Bld3r.com is now open source.

Bld3r is a 3D printing network and aggregator where you can find or share files. We just opened up the source code for www.bld3r.com under a APGL license. You can find the code on Github.

The site started because we wanted an open space for people to find awesome prints not controlled by any one player. The industry is bigger than any of us, and the major developments in home printing have always been because a guy in his garage, a student in her dorm, or an office worker after hours were able to build upon the work freely made available by others.

Why should a site for 3D printing be any different?

I've been looking for a not for profit object repository web site with a ".org" extension.

Why doesn't the site use a ".org"?
Isn't using a ".org" extension a strong clue to being "not for profit"?

Quote
bld3r_cat
Bld3r is a 3D printing network and aggregator where you can find or share files. We just opened up the source code for www.bld3r.com under a APGL license. You can find the code on Github.

The site started because we wanted an open space for people to find awesome prints not controlled by any one player. The industry is bigger than any of us, and the major developments in home printing have always been because a guy in his garage, a student in her dorm, or an office worker after hours were able to build upon the work freely made available by others.

Why should a site for 3D printing be any different?

What CC license is the default for objects uploaded, I don't see a link?
It would be nice to have an "About us" page too.

Creative Commons
[creativecommons.org]

CERN OHL 1.2, CERN OPEN HARDWARE LICENCE
[www.ohwr.org]

I see you're scraping other object repository web pages, will that continue after you build up a large following of original objects, what are your future plans?

[edit]
I would also like to see objects on the home page identified that were uploaded to your site by members.
Maybe add a green perimeter to the picture so it's easy to spot the locals.

Having scrapped objects mixed in with your site member objects make it undistinguished from the other 52 or more object web sites.

Printable part sources
[reprap.org]

Tks.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2014 05:08PM by A2.

wish it was in PHP

What framework / user management are you using?

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2014 11:24PM by Kryptonit3.

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3Dify.org - Host an collaborate on your 3D projects!

Hi A2,

Thanks for your questions. I'll try to answer them in turn.

(1) We are not a non-profit, but we're not a big corporation either. We're just two guys at this point who would like to help the community develop, and we'd like to profit one day. We're not of the either/or mentality that says if something is for profit it is bad and if it is a nonprofit it is good. Ironically, in my day job I work at a non-for-profit foreign affairs think tank completely unrelated to 3D printing. There's nothing wrong with making money if you're not hurting others or degrading your product. Making the source code open was a sign of good will and transparency. Like we said in a previous post, we're like the Reddit of 3D print file repositories. Reddit is a for-profit company that has opened their source code. We just want to be good and earn money if we can (right now the site costs us money).

(2) There is no "default" CC license because the uploader of an original file must select the type of CC license they want, including:
CC - Public Domain Dedication
CC - Attribution
CC - Attribution - Share Alike
CC - Attribution - Non-Commercial
CC - Attribution - Share Alike - Non-Commercial
CC - GNU Lesser General Public License
BSD License

(3) We do have an "about us" page at www.bld3r.com/welcome . There's a link to it at the top of every page on the navigation menu that says "about." Also that "Learn more" link in the picture you submitted goes to the about page. We hope you take a look around the site and see what it has to offer. We're really, quite different from all the other sites.

(4) Actually, we are not scraping from other repositories. Users have the ability to link to other repositories. Thus, it is not an automated process. Users of the Bld3r community actively choose what objects they think are interesting. We wanted to make the process social so that users don't have to see a bunch of junk/stuff they will never print. Frankly, we're fine with users either linking or uploading objects to our site. Hosting costs us money, so in some sense linking is actually better for us. But that might change in the long run. Our plans for the future are just to do what we can to get more active users, make the site faster and more reliable, and do what we can to make you like us. So for example a few users wanted us to open the source code. So we eventually did it just to please them and the open source community.

(5) We do subtly demarcate files linked to other sites in three ways: (a) you see an arrow on the top right of the box, (b) you see that linked to objects list the host's domain url beneath the title, and (c) when you hover over a linked to object, the host's url will appear. We didn't add more flashy distinctions between objects hosted on our site versus those hosted on other sites, because we think people just care about the objects themselves not about us or other repositories. Our whole philosophy is to make it easier to connect users to objects. It was not to market our name all over the website like other repositories do. Again, it's not about us, it's about you and the objects.

Again, thanks for your questions. We really hope you like it (or at least don't hate us). I hope these answers will be helpful to others.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2014 04:37AM by bld3r_cat.

Hi Kryptonit3, We're using Python and Jinja. I know some PHP, but Python's really a better language IMHO. Are you working on 3Dify.org? Let us know when it's up!

My first language was PHP, I may get into ruby eventually but PHP has been good to me so far (especially 5.5). I will definitely let you guys know when it is up. I am a one man operation and have a full time job as well so it may be a month or so. May have a beta running in a few weeks.

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♬ LulzBot Music Maker Contest ♬ Design an Instrument ♩ 1st Prize ♩ $2195 Taz 3 Printer ♫ March 25 Deadline ♫

Music makers! Visit the Reddit contest page for the full details.

PROCESS
(1) Design a musical instrument design (that actually plays music) to www.bld3r.com.
(2) Submit the object's STL download link from bld3r to the reddit.com/r/3Dprinting contest page.
(3) 1st place wins a $2195 LulzBot Taz 3 printer!

RULES
This contest will end March 25th, 10:00AM, PST ( GMT-8:00 ). The winner will be announced shortly thereafter, no later than March 27th, 10:00 AM, PST ( GMT-8:00 ), barring extraneous circumstances.

The assembly can be hand-assembled from printed parts, assembled-in-place on the printer, or both.

You may create your own model, or modify an existing one, this contest is judged on design quality, aesthetic appeal, printability, and functionality.

Any submission of printed instruments may be post processed, dyed, painted, filled and sanded, powder coated, whatever. But if you do this, you must have before pictures for any printed parts.

All submissions must include your instrument in STL format, a render in JPEG format, a txt/doc file with a short description of your object. Bonus round: send images or video of the 3D printed musical instrument. (Videos to get a better look are encouraged.) Please help spread the word about this sub-reddit and the sponsor by mentioning "/r/3dprinting" and "LulzBot" in the picture/video description.

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LulzBot is an open source 3D printer company with really nice people that are sponsoring the contest.

Bld3r is really honored that Lulzbot integrated us into the contest!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2014 09:20PM by bld3r_cat.

sent you an email

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2014 06:47PM by Kryptonit3.

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3Dify.org - Host an collaborate on your 3D projects!