On April 9th, 2015 Creative Tools launched what was to become one of the world’s most manufactured boats – the 3DBenchy. The goal was to present a 3D model difficult for 3D printers to print and to use to compare 3D printers, a benchmark test file. Hence its name. By analysing the faulty print results and also consulting the 3DBenchy troubleshooting database guide the 3D printer and/or its software settings are adjusted until the print results are perfect.
The model is easily recognisable, likable, accessible and free to share. It was uploaded as STL file to Thingiverse 5 years ago today. See our first blog post about this 3D legend here (in Swedish).
Over the past 5 years a multitude of customised fun spin-offs and creative 3DBenchy accessories have been published in various 3D communities worldwide.
Today #3DBenchy has been downloaded more than 2 million times from Thingiverse alone. And several thousands of downloads from other 3D model channels.
The future is looking bright for this 6 cm long hard-working tugboat.
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why is Benchy gone from Thingiverse?
Thanks for reaching out to us. We have not deleted it, there might be some temporary error on the Thingiverse site. We’ve contacted their support about it and hopefully 3DBenchy will be available on Thingiverse very soon again. 🙂