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Minecraft Map of Northwestern Campus Printed In 3D

Posted by timothy on from the rock-hammer-for-scale dept.

erich666 writes "Ben Rothman has created a five-foot-wide scale model of most of Northwestern University, where he was a sophomore this past year. This campus model is unique: it is the first modeled in Minecraft and then printed on a 3D printer. It is also the largest Minecraft 3D print to date, and will be on display in the main lobby of the largest building on campus in a few weeks. Ben began in November and spent about 600 hours recreating the campus. He notes that "this felt like playing a game more than a modeling task." The cost of the print material was about $2000 to $2500, well less than the cost of the display case being built for it (admittedly, labor costs are included for the case). The free Mineways program was used for export. It can help upload an exported Minecraft model to Shapeways, i.materialise, or other 3D print service. Models cost as little as $5."

4 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Poor guy by C_amiga_fan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wasting primetime college years not getting laid.

    --
    FREE magazine : http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prior/
    1. Re:Poor guy by vlm · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My experience in a similar situation was the 99% female nursing college was about 100 feet from the electronics lab building. There was a biz school with excellent M/F ratio a couple blocks away, but the nurses outnumbered us guys, so never bothered with the bean counters. Technically there were no women, you had to walk at least 100 feet. The key isn't how many women are signed up, its how many women per square mile in the greater campus area. Are there "tech schools" out there that are sausage fests surrounded by 100 miles of nervous sheep with no NEARBY women?

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  2. Finally! by smooth+wombat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A site which doesn't use that craptacularly insecure Flash to display simple pictures.

    And on one page no less!

    Maybe that supposed Mayan prediction is coming true after all.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  3. waste by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While this would be a cool spare-time project, I don't really see how using Minecraft to model something is even a remotely useful skill that a school would want to teach, let alone spend $5000+ on. He should have spent the 600 hours learning a real CAD or modeling software package. 600 hours is enough to get really good at just about anything. Seems like a waste of school resources to me. Flame away.