graphic assets that would reflect each component of the Form 1 experience, ranging from the printer to the accessory kit.

~20% more BOM items

Stickers, labels and packaging added 20% more line items to the Form 1 bill of materials (BOM). Each new item requires individual design attention as well as vetting and coordinating more suppliers. These include the boxes as well as labels (like the resin tank fill line) and shipping stabilizers to better protect the delicate orange cover.

This effort is why the Form Team was beyond excited to receive our first production line test units from across the country in official packaging. We thought we’d share a few photos of what many of you can expect in the coming weeks.

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Production Update

Form Fans,

We’d like to give you an update on our progress and thank you (again) for your ongoing support and understanding. You’re amazing.

The Form 1 is in full production with our factory floor geared up to produce 1,000+ units. The line is set. The components have arrived. Ten sample production units will come off the line for testing this week.

Unfortunately we’ve also seen some delays. Once we ordered components in the thousands (instead of tens), our quality assurance processes found unacceptable performance in a few parts. While we are committed to getting your Form 1 to you as soon as possible, we are more dedicated to shipping a quality printer. Our team has been working hand in hand with our suppliers for the past few weeks and we are back on track.

Fortunately, we have been able to get a head start by assembling most components on our first batch of Form 1s. We will use the first ten printers mentioned above to finalize testing and click “go” on final assembly.  We can’t yet declare the first shipment date, but we do plan to produce hundreds of Form 1s in April. 

We really do appreciate your patience and encouragement on this amazing journey, and as always, we welcome you to contact us by e-mail at labs@formlabs.com with any questions you may have.

We are also excited to share our advancements in software, materials and of course printing cool parts, so please stay tuned!

- The Form Team

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State of the Union: Building a 3D Future

Formlabs has always seen 3D printing as a revolutionary technology that can provide engineers, designers, and makers with the power to give shape to their imaginations. President Obama’s recent State of the Union address reinforced that point, showing that leaders in Washington are starting to recognize how 3D printing can help make “America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing.”

We think Formlabs is a great example of the importance of the 3D printing industry to good jobs and high-quality manufacturing here in the United States.  Our development team includes engineers, chemists, designers, and programmers, all working hand-in-hand with one another out of repurposed industrial space in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  And Formlabs relies on the skilled contributions of our U.S.-based manufacturing team to build and ship reliable products efficiently.

But building a great 3D printer is just the beginning.  Powerful, affordable, and user-friendly 3D printing can enable millions of creative individuals to design and develop the products of tomorrow, from electronics to apparel.  That’s why Formlabs is committed to bringing a new standard of high-quality, precision 3D printing to the world at an affordable price.

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Form 1 in Production

Form Fans,

Our shared vision of low-cost, high resolution 3D printing is closer than ever. The Form 1 has entered full production!

Over the last few months, we have assembled our supply chain while carefully vetting even the smallest parts that make up the Form 1. We are ecstatic to say that after multiple rounds of improvements, component testing, and revisions, we used Kickstarter funds last month to order the tens of thousands of parts (like the displays below) needed to build more than 1,000 printers. As components continue to arrive, the Form Team is readying our production lines to get moving as fast as possible on our US factory floor.

Our first priority is obvious: rigorously test the first small batch of Form 1s so that you receive a quality product. After that, we will set exact delivery dates, but we are on schedule to fulfill the large majority of Kickstarter printers by the end of April.

In the meantime, Form 1 and Gyro Cube backers, please keep a close eye on the e-mail account you used to pledge on Kickstarter. You will soon receive a personalized coupon to register your shipping information at the Form Store.

As always, we appreciate your patience while our team works day and night to build the best desktop 3D printer out there. Please stay tuned!

-The Form Team

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The Form 1 in Gadget Paradise: CES 2013

Greetings from Vegas, Form Fans!

The Form Team is well into the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Other than sore feet (note to self: get thicker carpet for the booth next year), we’ve had an awesome time exploring the endless halls of enormous TVs, cameras, stereos and myriad other toys that encompass a gadget lover’s dream. But no such fantasy would be complete without the latest in personal fabrication.

