Shapeways Blog - Shapeways

Introducing the Ring Poem

nospam@example.com (Bart) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:10:02 +0000

I don't know about you, but here at Shapeways we're starting to get into the holiday season spirit.

And it looks like we're not the only ones - community designs for our Christmas Contest are already starting to come in (there are 11 days left to submit your work, by the way! Deadline is november 30th).

We couldn't really curb our own creativity either, so we set out to find something that would look cool on your dinner table and would be easy to make for everyone.

The result is the Ring Poem, the small cousin of our Light Poem. Just enter your message into our Creator, select a font and Ring Poem type and you'll get an instant quote. We did our best to keep the Ring Poems affordable - priced around $10 a piece, you can leave each guest a personal message during his or her dinner.

What do you think? Do you like it?

We've got shipment tracking!

nospam@example.com (Bart) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:20:30 +0000

Here's something that should make you happy (well, at least a little bit!): as of last week, we offer world-wide shipment tracking for all our orders. At no extra charge, of course. Great, now I have another site to reload all day! \o/

Come and meet us at Play 2008

nospam@example.com (Peter Weijmarshausen) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:28:56 +0000

Anybody in the neighborhood? Tomorrow Marleen and I will be representing Shapeways at Play 2008 at Haas School of Business in Berkeley California. And we would like to meet you in person.

Play 2008 is the Berkeley Digital Media Conference organized by its students. This year's theme is 'Disruption: Changes in the digital media landscape'. Next to companies like Cooliris, and Etchstar.com, Shapeways is an example of how the Internet changes how creatives distribute and monetize art and design work.

Hope to see you or otherwise stay posted on this blog for a short review about the conference.

Marleen and model trains

nospam@example.com (Marleen) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:06:08 +0000

Dear shapies,

Some of you have met me already at Siggraph, but up to know I have not introduced myself yet at our website. My name is Marleen and since June I became a team member of Shapeways. I am responsible for finance. I have a quite diverse background that combines logistics and operations in paper manufacturing with strategic advice and mergers & acquisitions. I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur and Shapeways is the perfect place for me where Internet, production and lots of hard and fun work comes together.

Some weeks ago I was contacted by Hans van de Burgt working at TNO, and secretary of the Beneluxspoor.net foundation. This foundation runs several websites for model train enthusiasts and her objective is to spread the passion and fun of the model train hobby in the Benelux(Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg). Hans and his fellow model train friend Karst Drenth- who happens to be one of the specialists in the Netherlands in building handmade model trains out of ‘plotter-cut’ styrene – wanted to test whether 3d printing could be a feasible option for all model train hobbyists.

The great thing about 3D printing for model trains, is that it cuts back the amount of time of building a train from 3 months to just a few days. This makes it fun for so many more people than just the small group that has a lot of patience. In addition, it makes customized models affordable !

I immediately liked the idea, and because I have worked in the past for a train network operator (the REAL trains) I have an interest in anything to do with trains. Karst, Hans and I decided to print a scaled carriage in the materials that Shapeways currently offers. We learned a lot from this exercise. The train hobby demands a very high level of detail and easy finishing with sanding, spray painting and gluing. The material that right now suits well, is our White Detail but we are determined to take it even a step further; so keep checking our material pages. In the near future we will place an interview with Karst on this blog to share all the details and photos of our tests.

I was honored to be invited by Hans and Karst to visit Eurospoor 2008, which is a convention for the model train hobby. The Beneluxspoor.net Foundation had a huge stand with enthusiasts that are specialized in the electronics, scenery, model train building and so on. It was great to be there, share ideas and to learn that 3D manufacturing can be a solution for many enthusiasts. Hans, Karst and me have lot’s of great ideas to inspire, help and enable the model train community. So keep checking Shapeways, because encouraging members to buy Karst's model is only the beginning.

Shapeways Creating Chaos in Orlando

nospam@example.com (Jochem de Boer) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:58:58 +0000

Well, it actually was a very orderly day. What I did? Today I had the honor to speak about the democratization of production trend, the user generated object and how Shapeways is enabling these developments at the Creating Chaos 2008 event.

Again, from the responses to my session and from remarks in the hallway it is clear that a lot of people would really like to bring their creativity physically to life but were unsure how to. They were pleasantly surprised that Shapeways is doing just that via our 3D design upload service and our Creator.

Would you like to have a look at what I presented? Here it is!

Shapeways & the democratization of production

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: production 3d)

Just feel free to drop any remarks, questions or feedback in the comments box.

Jochem

Wanna come and work with us?

nospam@example.com (Peter Paul Cornelissen) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:03:12 +0000

Hi there… wouldn’t you love to come and work with us for about 12 to 16 hours a week?

Right now we are looking for people who can help us out with various things; creating 3d models, trouble shooting error messages we are getting in, supporting the development of our website, etc..

