Back in March, Makerbot and Autodesk announced a partnership with the aim of bringing 3D design and 3D printing to “everyone”. The premise of this partnership is that the two companies will “jointly develop and market 3D offerings.” To date there is no specific visibility on joint development, however, as of last week, Autodesk, the 3D design software partner, and Makerbot, the desktop 3D printing partner, have made available a new series of premium bundles that offer access to Autodesk 123D design apps and discounted Makerbot desktop 3D printers.
According to Autodesk — a company that is really ramping things up at the entry level of the 3D design market, as denoted by the recent acquisition of Tinkercad — the new bundles include three different membership options including a free membership, a premium membership and a premium bundle.
A series of new Autodesk 123D memberships and premium bundles became available for the first time today, as Autodesk and Makerbot have partnered to market 3D design software and 3D printing hardware, making 3D printing at home more accessible to everyone.
The new 123D Premium bundle includes the Makerbot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer and a new 3D Print Utility accessible from the 123D apps, which reportedly optimizes the design-to-print process for the 123D community.
However, there are three different membership options, which look like this:
Free Membership:
- Access to the Autodesk 123D family of apps, free 3D models for download through the 123D web gallery, the option to save creations to the cloud, and the ability to share projects and designs with the 123D community.
New 123D Premium Membership:
- A one-year Premium Membership is available for $99.99 and includes a $40 promo code toward the purchase of a Makerbot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer through 123Dapp.com, one free 3D print from the 123D 3D print service, an Instructables Pro account, 10 premium model downloads per month from the 123D Gallery, and the ability to create 2D layouts (.dwg) from 123D Design models.
- A two-year Premium Membership is available for $189.99 includes a $90 promo code toward the purchase of a Makerbot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer through 123Dapp.com, as well as the other benefits of the one year membership.
New 123D Premium Membership Bundle:
- A 1-year Premium Bundle with Makerbot Replicator 2 is available for $2,249.99 and includes a 123D exclusive Makerbot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer with a custom faceplate, plus an additional 1kg spool of White PLA Filament (ships in approximately 2 weeks). It also includes all the benefits of a Premium Membership.
- A 2-year Premium Bundle with Makerbot Replicator 2 is available for $2,299.99 and includes a 123D exclusive Makerbot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer with a custom faceplate plus three additional 1kg spools of PLA Filament – White, Natural and Red (ships in approximately 2 weeks) and the same benefits of a Premium Membership.
The new 3D Print Utility offers users the option to optimize their 3D model to help reduce material use and print time, before printing the model on the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer.
Anyone wanting to sign up this community can do so here.
This partnership does bring together two significantly visible companies in the 3D space and together they obviously believe they are stronger and taking a big step forward towards democratizing 3D innovation.