3D printing has made waves at CES for the past several years, and the Form 1 has been no exception. Throngs of Form-loving professionals have constantly crowded the booth to be dazzled by the laser light show that is 3D printing with stereolithography. We’ve especially enjoyed giving a high five to the Kickstarter backers who dropped by to see their soon-to-arrive prize.

Unsurprisingly, the Form-tastic action has grown well beyond the Form Booth. Our friends at Techcrunch, for example, invited our co-founder, Max, onto their stage for a great interview with John Biggs. Not to miss out on the Form 1, Brian Heater and James Trew of Engadget hosted Max on its center stage. Even USA Today dropped by the booth for an interview with Form Team member Luke Winston.

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We Have a Winner

Form Fans,

Here are a few updates we’d like to send your way.

Form 1 Survey Winner

As mentioned, we had an amazing response to our survey over the past few weeks. The information you provided is already helping us improve the Form 1 package and plan for customer support. The survey is now closed, and we are happy to announce the lucky winner of a bottle of resin! We randomly picked Lisa Gemmiti in San Francisco. Not so random is the fact that she is an accomplished model maker who is eagerly awaiting a Form 1 (and an extra bottle of resin). Lisa runs Gemmiti Model Art, where her team makes a wide variety of impressive models ranging from the very technical to the beautifully artistic. Congrats, Lisa!

Kickstarter Rewards

Many of you are about to spice up your wardrobes with the Form Team T-shirt. We are right on track to fulfill our second tier of rewards in time for the holiday season. For t-shirt orders only: If you have not yet provided us with your address, make sure to send your info to labs@formlabs.com

Consumer Electronics Show 2013

Don't forget to come by booth number 35160 at CES in Las Vegas, Nevada. Several Form Team members, including company founders, will be there to give live print demonstrations and show plenty of sample prints. Contact us at press@formlabs.com for more information.

Cool print - Making Molds with the Form 1

Some of you may know our team member Sivan as our t-shirt model for Kickstarter. She also happens to enjoy designing and 3D printing things for kids. The photos below show how she used the Form 1 to print a grey mold. She then used the mold to cast silicone prototypes. Still early in development, Sivan is working on what she calls a “bravery medal”, which attaches to a tourniquet for children at a hospital or clinic. Upon removing the tourniquet, the child patient will have a pressure mark in the shape of a happy faced lion. Learn more on her website.

P.S.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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The Form 1 is Going to CES 2013

From January 8th through 11th, the Formlabs team will descend upon Las Vegas, Nevada to present the Form 1 to the world of consumer electronics. The 2013 International CES is one of the premier events to discover the world’s most exciting new products -- an appropriate venue for the first desktop stereolithography 3D printer.

For all of you Form Fans on the West Coast (or anywhere for that matter) who could not join us at Maker Faire or the 3D Print Show, CES is a great chance to see the Form 1 in action before it ships. Several Form Team members, including company founders, will be there to give live print demonstrations and show plenty of sample prints.  

Join us at booth number 35160 in South Hall 4 of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Please contact us at press@formlabs.com for more information.

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Full Steam Ahead

Wondering how things are going at Formlabs? Let’s just say that high-resolution 3D printing is making its way to your desktop.

We’re excited to report that our engineers are hard at work building ten beta Form 1 printers (see below). This batch of machines crowned in orange come fully packed with design changes from alpha prototype testing over the past several months, taking us much closer to launching our production lines as promised. In the coming weeks we will use the “Betas” to test and optimize everything from user experience to component durability to print accuracy. We’re grateful to the people who have already helped in testing our Alphas, and we look forward to giving even more freedom to our beta testers.

Speaking of user input, the response from our recent survey has been amazing. More than 60% of future Form 1 owners responded, giving us great suggestions to both improve the printing experience and to better support you in the process. We look forward to working with you and learning more in the coming months. We’ll be sure to announce the lucky winner of a bottle of resin soon.