Interested? Let me know

peterpaul(at)shapeways(dot)com

Shapeways to the next level!

nospam@example.com (Peter Weijmarshausen) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:19:34 +0000

Dear Shapies,

today we launched our new look and feel of the website, of which we are all very proud. It is a nice moment, to share a little of the process with you.

In January this year we started the process to develop our own brand, including name, personality and look and feel. It was a fun process which we tried to do using as much input from people inspired by the Shapeways idea as possible. The first deliverable from the sessions was our new name: Shapeways. We also gave our brand a lot of thought and this all came together (being an internet service) in the look and feel of our portal, together with some new features.

The new look and feel was ready in April. Now our partner iBuildings had to implement it for us. This was a lot of work, as our new look also changed the functionality quite significantly. Look for instance at the new way the pictures of "you and your design" are displayed next to the 3D model. As I felt very passionate about the new look, I could not wait for it to be ready to launch.

Today we were able to release it and I really hope you all like our new look and website as much as we do and you have fun using our service and explore the exiting new possibilities that 3D printing offers to you.

kind regards,
Peter

CEO Shapeways

Shapeways: Passionate about creating

nospam@example.com (Jochem de Boer) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:18:56 +0000

As every marketer knows deep down, the truth is that a brand is owned by its customers: “user-generated branding is happening whether companies want it to or not”.

We have taken that thought a step further by developing a brand that allows co-creation with you and the 3D objects you create: in our logo your 3D objects are taking center stage. They will inspire all of us every time.

Obviously, we are very conscious of the fact that your models are your personal creative expression, so we will ensure that you remain in control of your 3D designs.

We really love what we are doing and we hope that you will become passionate about Shapeways and want to be an active part of our creative community.

If you have feedback, please tell us how you feel in the forum, or drop us an email. We will listen and work hard to exceed your expectations time and time again.

Passionate about creating, indeed!

Cheers,

Jochem de Boer
CMO Shapeways

STL Support is Here!

nospam@example.com (Bart) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:20:00 +0000

The request we received most often was to support the STL file format. Being the granddaddy of file formats in rapid manufacturing, almost every 3D design application can export STL. As of today, Shapeways also accepts these files.

This will make it MUCH easier to get your design on Shapeways as you'll no longer have to rely on a third-party application to convert the files.

When uploading STL files, please note that we're assuming a base unit of 1m. This is non-standard; most applications assume either 1 inch or 1 mm. We'll add an option for that later, but for now just take care that you scale your object down before exporting it.

While most 3d design applications support STL, some CAD apps don't. In this case I can recommend MeshLab, a free Open Source cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) tool that will do the job for you. To see if your application can export to STL, check our table of Supported Applications.

Does STL do the trick for you, or is there another file format that you would much rather work with?

Our new prices - how do they work?

nospam@example.com (Bart) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:30:03 +0000

As we've stopped using our pre-beta discount today, I thought I should explain how our pricing works. I'll also give some samples of objects and their price and finish with a few hints on reducing printing costs.

Our prices

Our price is completely based on the volume of your printed object. Apart from the material price, there are no other fees: no shipping&handling, no additional taxes - nothing. There are no hidden surprises once you start ordering something. We list them in dollars per cubic centimeter (1 cubic inch = 16.3 cubic centimeters):

	Inside the European Union	Outside the European Union
Cream Robust	$2.98/cm3	$2.50/cm3
White Detail	$3.44/cm3	$2.89/cm3
Transparent Detail	$3.30/cm3	$2.77/cm3

(the price difference is the tax that we have to charge inside the European Union)

Information on the material properties and sample photographs are available on the Material Properties page.

To cover our shipping&handling fee, we're now using a minimum order size of $25. You can still order small objects though: we've upgraded our shop so you can now print multiple objects in one order (of different materials, too!).

Samples

To get a sense of what this means for some real objects, check out these samples:


Cream Robust Size:6.4 x 6 x 5.2 cm	White Detail Size:6.4 x 6 x 5.2 cm	Cream Robust Size:4.5 x 4.5 x 4.5cm (hollow!)

Reducing printing cost

If you want to reduce the price of your object, you have two options:

Reduce the size. If you reduce the size by half, the volume (and therefore the price) will be only one eighth. Reducing the object's size is a great way to quickly reduce the price, but watch out : if you scale the objects too much you may loose the fine detail.

Make the object hollow. Using less material results in a lower price. In order for this to work, you must leave a few holes in your object so the support material can be washed out. Try making at least two holes of at least 4 mm.

Now with twice the amount of materials!

nospam@example.com (Jochem de Boer) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:02:12 +0000

Okay, I know, while technically true, perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit. But I'm simply very happy to announce that after a small delay we can offer you now a choice: between 2 very relevant but also very different materials.

On top of the White, very strong material we've offered so far, we've now made available a Transparent material with a very high resolution (meaning it will look very nice & smooth). Obviously, there are other differences too: for example the transparent material is less suitable to resist temperatures ahead of 50 degrees Centigrade. This temperature perhaps sounds far fetched but e.g. a car standing in the sun could reach this temperature.

