It seems like so much of this industry is web-based, there is very little real-life face to face interaction, except at hacker spaces and maker faires. I decided that there is a HUGE niche that is being unaddressed so far, which is a retail store where you can walk in, talk with real people face to face and see the printers build, with your own eyes first hand.

We opened for business in October 2013 in Evergreen Colorado, which is a community of about 40,000 people, about 20 miles west of Denver.

We currently have Makerbot Replicators 2s, and Type A Machines Series 1s, and have Z-Morphs on order. Since Lulzbot is only a couple hour's drive we plan on visiting them soon to see if their printers would be a good addition to the store.

We reckon that scanning and copying ought to go together like bacon and eggs, so we have Makerbot Digitizers and 3D Systems Sense scanners.

When researching the industry prior to opening, everyone said that I needed Solidworks, so I purchased a copy, then took their classes to learn how to use it. Since I am already a highly experienced design engineer, learning it was basically figuring out the commands and syntax to make it do what I needed. There is obviously a learning curve to making things that can be printed as well. In addition to Solidworks we also use Meshmixer, Scupltris, Cubify Sculpt, Blender, Sketchup, and 123D Design. While the Makerbots have their own slicing software built into Makerware, on the Type As we use KISSlicer, Slic3r and Skeinforge, and run the printers with Pronterface.

In addition to 3D printing, 3D scanning, and 3D design, we stock and sell what we use. We are an authorized retailer for Makerbot, 3D Systems, Type A Machines and Solidoodle, and we stock and sell filament from Makerbot, Type A Machines, Filament Central and Taulman. Going home with it today beats having to wait for the big brown truck

If you are in the Denver area, please come visit!