Ben Rothman has 3D Printed a five-foot-wide scale model of most of Northwestern University, where he was a sophomore this past year. The model was entirely created using Minecraft and exported using Mineways to be 3D Printed.
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. Models cost as little as $5.
Thanks to Eric Haines for the blog post...
Minecraft has been a perfect example (if inadvertently) of the way in which gameplay can be used to create content for 3D printing. It need not be a laborious task of fighting with a CAD package but should and will be a case of being engrossed in the creative process, teasing the details out of a model... What other tools approach 3D content creation in this way that may be 3D printed?