• Definitely not! The Polar Cloud connects you to your 3D printers, no matter who you are. Hobbyists, Librarians, Professionals, and Administrators all use the Polar Cloud.

  • Your pin is a randomly assigned 4 digit number that helps confirm that only you can add printers to your own account. Access your PIN by clicking your name in the top right and clicking “Cloud Account” or “Premium Account” if you’ve activated the extra tools and features.

  • We partner very closely with our Flashforge and consider them a great hardware partner! Flashforge has developed a “Flashcloud” offering for remote 3D printing to their own line of printers. The Polar Cloud is tuned to work nicely not only with Flashforge units, but other manufacturers units as all.

  • Our team does it’s best to accomodate all questions, concerns, and requests. Please see the “Contact Us” page or “School Billing” pages for more info.

  • Many 3D printer manufacturers are working to “natively” enable their 3D printers. You can see a current list of those manufacturers here. For a printer to be “Native” that means that it runs and executes the Polar Cloud software (firmware) on the printer itself, without the use of any additional hardware or connections. Nearly all 3D printers can be used on the Polar Cloud, as long as they do not have a proprietary USB/Gcode printing protocol.

  • Yes! And it always will be. Logging in and connecting your printer is free and easy for anyone.

    We DO have “Premium” accounts for individuals that are looking for added features (printer timelapses, text message notifications, etc.), and many “Site License” offerings for schools, universities, and companies looking to run their 3D printing programs using our service.

  • Our most successful schools are making good use of the “Job Requests” system (Instructions for Teachers / Instructions for Students). Using Job Requests takes a little work off your plate (as a teacher or print manager) but you remain in control of the 3D printers. Easily get designs from your students in your class or school and gather them to submit to an open printer.

  • A standard spool is 1KG, or 2.2lbs of material. 2.2lbs will get you a lot of trinkets! It’s tough to say exactly how many, but you can always use the “Magic Estimator” Tool to get an exact idea.

  • 3D printing has tons of applications at all grade levels, but here are some generic ones below. If your students are younger, just getting them designing and exposed to additive manufacturing technology can be enough to get them thinking!

    Architecture students can easily 3D print models of their designs or other famous ones

    Auto class students can print replacement or modified car parts

    Biology students can print cross sections of hearts and other organs

    Chemistry students can print out molecules to study

    Students interested in Dentistry can print models of teeth and the mouth

    Engineering students can print fully working models

    Geography courses can print out maps showing the topography, population or demographics of an area

    Graphic design students can create 3D versions of their artwork or print prototypes of their designs

    History classes can print out historic artifacts for closer examination

    Cooking class students can design intricate molds for ices, gelatin, or cake

  • There can be merit in both. Having a student see a part go from digital design to handheld part in minutes/hours can be a pretty transformative experience, so sometimes getting a quick win with an object from the repository / Community Objects section can be a good start. Ultimately - it’s best to get students into Design Thinking and having them design their own parts, to solve a problem in their environment or for someone they know.