The global grasp of 3D Hubs and their vast 3D printing network continues to expand with a newly announced 3D design competition, which involves a partnership with 3D design community SketchUp and desktop 3D printer manufacturer Flashforge. The contest, called the ‘Make It Functional’ design competition, will have contestants design 3D printable objects that have well-functioning qualities that assist us in our everyday endeavors. 3D Hubs is calling upon the user-friendly design platform created by SketchUp to take their 3D design capabilities and focus them primarily on producing a functional, 3D printable object.
“Time and time again, many of our platform’s top users have turned to SketchUp for its ease of use and powerful features for creating their 3D printable designs,” said George Fisher-Wilson, Co-Marketing Manager at 3D Hubs. “This is a great opportunity for us to highlight and recognize the product design talent from our SketchUp users.”
The planned prizes that 3D Hubs wishes to gift these selected SketchUp designers are backed by Flashforge, who are presenting a Flashforge Dreamer (retail value $1,099) and a SketchUp Pro License, to the competition winner. The competition’s runner-up will receive the newly released Flashforge Finder, the company’s entry-level desktop 3D printer model valued at $539. Those who place in between third to tenth will receive a real 3D print of their entry design. In addition, to these partner-curated competition prizes from Flashforge and SketchUp, 3D Hubs will also supply competitors who submitted their designs before the October 25th deadline with $10 print vouchers for their global 3D printing services, which is meant to help actualize the potential of each functional design beyond the confines of the Make It Function competition.
Although the competition is limited to users of SketchUp design software, the step-by-step process to entering the competition is quite simple. All SketchUp users have to do is upload their design to their 3D Warehouse platform, mark the model with the competition hashtag #SketchUp3DHubs, and finally, select their own favorite entry out of the collection of submissions. The Make It Functional design competition criteria is judged on the innovation, usefulness, and printability of each submitted 3D model. The only noticeable flaw that the contest may have to deal with is the exclusiveness of the competition’s model, but this community-focused partnership should help keep SketchUp users engaged with each other and attempting to 3D print unique designs that are applicable to our everyday lives.
3D Hubs claims to be encouraging designers of various experience levels to think of real life functionality when piecing together their printable designs, which will help continue to influence the shift of 3D printing for prototype purposes to 3D printing for practical purposes. What 3D Hubs and SketchUp seem to be set out to accomplish is to show the design world how reliable and efficient 3D printing technology can possibly be when one focuses primarily on Making It Functional, which leads us further down a path where we implement and utilize 3D printed objects in our everyday lives.
