For background, in the 3D printer market there is a really big step function in 3D printers. The least expensive (and thus widely used) are the Creality printers which are made in China and evolve quickly as the open source market does, but seem to suffer from reliability issues. More expensive are the Prusa printers which are also open source, but rock solid in their operation and well supported. In terms of value they probably reach a good compromise between openness and capability per $ spent. Then in the "full commercial" mode (which has things that commercial users need like 24/7 on site repair, solid warranty terms and easily replaced parts that tend to have a usage lifetime (like extruders) are Makerbot (which was bought by Stratsys) and Ultimaker.
The first printer I ever bought was a Makerbot Replicator, which turned out to be the last fully open source Makerbot printer they ever produced. I chose it because Makerbot was a leader in the field and it had dual extruders so you could extrude an easily rinsed of "support" material as well as your main material and that made 3D printing complex shapes possible. It never worked well. I mean it worked as well as it could, but its best day wasn't really a good day.
I augmented it by getting a Prusa Mk3S, which has been an excellent printer. It fixed all of the issues that the Makerbot had, but lacked dual extruders so it could not easily use a separate support material. I've been very happy with the Prusa and got the kit to upgrade it to an Mk3S+ (basically better bearings) and it remains my "go to printer." However the combination of a lack of support material and the difficulty of printing ABS without an enclosure, lead me to get my third printer.
And I went back to Makerbot and got one of their Method-X printers. Their marketing makes it sound a lot better than it is, and it still requires manual build plate leveling which seems really lame for printer that lists for over $6000. My alternative choice in "pro" printers was the Ultimaker S5 (also a $6000 printer) but those don't show up on the used market nearly as much[1]. So I found a used Method printer before I found a used Ultimaker.
Sadly, the merger announcement seems to have Makerbot in charge of R&D which seems backwards. They are good at marketing, R&D not so much. Hopefully the combination will make a 3D printer company that can compete with Prusa, but if Prusa starts shipping the -XL printer, I think it is going to be a tough road.
[1] This is probably a better signal of usefulness than I give it credit for :-)
I lost faith in Makerbot when they started using proprietary parts that, as far as I could tell, weren’t actually superior to the open source equivalents. I ran a print farm for a while with 50 printers of various brands and the bottom line is that if you FDM print a lot, stuff is going to break or go wrong regardless of the printer price or brand. Being able to easily (and cheaply) source parts and replace things yourself is essential. I will always applaud them for Thingiverse, though.
I feel like the story is a bit different in the SLA world, but I got out of 3D printing before it got really popular.
Prusa fan as well here, I print support using very little density but with the same material, you will need to do some polishing anyway if you want a part to really look good so this is easily accomodated.
My printing journey started with a FlashForge Creator Pro that has dual extruders and an enclosed build area. It was easy to use and worked well for ABS, but has essentially been idle since getting an MK3 a couple of years ago. I’ve had really good results printing ABS and ASA using the MK3 in a simple enclosure tent (Creality branded and like $80 on Amazon). We print a lot of ASA so I do want to move the MK3’s power supply out of the enclosure, but it’s such a great machine I’ve struggled to find something new that seems worth the purchase.
If you look at how much money each party is putting in and how much equity they each get, it reads a whole lot like Stratasys trying to get a return on a brand they don't really understand the value of by paying off someone who's doing better in the target market to do it for them.
For background, in the 3D printer market there is a really big step function in 3D printers. The least expensive (and thus widely used) are the Creality printers which are made in China and evolve quickly as the open source market does, but seem to suffer from reliability issues. More expensive are the Prusa printers which are also open source, but rock solid in their operation and well supported. In terms of value they probably reach a good compromise between openness and capability per $ spent. Then in the "full commercial" mode (which has things that commercial users need like 24/7 on site repair, solid warranty terms and easily replaced parts that tend to have a usage lifetime (like extruders) are Makerbot (which was bought by Stratsys) and Ultimaker.
The first printer I ever bought was a Makerbot Replicator, which turned out to be the last fully open source Makerbot printer they ever produced. I chose it because Makerbot was a leader in the field and it had dual extruders so you could extrude an easily rinsed of "support" material as well as your main material and that made 3D printing complex shapes possible. It never worked well. I mean it worked as well as it could, but its best day wasn't really a good day.
I augmented it by getting a Prusa Mk3S, which has been an excellent printer. It fixed all of the issues that the Makerbot had, but lacked dual extruders so it could not easily use a separate support material. I've been very happy with the Prusa and got the kit to upgrade it to an Mk3S+ (basically better bearings) and it remains my "go to printer." However the combination of a lack of support material and the difficulty of printing ABS without an enclosure, lead me to get my third printer.
And I went back to Makerbot and got one of their Method-X printers. Their marketing makes it sound a lot better than it is, and it still requires manual build plate leveling which seems really lame for printer that lists for over $6000. My alternative choice in "pro" printers was the Ultimaker S5 (also a $6000 printer) but those don't show up on the used market nearly as much[1]. So I found a used Method printer before I found a used Ultimaker.
Sadly, the merger announcement seems to have Makerbot in charge of R&D which seems backwards. They are good at marketing, R&D not so much. Hopefully the combination will make a 3D printer company that can compete with Prusa, but if Prusa starts shipping the -XL printer, I think it is going to be a tough road.
[1] This is probably a better signal of usefulness than I give it credit for :-)