Over the past few years, MakerBot has quickly grown from a promising 3D printer startup to one of the biggest suppliers of desktop 3D printers in the world. The company’s success even led to it being acquired by Stratasys, one of the world’s largest 3D printer manufacturers, for $403 million. Now the company is making its next big move – building native 3D printer support into Windows 8.1.

Microsoft’s Gavin Gear recently had a chance to chat with MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis to talk about his company, how it got to where it is today and why he decided to work with Microsoft to build the native 3D printing API for Windows 8.1.

Speaking of Windows 8.1, Pettis says that his goal with the API was to make the 3D printer workflow as smooth as possible. With the API, you will be able to just open a program, hit print and the model you’re looking at it will be sent to your 3D printer. He’s also hoping that app developers work the API into their Windows 8 apps with one example being a hiker 3D printing the mountain he will be climbing.

If you want to know more about 3D printing on Windows 8.1, you’ll want to check this out. If you want some hands on time with a MakerBot 3D printer, they’re available at a number of Microsoft stores nationwide.

[Image: makerbot/YouTube]