3dPartPicker

home page - general marketplace
listings separated into several categories
product landing page
discover page - find a nearby 3D printer
confirm checkout details
checkout page utilizing stripe

Inspiration

As a team with members that both do and do not possess a 3D printer, there were countless times when one of a us needed a 3D-printed part and we were able to get our hands on it. However, this is not the case for everyone, and we believe that everyone should have easy access to 3D-printed parts.

On another note, our team member's 3D printer is unused 95% of the time, and we believe that it would be a great idea to put it to work and generate revenue. Not only will this make the most of personal resources, this will also spread awareness and impact the general acceptance of 3D printing technology.

So why not design a marketplace to accomplish our goals? That is why we have created 3DPartPicker: To provide you with a marketplace where you can browse, order, and acquire 3D printed parts, all without a central distributor.

What it does

In short 3DPartPicker is an online marketplace. Users log in, select products, discover nearby printers, checkout, and get their product. The twist is that products are linked to STL files, which are 3D printed by local sellers. Finished products are to be picked up by customers.

All transaction information is logged and stored, including the data from customer satisfaction ratings. With this information, sellers can be ranked by both location and rating. Through this process, sellers who print orders are incentivized to keep a good track record.

An additional feature is the ability to upload custom STL files, which can be analyzed by our pricing algorithm and printed just the same as pre-determined products.

How we built it

We built the backend on node.js, using the module express.js to serve page content. Google Cloud Compute Engine and Cloud Storage were used for access to a virtual machine and file storage respectively. Domain.com was used for our domain: 3dpartpicker.com.

Front-end was programmed with a combination of HTML, CSS and Javascript. Ejs templates were used for the dynamic passing of variables from server to client.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge we ran into was our lack of knowledge regarding front-end programming. The 3 of us are used to programming backends, both on discord bots and sometimes webservers. Creating a good-looking website (especially under time constraints) turned out to be a very challenging experience. Thankfully, hard work and dedication paid off, and after countless hours we were able to create a user experience we are truly proud of.

Another challenge was the use of new systems in a project. From connecting our domain to analyzing STL files to generating data to integrating maps APIs, this project introduced us to a lot of new content. Although it took a lot of time, we learned a lot about a variety of different ways to do things.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of our final webpage, and the functionality behind it. Integrating everything in the 36 hours is an accomplishment we are all very proud of.

Another thing is the efficiency at which we worked. As we are all relatively new to working with others in real-time, we were all impressed with the speed at which we became comfortable with git.

What we learned

All of us are relatively new to hackathons - with Hack The North 2021 being the first for one of our members. As such, we learned first-handedly what a "hackathon" exactly entails... coming up with a truly impactful and purposeful project idea; strengthening our technical knowledge and skills through workshops; designing, developing and polishing our creation, all as a TEAM; and ultimately, having fun.

This whole journey has been a blast for us; we've learned and grown as young developers. We're all looking forward to the next hackathon we decide to participate in.

What's next for 3dPartPicker

In the future, we wish to complete our planned upload functionality to bring more variety and freedom to our users and sellers. We would also like to be able to provide adequate recommendations on prints based on 3d printer specs. Moreover, Future users can expect multi stl file support to boost convenience as well, but even now, 3dPartpicker is sure to make waves in the 3D Printing Industry!