You might also like to know that, in addition to setting up our production lines, we’ve continued to use Kickstarter funds to grow our team. Since tripling the size of our software crew, we are blazing along with the development of our very own Form Software designed by us, in-house, right here at Formlabs. (Take a look at our jobs postings if you want to join the revolution.)

At Formlabs, we’re designers, engineers, and makers just like you. We all want freedom to design. Freedom to innovate. Freedom to create. That’s why we’re moving full steam ahead.

It’s about time all of us were Free to Form.

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Our Number One Priority

Form Fans,

As you may already know, 3D Systems announced a patent infringement lawsuit against Formlabs on November 20th. Today, we ask for your confidence and patience once again, especially from those of you who backed us on Kickstarter or have placed a pre-order through our website. We will provide details as soon as we can, but, for now, we are unable to comment publicly on the specifics of the case. That said, please know that our number one priority was and still is to fulfill our promise to our awesome supporters.

Our team has been amazed and inspired by the outpouring of support from our loyal backers, peers, friends, and others out there who believe in our company and the vision behind the Form 1. You continue to make our team feel many thousands strong.

Form onward!

-The Formlabs Team

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Announcing the Form Store!

Even if you missed our Kickstarter campaign, it’s not too late to order the most powerful and affordable desktop 3D printing package available. Formlabs is proud to announce the Form Store, where you can place discounted pre-orders for the Form 1 for $3,299, a fraction of the cost of traditional stereolithography printers.

The Form Store will expand over time with exciting new offerings of the best 3D printing tools for the professional designer, engineer and maker. We are now offering the Form 1 starter package for pre-order (includes: Form Software, Form Finish Kit, and 1 liter of resin). Additional resin will be available for online purchase in 2013 as we get ready to ship our first printers. We will initially take orders for shipments to the USA, Canada, and the European Union as we evaluate plans to expand sales to other parts of the world.

For Kickstarter backers, the Form Store will also serve as our portal for collecting your shipping information. We want to make sure we have the most current information, so we will reach out to you closer to your Form 1 ship date.

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Forming the Next Chapter

Form Fans, you have amazed us. On September 26th we asked if you wanted a high resolution, affordable 3D printer. The answer to that question seems pretty obvious after 30 exciting days on Kickstarter ;) Of course, with such amazing success comes an enormous responsibility to deliver.

We are up to the challenge.

Our growing team is hard at work finalizing our supply chain, improving our software and hardware (beta machines arrive soon!), and preparing to deliver the Form 1 in 2013. You will continue to play an integral role in this process, so please stay tuned!

And now a few important details:

• Payment: If you are having any payment issues to fulfill your reward, please contact us at labs@formlabs.com
• Shipping: in the coming months we will collect shipping information. We will let you know when you can provide that info.
• Pre-orders: Form 1 pre-orders will be available soon for $3299 on our website
• Updates: we will continue to provide periodic updates including occasional part prints and less frequent but more extensive details on production progress. Please bear with us as we focus on building 1,028 Form 1 3D printers!
• Form Fan Feedback: We will be reaching out to get your perspective on the Form 1 over the coming weeks and months. Given the activity on our comments page, we are sure you have a lot to say!
• Form Fan Forum: We love your enthusiasm on Kickstarter. We’re creating a forum soon to keep the conversation going!
• Thank you: No, seriously. Thank you. You rock. You’ve made our decade.

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Protolabs (officially) thinks the Form 1 is cool!

Protolabs just told the Formlabs team that we’ve been awarded the Proto Labs Cool Idea! Award! Coming from “the world’s fastest custom manufacturer of prototype and low-volume parts”, this is a huge compliment!

The Cool Idea! award is designed to give product designers the opportunity to bring innovative products to life by providing Proto Labs’ Protomold injection-molding and/or Firstcut CNC machining services. Just like our Kickstarter backers, Protomold is helping us in a big way to get our production lines rolling. They’re providing us with injection molded parts to help build the printers we fund on Kickstarter!

We’ve used Protomold’s services before to excellent satisfaction. We can go from 3D printing on our desktop to production parts in a few weeks, which is just awesome.

