Can you imagine? The 3DBenchy boat is almost eight years old! In 2015, my friend and colleague Daniel Norée started designing the first version of a model that would be used as a file for testing and benchmarking 3D printers.
We often printed MorenaP's popular treefrog model, which revealed part-cooling performance issues in a 3D printer or its slicing software due to its sloping belly. Inspired by this, Daniel and I created our original 3D model while working at Creative Tools to share with the rapidly growing 3D printing community. Daniel had the brilliant idea of designing a boat where the hull would serve the same function as the frog's belly. The boat's shape also allowed us to add more measurable and challenging geometry.
While Daniel was busy drawing the boat in CAD, I defined the key features, considered what we should call our creation, and named it "3DBenchy," reflecting its future role as a benchmark for 3D printing.
After many iterations and a few weeks of refining, we officially launched #3DBenchy on its website, 3DBenchy.com, and various online repositories for 3D printing files. Eight years have passed since, and 3DBenchy has been downloaded millions of times! I am proud that our little creation has become a mascot for testing 3D printers and filaments.
To celebrate 3DBenchy's eighth anniversary, I'm sharing some unique photos of an early version of the 3D model that Daniel and I tweaked shortly before its launch. Can you spot the differences?
These days, eight years after launching 3DBenchy, I spend my spare time developing the STEMFIE Project, an open-source construction set toy for the world. Like all great construction toys, this is a never-ending and, I hope, everlasting project. I am thrilled to continue developing it and welcome any feedback and help from the community. STEMFIE is, after all, meant to be a community-driven toy.
The 3DBenchy boats in these images were the first made in 2015. The green 3DBenchy in the center is the same model seen in the initial release on Thingiverse. Note that the other 3DBenchys were printed from a pre-release version of the STL file, having a round wheelhouse window, a thinner chimney, and no nameplate at the stern.
You can download the #3DBenchy STL file from STEMFIE, Github, Printables, Thingiverse, Thangs, MyMiniFactory, Wikipedia, and many other sources. Your 3D printer was probably factory-shipped with a ready-to-print #3DBenchy in its internal memory.
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