Thanks for the response, Aardvark.

My Cubes are 3rd generation. I?ve seen a different hack for using open spoils online that uses a firmware update that prevents the machine from to the RFID chip in the spools.

Thanks for addressing my original question. I had a hunch the Makerbot might be a good machine to start with.

My students are pretty creative/artistic. They are enrolled in a magnet art program that they applied to.

I?ll check out openscad soon. I?ll be keeping them pretty busy with Photoshop & Illustrator for the next few months so I have time to get these machines up and running while also trying different software solutions for modeling.