Protomold is known for lightning fast service. This gives us even more confidence that we will get the Form 1 to you on schedule!

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What will you create with your Form 1?

The end of Kickstarter is only the beginning of the Form 1. Soon, literally 1,000 of you will have this amazing printer on your desk. In the meantime, we’ll be telling one or two stories each month of what our early test users are doing.

Our good friend Pip, for example, describes herself as “a product designer with a technical background” who is “constantly considering the instinctive responses of people to everything in the world around them...and then developing these insights into naturally intuitive and responsive products for us to interact with daily.”

Given this mindset, Pip recently decided to experiment with 3D scanners to scan real world objects rather than designing them from scratch in a CAD platform. She started with more complex shapes, but realized that 3D scanning isn’t as simple as you might think. There’s still some CAD work to be done after the scan. So she shifted to simpler shapes, like a donut to create rings on a keychain.

Once rendered virtually, Pip had a big question: where to print in 3D? The Form 1, of course. Check out the whole process on Pip’s blog.

This real life to computer to real life example of 3D printing is just one example of millions of ways to put the Form 1 to work.

What will you create with your Form 1?

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Kickstarting Our Team

Some people find it counterintuitive that we offered the lowest prices for the earliest Form 1 delivery dates. At Formlabs, however, we believe it makes perfect sense to acknowledge those of you who believed in our product and joined us first.

In the same spirit, all of our supporters who purchase a Form 1 through Kickstarter will receive extra attention. You not only receive the printer package for significantly less than future customers, you will also receive the same 90-day Form Care warranty we plan to include with future printer sales (details to come).

After our Kickstarter campaign ends this Thursday, the Form 1 will be available at a special pre-order discount price of $3299. Once we reach full production, we estimate a significantly higher ongoing retail price.  

This campaign has shown that thousands of people beyond our office can see the enormous impact the Form 1 will have on 3D printing. Starting in the first minutes of this project, you not only voiced your praise, appreciation, and encouragement, you backed your words with orders of your own Form 1! The Formlabs team is simply amazed how you have come together to provide a whopping $2.5 million (and counting) to help launch our production lines. Despite our small staff, you make our “Form Family” more than a thousand strong.

We know that your support doesn’t end here because the next chapter of this project is just beginning. Not only will you be the first to put our printer to work in your creative endeavors. You will also play a special role in our team as you provide input before and after you receive the Form 1.  We believe that even with the best plans, no company or project is complete without the feedback of customers, especially early adopters like you. With your help, we will constantly improve the Form 1 to be one of the most powerful tools in the world for creative production.

In the coming weeks and months, we will regularly engage you as our earliest and most committed supporters. We want to know about your plans for the Form 1 as well as your concerns and ideas. We want to see your jewelry, architectural models, engineering prototypes, and pieces of art. But we also want to learn about what can and actually does go wrong so that together we can come up with the best solution. We will be in touch with you with important communications and we hope to personally speak with as many of you as possible.

Our team has already found enormous value in your feedback on Kickstarter as well as in person at Maker Faire and the 3D Printshow. We’ve enjoyed the conversations we’ve already had with many of you, and we look forward to even more. Thanks for your patience as we address your comments and questions.

The Form 1 is already the best 3D printer available for your desktop. With your in-form-ative help we will make it even better. Welcome to the team!

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The Form 1 in London

A few members of the Formlabs team ventured across the pond known as the Atlantic this weekend to show London what the Form 1 can do. The 3D Printshow has given us the great opportunity to meet and talk with some of our most enthusiastic Form Fans. We would go into more detail ourselves, but Engadget wrote an excellent piece on their experience at the Formlabs booth. See it at Engadget.com

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Form Software in Action

Form Software Demo from Formlabs on Vimeo.

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Form 1 is Gaining Momentum!

When we first considered a Kickstarter campaign, we were confident that we had assembled a great team and built a disruptive product. The night before launch, you could feel the energy building in our brick-walled office as we tried to guess the response to the Form 1.

