3DPrinterOSHigh demand, three printers and no oversight
The ITP/IMA Makerspace Lab sits in the Emerging Media building in Brooklyn and serves three programs: the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), the Interactive Media Arts (IMA) undergraduate program and a low-residency master’s program. Together that is 600 to 650 students working on everything from VR installations to sculptures and robots.
A few years ago, demand for 3D printing was high but the space housed just three printers. There was no central system to track maintenance or usage and no designated technician. Students printed without limits, sometimes running large prints on several machines at once, and filament use at one point reached 125 kilograms every three months. Shop manager Phil Caridi called it the Wild West.
Clear rules and skill-based access, enforced by software
The staff weighed a calendar system or hiring a technician, but both looked impractical given the budget and scale. Instead they adopted 3DPrinterOS to manage the printers and track and optimize resource use.
Students are now limited to 12 continuous hours of printing and to one machine at a time, so nobody can dominate the fleet. Longer jobs start with a conversation with staff about printing more efficiently. With user groups, new users start with “training wheels”: limited infill, capped print times and a baseline resolution of 0.15 mm or higher. Advanced users who have shown competence earn more freedom.
Data and control that let the makerspace grow
The fleet has grown to nine printers on 3DPrinterOS, plus one experimental Bambu printer used for offsite events, workshops, maker fairs and filament testing. During the semester the printers run almost constantly, on projects ranging from Halloween masks and robot housings to an open-source MRI unit and Project Mjolnir, an adaptive mountain bike.
Staff now watch material usage, print history and project details to track trends and justify budgets. The limits also push students toward better design: to unlock higher settings they have to justify why, which Phil describes as design thinking at work.
