Headquarters Austin Founded 2013 | Website defcad.com Type of business Private | |
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Products See "Products and Solutions" | ||
DEFCAD, Inc. is an Austin-based startup that has created a search engine and web portal for designers and hobbyists to find and develop 3D printable and other CAD models online launched by Defense Distributed.
Contents
Founding
When Makerbot Industries' removed firearms-related 3D Printable files at the public repository Thingiverse in December 2012, the open source software firm Defense Distributed launched DEFCAD as a companion site to publicly host the removed files and its own. Public and community submissions to DEFCAD rose quickly, and in March 2013, at the SXSW Interactive festival, Cody Wilson announced a repurposed and expanded site and company that would serve as a 3D search engine and development hub.
DEFCAD has been called "The Pirate Bay of 3D Printing" and "the anti-Makerbot".
Community
DEFCAD began as a repository where users could upload and download CAD models, but quickly became a community with the addition of an IRC channel and public forums. The site has over 2,500 community users and offers access to over 100,000 models.
Search
In August 2013, DEFCAD released the public alpha of its 3D search engine which indexes public object repositories and allows users to add their own objects.