Even that euphoria couldn’t raise the optimism so high as to wager that we would reach $2 million in less than 20 days. Yet the support of generous backers like you has taken this groundbreaking project to new heights.

Thanks to you, we are moving more confidently forward with plans that would have taken much longer to enact. We have already recruited multiple new software developers, engineers, and support staff to move Formlabs at an accelerated pace. Thanks to your support, these team members will make Form software more powerful, the Form 1 higher quality, our production lines more efficient, and the overall experience more exciting.

We’ve loved your excitement as you consider the possibilities. We can’t wait to see what you think when you actually get your hands on the Form 1.

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Engineering Fluorescent Grey

As you might imagine, engineering the Form 1 required tremendous effort and precision. The same is true for our resin development, which we continue to fine tune before shipping. 

While the Formlabs team loves printing exciting parts (the tree in a previous post is a staff favorite!), we’ve also repeated basic parts literally hundreds of times to test resin formulations and their properties. These parts allow our engineers to continuously tweak and improve our material for the best possible result.

As you can imagine by the photos on this post, an exciting part of stereolithography is the multitude of resin possibilities,. But resins aren’t limited merely to different colors. For example, properties can range drastically from extremely hard to extremely flexible materials, depending on the engineering behind the formation. This is why Formlabs sees a bright future not just in printer technology innovation, but in material innovation as well.

For now, we are proud to present our first material, which can be used for a wide array of practical applications. Our engineers have lovingly nicknamed their creation “fluorescent grey” because the laser lights up the resin with a cool color when tracing each cross section of a print. Although we are still putting the final touches on the material, you can now find a preliminary MSDS on our website.

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The Form 1 is Coming to London

Why stop with New York? The Formlabs team will make our European debut at the 3D Print Show in London. Join us to see the Form 1 in action with plenty of our printed parts. This premiere event runs from Friday October 19th through Sunday October 21st. See you across the pond.

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Winter is Coming

What an amazing two weeks since we launched on Kickstarter! To start off a relatively calm week thanks to Maker Faire being behind us, we thought we’d share a few awesome photos. For those of you Game of Thrones fans, the 6.5 inch White Walker bust (credit to Chris Damask) should remind you that winter is indeed coming. At least we can feel it in Cambridge!

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Form 1 In-Depth At Maker Faire

When we were at the Maker Faire, the folks from tested.com came by to talk about the nitty-gritty of the Form 1’s software, hardware, and resin.  Check out this video - it features co-founders David Cranor and Max Lobovsky discussing how the Form 1 works, walking through setting up a print job in our awesome Form software, and showing off the Form Finish kit.

Also, they shot some really great photos of our booth, the Form 1, and the parts that we had on display!

Form on!

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Formlabs on CNN!

When we were at Maker Faire, CNN came by to check out our booth.  Check out this great video feature!

In this video, co-founder Max Lobovsky provides us with the Formlabs Word Of The Week -  "Acrylate Photopolymer."

Say it out loud a few times - it's a wonderful word.  And a wonderful material.  For a wonderful 3D printer.

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Printing Functional Parts on the Form 1!

Hello Form Fans!

We had a great time at Maker Faire this weekend.  It was wonderful to see so many people excited about the Form 1!

Now, we're back to work at Formlabs HQ.  We've been asked quite a bit about the Form 1's capability to print functional parts, like linkages and threads.  So, we ran some quick tests this morning.  Here's co-founder David Cranor and mechanical engineer Craig Broady to share the results.  Form on!

Printing Functional Parts on the Form 1 from Formlabs on Vimeo.

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(almost) Live from Maker Faire!

Just a quick update from the action at Maker Faire. Good thing we brought the whole team because so many awesome people wanted to see the Form 1 in public for the first time. We’ve loved showing you what the Form 1 can do. Check out this short video of co-founder David Cranor for a view into our booth and the Form 1 printing the Eiffel Tower!

https://vimeo.com/50492176

Live from Maker Faire! from Formlabs on Vimeo.

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We hear you!

Form Fans, your support from home and abroad has been inspiring. The fact that you have shown as much belief in our vision as we have is a testament to the need and potential for a creative tool like the Form 1.

