MakerBot’s 3D printing software, MakerWare, for operating a MakerBot Desktop 3D Printer, has been made easier to use. MakerWare 2.2.0, released on June 12, 2013, offers expanded features and updates that make the 3D printing experience more intuitive and helps with the overall 3D printing experience.
Here’s what’s new:
Improved Support – Now, objects use less plastic and print faster, and cleanup of support material is faster and easier too. Printing a sculpture with a distinct Romanesque nose often needs support so the nose doesn’t droop. MakerWare’s 2.2.0 release offers improved support that generates supports only where they are needed. The support material’s pattern has also been updated, so it’s much easier to break away from an object.
Improved Rafts – The new software is equipped with improved rafts. The new rafts detach more easily, creating a smoother bottom surface. A raft is a thin foundation of extruded material that helps your object stick to the build plate during a print, keeping it level and secure.
Improved Narrow Feature Handling – With the improvements, your 3D printed designs should come out complete, without as many gaps and voids.
Other New Features – also new are improved default print settings, a high-quality default MakerBot Slicer for faster-slicing high-resolution prints, easy to remove rafts, minimal support material, easy to detach support material, better handling of narrow features, removal of diagonal lines from surface walls and first layers, new smoothing algorithm, better bridging, multiple infill patterns, a new Skeinforge default profile, a subtle skybox option, a homing button for Thing-O-Matics, and more.
In addition to the update, the new MakerBot Firmware 7.3.0 was also released. This version offers added print time to the interface board during prints – the interface now toggles between print percentage and print time. The ability to swap filament at specific layer heights by using the Z Pause Height option during prints has been another highly requested feature. Small text display bugs have been fixed and during mid-print filament changes, the stepper motor now locks to prevent the extruder from becoming misaligned. We have also improved our heater-error notifications, to help users diagnose heating issues more easily.
“We are always looking for ways to make 3D printing even easier,” said Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. “The new updates to MakerWare provide numerous features that should make those new to 3D printing have a great experience, and make experienced 3D printer users very happy.”
The new MakerWare 2.2.0 updates are available for download from www.makerbot.com/makerware.
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Dutch says
Uh yeah, Makerware 2.2.0 is garbage. Couldn’t get a single successful print, even on the default settings. Went back to 2.1 and ‘magically’ began getting good prints again. Note also that within a week, 2.2.1.58 was released silently and with no fanfare.
Rather than regurgitating copy from Maker’s page here are the reals on 2.2. based on my experience printing ABS with a Rep2X.
First and foremost the default settings are insane. Note that temperature is disabled for everything in the custom profile template. Why, I don’t know? But they are. So if you haven’t figured out how to print with your extruders at room temperature, make sure you set them before you do anything else. Also the default spacing between rafts and support material is absurdly large, and you will lose prints at the interface until you adjust it. Do NOT do what other desperate folks have done and start changing plate heights and offsets that used to work to compensate for this inexplicable change. “Its not you, its them”. Fix it in the software, get it right, then keep it that way for all time. Making changes to your whole setup for every print will put you in a world of …. Catfill is stupid, and the diagonal shell printing is a useless change to something that already worked fine. The hexagonal fill is OK and may be slightly faster, but again, was the shape of the infill ever such a huge issue for anyone? Also the anti-ooze measures in MW 2.2 are equally “nothing for something”. The extruders still ooze, and drawing back plastic that has already been melted then cooled by air contact, will eventually cause clogging and ruined prints (and by eventually, I mean EVERY TIME). The same goes for the “pause between layers”. Great idea, let’s cook your plastic in the extruder tip before trying to bond it to a layer that has fully cooled? How can MakerBot rectify this thinking with the thinking behind the heated build plate? Beats me. And FYI, slicing takes at least twice as long in MW 2.2 as it did in 2.1. The claims to the contrary are ridiculous. Check what REAL people are saying instead of just reading MWs PR press and you’ll see. The “66% freeze” is pissing everyone off. Download 2.2 now to be one of those people.
The long and the short is, that, if I wasn’t intimately aware of how clueless the folks at MakerBot are, I’d be inclined to think MakerWare 2.2 is a prank. Stick with the marginally-useable 2.1 for lack of a better option until they can hire some thinking professionals to put out a package that isn’t totally self defeating. Or just hope a 3rd party option comes around designed by the folks who left MakerBot for the chance to do things right, rather than make a quick buck selling clunky , half-working crap…