Anyway, this announcement suddenly offers you a choice between function and form. While the costs are similar. We'll continue expanding as we go, if you have any specific requests just don't hesitate to tell me in the comments.

Cheers,

Jochem

Marketing Shapeways

A New Day, a New Name

nospam@example.com (Jochem de Boer) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:56:00 +0000

A new day, a new name: as of today we are all part of the Shapeways community. While now this is just a name, over the coming weeks and months we'll work hard to turn it into a likeable brand.

Something that will inspire and enable you to create something beyond what you thought was possible; something that is fun to interact with and that is something different to each of us. All of this will apply to the branding too as we'll invite you to create the brand with us. Just as we are passionate about bringing ideas to life, together.

More to follow!

Cheers,

Jochem

[image by dro!d, released under a Creative Commons license]

Website Update

nospam@example.com (Bart) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Today we released a number of updates on the website. Some of them are 'behind the scenes' but there's also quite a bit of improvement in the frontend.

The fixes I'm most excited about are in the 3D backend: the import module has become a LOT more robust! Here are the best bits:

We now accept models with polygons; they will be automatically triangulated.
We now support NURBS models.
Files can now contain multiple separate objects - no need to join your meshes into one single object anymore.
We select better viewpoints for the model thumbnails if no camera information is provided.

This should make it a lot easier to upload your model - we should now be able to process any Collada file you throw at us! Of course, the usual modeling constraints still apply: make sure your object is a closed, manifold volume that doesn't have parts that are too thin to print. (More info on that here).

By the way, we're still looking for input on which file formats you'd like to see us support next - please pay a visit to the forum and leave your feedback there!

The 3D processing isn't the only part that was worked on - we also made quite a lot of fixes on the website itself. Most of them are usability improvements. Here's an overview of the best parts:

Login form

Added a 'Remember me' option to the login box.
Pressing <enter> will now submit the login information in Internet Explorer as well.

Homepage

Higher quality thumbnails in 'you and your design' (the 'action shots' of printed objects).
Added a 'Welcome to U-Design' box with useful information for new users.
Added a tab navigation element for the homepage.
Tightened up the 'Last forum posts' and 'What's Hot' boxes on the homepage.

Model page / galleries

Galleries are now sorted by modification date by default (showing the most recent work first).
Removed the mouse-over information boxes from the gallery pages and cleaned up the model information.
Tags will now auto-suggest while typing.

On to the next release! If you have suggestions for improvements we'd love to hear them, of course.

[image by richardmasoner, released under a Creative Commons license]

Welcome to U-Design!

nospam@example.com (Bart) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:57:04 +0000

Oohhh, the magic of a first post on a fresh blog! After all the preparation the moment to launch U-Design has arrived. And you, as one of our initial group of users, are here too! These are exciting times for us. Welcome, welcome.

So what is it that we do? At first glance, we allow you to turn your digital 3D designs into real objects that you can hold in your hands. We'll let you share your work, questions and stories with others because we think it will inspire everyone and help you to achieve greater heights.

What we're really about though, is "the democratisation of production".

Just like the telephone and the internet put people back in charge of communication and information, we think that the new direct manufacturing technologies will give people control over the production of the objects in their own life.

It may still sound like a far-fetched dream but we're convinced that we're at the beginning of something that is going to revolutionise the industry and your homes. We believe that in ten years from now your children will be surprised that there was a time where you couldn't have that coffee machine two inches smaller to make it fit nicely on your countertop.

This is our first step. We'll keep on working to expand our options, fabrication methods and material choices. After that - who knows what the world will look like?

Well, all philosophical things aside, I also have a few practical notes:

The name 'U-Design' and the current website design are only temporary - we're already working on our final name and on a new, polished design. After this redesign the site will largely remain to work the same way though.
We currently have only one material available for printing, but we're working hard on extending the number of options - of course, we'd love to hear your suggestions!
It would be cool if you could go ahead and order a model for printing. Because we are still testing U-Design,you'll be able to order at rock-bottom prices.

We're all glad you're here! Please share all your questions and comments - I'll be around to help.

Bart Veldhuizen
Community Manager

[image by JCKham, released under a Creative Commons license]

A new service

nospam@example.com (Peter Weijmarshausen) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:54:24 +0000

Welcome dear user,

after lots of research and development we are proud that we can offer to you a new service, which will allow you to bring your creativity to life in 3D!

Using a technique called rapid manufacturing or direct digital manufacturing we can offer to you the posibility to bring your digital models to life. The way it works is that you can upload a digital model in collada of x3d format, have a look whether it is indeed possible to manufacture it and then you can use the order button to order it and have it custom manufactured for you!

For now the material used to produce your model is ABS plastic, but in the near future we will add other materials, based on popular request and feasability.

As our service is brand new, so we are really eager to get your feedback, what you like and what we can improve upon. Join us in on the forum to share your ideas.

Hope you like it!

Kind regards,
Pete