In three short days, we not only surpassed our initial fundraising goal, we have passed it by 1000% and almost completely sold out of our main Form 1 rewards. Our primary goal now is to fulfill what we promised for your generosity.These funds will get our production lines running and our printer onto your desktops.  

At the same time, we hear the constant requests to get the Form 1 in a few more capable, early-adopting hands, particularly from abroad. It pains us not to answer that demand, but, at the same time, we must be responsible.

In hopes of reaching a compromise, we are opening another limited number of Form 1 rewards with later shipping. The later date provides us a reasonable deadline to meet while providing more of you with the opportunity to be an early user of this awesome printer. The higher funding on our end will allow us to scale by hiring a larger team to tackle more challenges in software, mechanical engineering, and design. Unlike our initial rewards packages, we have decided NOT to raise the price for later batches of machines. We love your support in this early stage, and you deserve the opportunity to get the Form 1 at these great prices.

We asked designers, engineers, and makers around the world if they wanted a high resolution printer on their desktops. You answered with a resounding “yes”. We are determined to deliver.

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2.5 is our lucky number!!

Can we say “wow” enough? Probably not. The last two and a half days have left the Formlabs team with a wide array of expressions of joy and amazement, not to mention some sore hands from all the high-fiving. On day 1, we met our Kickstarter target within 2.5 hours. Now we hit ONE MILLION DOLLARS within 2.5 days!

So, no, we can’t say “wow” enough. Nor can we say “thank you” enough to all of you who believe that high resolution 3D printing belongs on your desktop so that you can create even more impressive prints. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can you believe we are only on Kickstarter day 3?

We appreciate your patience as we try to respond to everyone’s concerns. We are continuously posting new updates to our FAQ to the myriad technical questions you have posed. We know how important this information is to you and your printing needs, so we apologize for any delays.

Thank you for your questions and comments because they show us how valuable your input already is to help make the full production Form 1 the best experience possible. We look forward to working very closely with our backers as we build, package, and ship your brand new 3D printers!

We had no idea our rewards would sell out so fast, and we realize that many of you, especially those of you outside the USA, still want to be among the first to put a Form 1 on your desk. We are working very hard to satisfy this impressive demand while making sure we can responsibly fulfill our promises. Our highest priority is to make you happy since you have been so generous. Please stay tuned for updates on this front.

Now, to set up for Maker Faire this weekend. Come by the 3D Printer Pavilion if you want to see the Form 1 and the printed parts in action!

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See you at Maker Faire NYC this weekend!

According to the official website, Maker Faire is “the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement.” Sounds like a great place to publicly show off the Form 1 for the first time.

So if you love the story, the photos, and the idea of disrupting 3D printing, you’re going to love seeing the Form 1 in action on September 28th and 29th in the Big Apple. Nearly the entire Formlabs team will be there to talk about our work with the 50,000 expected attendees of this mega-maker extravaganza. We’ll have tons of cool prints and demonstrations in the 3D Printer Pavilion, so come on by!

Of course, we’re excited to explore all the other cool stuff presented by the hundreds of other maker exhibits -- from cloud robotics to disruptions in higher education. Making stuff is awesome.

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Wow, that was fast!

Hey everyone, thanks a lot - we obviously think our project is pretty cool, but had NO IDEA that we were gonna break our $100,000 target in 2.5 hours!

Your support is amazing. Looking forward to getting this baby out into the world!

Form on!

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Hello, World!

Today is a big day for all of us here at Formlabs. This team of personal fabrication fanatics is ecstatic. After a year of hard work, we finally get to share our creation with everyone!

Since you’re on our website, you’ve probably noticed that the 3D printer world is about to change - if you’re a designer, engineer, or maker, we’ve been toiling to make the best tool for you that we possibly can.  And we’re happy with the result.  The beautiful forms on your screen can now become beautiful forms in your hands. 

Have a look around. We hope you like it.

Stay tuned - more updates to follow.  Gotta go pick up some more coffee.

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