richard brown Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Orientation doesn't necessarily mean greater cost. Shapeways could have an option which basically says you can choose orientation at no extra cost but you have to wait until your model will pack efficiently in your chosen orientation with other items being printed. I'm sure most people would wait a few more days for their models if they could chose orientation. All the best, Jack but would you be happy to wait mouths for your print. Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rods_of_Revolution Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 but would you be happy to wait mouths for your print. Richard If I wanted the highest quality print to perhaps use as a master for mold making then I would. I usually buy prints in batches to save on postage and for a few months they often sit in a box, so unless I want the print for a specific event or to check printability for customers I'm happy to compromise on the manufacture time for a better quality print. All the best, Jack Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpoorObjecten Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Hmm, don't think that will work that way. If everyone orders a model that has to print up to 96 hours, saying "I don't mind waiting a few months", this potentially means everyone would choose vertical orientation. So if the only thing we can print are big vertical models, this means Shapeways will lose a lot of money (printing time is a big cost factor). The only way to balance that would be to have the FUD/FXD price be twice as high to compensate for the vertical models (which will still be more expensive) and thus the horizontal customers will take the hit for the vertical customers. And I'm sure people rather pay less I think this info might be useful: Small Bounding Box: This material is incredibly slow to print. 50mm models take about 48 hours, 100mm models about 96 hours and 200mm about 192 hours. That's 8 days. The risk of machine crashes increases right alongside print time, as does the cost of the crash, especially if its late in the build. We've launched with 50mm because of these risks, but will work with our manufacturing teams to monitor the reliability of prints, and assuming everything goes well will likely be able to expand the bounding box (although not to as large as FUD) relatively quickly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyneux Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Unfortunately I have had to resort to kludges like this for printing masters after getting bad prints and stupid orientations. Ironically, the orientation that I want is actually the bottom one which would be easiest/quickest for Shapeways to do as it requires the least support material (flat side to print bed). I can understand build time being an issue, but why not let me specify the orientation if it doesn't affect build time? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multiple identity account Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 If that is being done in FXD, I'd love to see the results.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike Posted April 21, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 21, 2015 Like Guy and Jack, I'd also be interested in being able to specify the orientation (and I'd be happy for prints to be slower to allow a better "filling" of the machine). I'm far from convinced that a vertical orientation is always the optimal orientation, but even if it is then it is definitely something that Shapeways need to look at (and preferably allow people to specify). There is little point in having machines capable of great prints if the variability due to orientation is random. With the price of FXD it is likely only going to be suitable for very small items or masters for casting - it seems a shame to compromise its quality by not allowing the optimal print orientation to be specified. If that is being done in FXD, I'd love to see the results.... Guy has already produced many in FUD and they are fine if in the ideal orientation. I can't see that FXD would improve matters. Cheers, Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quarryscapes Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 What is going on with checks on models for FXD? I have loads of models that are showing as not printable in FXD but when you click view issues, there are none? The same models are passed for FUD? Seems to only be older models, new uploads seem to be behaving. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quarryscapes Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 .And I'm sure people rather pay less If people are making a conscious choice for the best quality matertial they've already opted to pay more! I don't think a bit extra to specify orientation is going to significantly put people off, as long as it's an option. As it is it's pointless paying for the best detail but only getting mediocre results because the print isn't oriented properly for quality. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpoorObjecten Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 What is going on with checks on models for FXD? I have loads of models that are showing as not printable in FXD but when you click view issues, there are none? The same models are passed for FUD? Seems to only be older models, new uploads seem to be behaving. This is a known bug and will be tackled hopefully today. We've fixed 2/3 of all models with that bug, but for some reason some models didn't get fixed, our dev team will fix those last few models today Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rods_of_Revolution Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 Hmm, don't think that will work that way. If everyone orders a model that has to print up to 96 hours, saying "I don't mind waiting a few months", this potentially means everyone would choose vertical orientation. So if the only thing we can print are big vertical models, this means Shapeways will lose a lot of money (printing time is a big cost factor). Banks only keep hold of a fraction of the money that people have in their accounts, the rest they lend to other people. If everyone was to try and withdraw their money on the same day then the banks would be unable to give everyone their money. Of course the chances of a scenario like that is very slim as I expect are the chances of everyone opting to have a model printed in the same orientation and those models all being big vertical models. It's far more likely that many people will have models with no perfect orientation or they'll want to get their hands on the model ASAP, the actual number of people who would opt for a longer lead time for the optimum orientation is probably relatively small. Obviously this is speculation extrapolated from my usage of the Shapeways service so the reality may be different. All the best, Jack Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyneux Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 So if height from print bed roughly corresponds to machine time, I can understand Shapeways not want to print big vertical models. But there must be other ways of stopping this other than forbidding people to choose print direction. For example, you could allow print orientation so long as the long axis of the model is not Z (i.e. perpendicular to the print bed). People could at least then design their parts for the constraint knowing that they would get consistent results. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penrhos1920 Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 What is going on with checks on models for FXD? I have loads of models that are showing as not printable in FXD but when you click view issues, there are none? The same models are passed for FUD? Seems to only be older models, new uploads seem to be behaving. I've had the same problem. I resolved it by uploading a model with slightly lower resolution. Partly defeats the objective of FXD, but it worked. This was a new upload one Monday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penrhos1920 Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Hmm, don't think that will work that way. If everyone orders a model that has to print up to 96 hours, saying "I don't mind waiting a few months", this potentially means everyone would choose vertical orientation. So if the only thing we can print are big vertical models, this means Shapeways will lose a lot of money (printing time is a big cost factor). So why does my loco get printed pointing up on it bunker? Defies logic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multiple identity account Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 My OO scale Hornby A1X Terrier Bufferbeam costs just $7.53 in FXD... Not bad *It's not on sale though. Still have to learn the ropes with opening a new Shapeways Shop!JBM Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpoorObjecten Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 I've had the same problem. I resolved it by uploading a model with slightly lower resolution. Partly defeats the objective of FXD, but it worked. This was a new upload one Monday. Was a bug, didn't have anything to do with the resolution Uploading it in the correct resolution now should work just fine! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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