We had over 70 entries to the 3D Print Contest for iPhone 5 Accessories with so many fantastic designs it was really hard for us to chose a winner among the high caliber of entries.  There was one design that really caught the eye of the Shapeways team. As soon as we pulled one out of the 3D Printer to test it out, everyone was in love...

The product page is great but we really had to share a video so that everyone could see how the design captured our hearts and won $500 worth of Shapeways 3D Printing for the designer.... 

Every Product Page on Shapeways has a Favorite button to the right so that you can let designers know just how awesome they are.  The Wishlist Button helps you to keep track of the 3D Printed goodness you want to have and hold.  Clicking either button will send love to the Feed, so everyone can see what 3D Printed products are popular at any one point in time. Let's take a look at the 10 most popular 3D printed designs for the past week in order of popularity from number 10 up to number 1.

10. Death's Head Hawkmoth Skeleton 

There's one thing that a Shapeways shop owner loves (almost) as much as sales, and that is data. A few weeks ago we introduced an improved 'My Sales' page. Today, we're improving the Sales Overview Download (XLS) and it is full of data. The Sales Overview Download (XLS) is going to allow you to see exactly what models you're selling in which material, when it has shipped, and which country it was shipped to. With this data you will be able to create your own shop analytics which can help you improve the performance of your shop.

We will of course be improving the tools on your Shapeways Shop page to make it much easier for you to have insight into what is selling in your shop so you can optimize for sales.

If you do not already have a Shapeways Shop it is easy to set one up. It is free, and you can start making money from your designs while Shapeways takes care of sales, fabrication, distribution and customer service.  

All you need to do is design and promote your products, we will do the rest...

With the launch of our new, smooth 3D printed colors last week at Shapeways we are also offering a 10% discount on our new colors until October 31st.

We are really excited about the increase in quality of surface finish with our new colors and we want you to get your smooth, bright 3D prints into your hands as soon as possible.

Please be sure to enable your models in the new colors if you have not already done so and we LOVE to see photos of the new colors in your product pages of your shops.

Being smooth, colored 3D prints they are so much easier to photograph than white nylon (WSF) 3D prints.  Check out the photography tutorial if you need any pointers. 

Over the past few weeks we have seen a number of 3D printed items get a lot of attention on Reddit driving massive waves of traffic to some Shapeways product pages including Little Sad Keanu, Mario Mobius Strip and most recently the Green Lantern inspired ring by Lensman. Below is a chart of what it looks like when a design becomes popular on Reddit.

If you submit a link to your design on Reddit you have the chance of exposing your designs to thousands of people and increasing the sales in your Shapeways shop.  We know of one Shapeways user who made the daily average of their annual salary in one day of sales on Shapeways when their design was going viral on Reddit....

We look forward to seeing your designs on Reddit soon. 

We introduced Polished White Strong & Flexible Nylon 3D Printing back in May 2011 and have seen your prints coming out looking much more smooth and professional feeling.  Those making twisty puzzles now assemble their designs without the need for sanding prior to assembly and those painting their 3D Prints can do so with less preparation time and effort.

One downside is the size of 3D Print that can currently be polished is limited to 150x150x150mm so not all Nylon 3D Prints can be post-processed in this way. To polish your 3D Prints we place them in a giant vibratory tumbler with an abrasive medium that smooths the surface.  The tumbling process can be a little rough on really fine 3D Printed wires so the minimum thickness for these kind of features in your design must be at least 0.9mm, over 1mm is preferred.

We do not currently offer smooth color 3D Printing but it is something we may offer in the near future.  The current dying process does not react well to polishing but if we were to introduce polished colors we may need to limit the size from the current 230x180x130mm to 150x150x150mm.  The result is there may be a few models that cannot be printed in color, but all color models would be nice and smooth, less stepping, less rough edges. 

Let us know what you think? would you like ALL of your 3D prints to one day arrive at your doorstep silky smooth, is there any other post processing you would like to see? Let us know your thoughts... 

As Ikea starts to use more 3d renders of products in it's catalogues Kickstarter has changed it's guidelines on new product and hardware projects stating the product renderings are prohibited and that product images must be photos of the prototype as it currently exists.

This is interesting from a number of angles:

1. Ikea is using 3D Renders as it is faster and cheaper than photographing an object in different settings, it also means they can prepare the catalogue artwork before the product is in production.  Ikea as a brand is reliable enough that we understand the basic quality of product we will receive if we purchase from the catalogue.
2. Kickstarter is moving away from 3D renders so backers can better understand the quality of the product they will receive. The projects on Kickstarter are not (often) from a reliable brand, so people are taking a risk that they can actually deliver the product they promise, to an acceptable quality, in a timely manner.
3. 3D Printing your Kickstarter project with Shapeways, either as a prototype like the Glif, or as the final product as Joshua Harker has done gives you the opportunity to show that you have a better chance of delivering a viable product.
4. Shapeways renders your 3D model as soon as you upload it so you can preview your design before you 3D Print it for yourself.  We recommend that you do 3D Print and photograph any product you would like to sell so that your customers can see exactly what they will get.  Like Ikea, uploading photorealistic renders is often faster and cheaper than taking photographs but like Kickstarter potential buyers of your designs are relying on these images to determine the look, feel and scale of the design as proof that your design will work. This is the reason we only promote products that have photographs, not renders to ensure that your customers have a better understanding of what they will receive.

We would love to get your thoughts, are there any scenarios where you think a render is suitable?

via Solidsmack Image Cunicode