We print boatys now....
https://makerworld.com/en/models/972949#profileId-945062 https://www.printables.com/model/1141963-3d-boaty
There's a thread going on at the other site about this if you want more info (/r/3dprinting)
this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
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I just got done reading about the benchy controversy and now I see that someone turned out an alternative model less than 24h ago with a master class troll of a name. What an absolute legend.
Agreed. I normally lurk, like a lot, but it was enough for me to login to spread the trolling.
Since this licence has not been enforced for the past 7 years by Creative Tools (company that designed the orignal benchy), it's probably safe to assume that it has something to do with NTI Group acquiring the company in march 2024...
NTI didn't enforce it (at least they said so to Prusa), someone else did. But Prusa has to act on the original license no matter who does the complaint (really, they should have been enforcing it since the beginning to be clear), so doesn't really seem to be NTI's fault either.
whats happening with benchy?
Benchy license apparently prohibits derivative works. hackaday
For a benchmarks designed to test printer performance, isn't this a good thing? Allowing derivative works would allow a printer manufacturer to modify a benchy model to best suit their printer's strengths, potentially defeating the purpose.
It would be one thing to try to charge people for benchy, but that's not happening. This sort of seems reasonable? Or am I wrong?
The problem is they've been going after parody derivatives. Think of someone taking it and putting arms on it, or putting Steamboat Willy at the wheel.
Unpopular opinion: The license makes sense and should have been enforced from the start.
The Benchy is a benchmarking tool, not just visually but there are also various features you can measure and check against the dimensions on the website. But that doesn't work if the model you're printing has been modified.
If it looks like a beachy, it should have been printed from the original model, so it's always comparable. Preventing derivatives means you can be sure of that, even if it came on the included SD card with your printer. Otherwise, manufacturers could include a modified model that makes their printers look better than they are.
There is nothing wrong with modifying the model to make it look better, printers print differently, end results look different. It would be a benchmark still, as in you obviously can print better, you just need to make necessary modificafions.
Just because the benchy was designed to be used as a calibration tool doesn't mean people shouldn't be able to do whatever they want with it. If a print a benchy with The Rock's face on it I'm not gonna go to their website and be like "omg it looks different why???" Also the model is a solid 3d model, it isn't presliced, so the only thing a manufacturer could do to make a benchy "look better" on their printer would be to make it visibly different than the original, which... See above.
Like I get what you're saying, standardization is important for tools like this, but if someone wants to calibrate their printer it's not like it's difficult to get the original benchy and run your test. If they were just removing models that are nearly identical but with small tweaks I'd be more likely to agree, but they're removing artwork and gag models that could never be mistaken or passed off as the original.
It'd be like banning children's toys that look like tools because someone might try to build a house with a plastic ruler.
Yeah it also doesn't mean the bench is dead or off the market, only that you have to use their model and cannot modify it.
Interesting, but why wait until now to start enforcing this. (7 years apparently...)
Seems like all it's going to do is create disdain from the community.
Creative Tools got bought by a large company called NTI Group in march 2024...they're definitely the ones pushing for this sudden licence enforcement
🤣 "Everyone uses this thing... it must be possible to monetize that somehow!"
I'd really like to hear their "underpants gnome" business plan for how that's going to work.
I like the idea of an underpants gnome becoming the new benchy
🤣 That would be absolutely PERFECT.
If you are a company in 2025 and you haven't figured out how to make almost everyone completely fucking hate you, you are really lagging behind the times. They are playing catchup.
Juan Guerrero's public domain Artevita Sphere is a decent replacement torture print.
A creative license can be a bitch. It prevents companies like Microsoft and Bambu from taking open source code private and can stop funny derivative works from being created by Joe Schmuck for fun.
You can still print all the boatys you want. You just can't remix them.
Wait, I can remix them, I just can't publish my remixes. Correct? Outside of "what's anyone gonna do to stop me"
Few manufacturing processes allow you to customize and iterate on designs like 3d printing. Taking a design with such a restrictive license and making it central to 3d printing undermines the entire field.
It's still a valid open source license--like it or not. And it DOES offer protections from rapacious corporations that will hold up in court.
Don't be so surprised that this blade will cut in two directions. The onus is on you to read and understand.
I thought it said benchy prolapse at first
I don't think I've ever printed a benchy in the first place. And I knew about its license from the beginning.