So what makes this item 'go viral' when others may be ignored? I am not initiated in the world of Dungeons and Dragons so I may be missing some major point, and please let me know if I do, but here are a few reasons these designs are working.

Firstly, the designs are highly original, a cohesive aesthetic among the entire group and really well realized, (read awesome)

Secondly, The dice are for a passionate niche group that is quite active online, and have a history of user group participation as well as physical, local networks.

Thirdly, they are social items, used in a social context of game play where people gather over a common interest that is reliant on the object.

Fourth, one image tells the story, perfect for the microsecond attention span of the online mind.

Fifth, Facebook, it is being shared via the Like Button on the Shapeways site, which shows up on everyone's friends pages....

What can you take from this for your items to help them get exposure to others who are as passionate about your hobby/interest/game/sport/gadget/obsession as you are?

Is there an existing fan base of obsessives just waiting for the next cool thing to show off to their friends online and in real/physical life? Design it for yourself?them and let them know.

Iterate your designs until they are perfect and then take good photographs of them..

Submit your items to the blogs, forums and sites where you hang out (including Shapeways It Arrived and Feature This)

Like your items with Facebook, get your friends to, get your Mom to, get your Mom's friends to and spread the word.  We have updated our Facebook integration to make it easier for you to share because it has become such a major force in the internet, make it work for you.

Oh yeah, in the time it took me to write this post there have been over 100 more tweets about the thorn dice,  over 1500 more hits to the Thorn Dice page on Shapeways bringing it up to a total of 70,467 so far and the traffic keeps rolling in with Facebook being a MAJOR factor in driving traffic....

Check out the Made by Wombat site for your D&D addiction.And Congratulations to Chuck.......

So if you are new to this whole 3D modeling dealo and you want to experiment then this may be a perfectly playful introduction that you can easily output to Shapeways for 3D printing. If you do have 3D modeling chops it is still great fun and may even be perfect for holding your own Cut & Paste 2 minute challenge with you friends, classmates or co-workers. If you are looking for a source of 3D models to play around with check out this great list of 60 sites for free 3D models that includes 3D Total, Turbosquid, Google Warehouse and, 57 more...

The latest update of Meshmixer now supports OSX along with 'deform tool' for pushing geometry around, and a 'smooth tool' for taming gnarly meshes that might otherwise create problems for 3D printing

If you are involved in any kind of 3D software and you are interested in making it easier for people to output their models for 3D printing, take a look at the Shapeways API, take a look at the tutorial and please contact us if you need any assistance implementing it into your software.

Check out the tutorial overview and his cool design, you can purchase the tutorial from Luxology for $35, the glasses are not for sale, yet..

Also, take a look at the tutorials currently on the Shapeways site and let us know if there is any software you would like to see tutorials for, either step by step or video?

In Australia there is a category of 'Design Registration' that protects how a product looks, but not how it works. This is a relatively cheap protection in Australia though it is unclear how this protection transfers beyond Australia.

Copyright protects 3D designs that are artistic. To avoid overlap with registered designs, most 3D designs that are mass-produced
have very limited copyright rights. This means that if you have created a 3D design for industrial purposes you will usually need to register it as a design in order to receive protection. 3D designs that have been registered have minimal copyright protection, even if they are an artistic one-off.

Download the full document and take a look at the ADU Toolkit for info that might be really helpful for those outside of Australia.

Please let us know if there are similar resources in your territory.

With the latest site update Shapeways is making 3D printing more social with the ability to log on to Shapeways with your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

With this first round of integration it simply makes it easier for new visitors to the Shapeways site to sign in to upload their own items, or to purchase 3D printed products from the Shapeways shops.  It also means that existing users can link their Facebook and Twitter accounts to make it easier to share your designs, or recommend those of others by tweeting about them, or posting them on your Facebook wall.

This is the first stage of integration that will be followed by greater functionality over time to make it easier for you share and promote your designs in your social networks.

Why share items on social networks? Because there are really cool designs that the Shapeways community is making that your family and friends (and friends friends) may not know about.  It is really exciting for us to see the amazing things that come through Shapeways every day and this is another way to share that excitement.

For Shop Owners who have installed Google Analytics into your shop may be tracking the growth in referrals coming in from Facebook over the last few months is quite substantial in volume alone, but also the conversion rate is much higher than most sites making it even more important as a sales referral tool.  When we consider the reason why a higher rate of sales come from Facebook we have to understand the importance of social networks in connecting together people of similar interests and socio-economic backgrounds, and how when we share on Facebook we are sharing with people who know and 'like' you, are interested to see what you are doing, be it chugging beers or designing a 20 sided dice. Having a social connection with you as a designer also lends a level of exclusivity and authenticity when someone purchases an item from you.  So let your friends know, let your parents know, let that guy/girl you always had a crush on at school but were to shy to ask out so now you 'liked' him/her on Facebook so that you could check out his/her photos know, the cool things YOU are 3D printing with Shapeways....