Scaling is still on my wishlist for sure, if not right at the top.
I think a good, and pretty simple, solution would be to give the end user an option to scale at the time of purchase - and then a big yellow warning screen comes up and says:
!!! WARNING !!!
Large shifts in the scale of a model is not recommended.
Scaling a model down can quickly cause it to be too fragile and unprintable.
Scaling a model up can quickly cause a model to seem 'lo-res' and not properly detailed. (not to mention be exceedingly expensive.)
Show several photo examples of different models printed at various sizes, with their corresponding costs, and highlight a few labeled close ups demonstrating the pitfalls.
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Then The Purchasee could drag a slider, or set a number for the scale they want , and hit Order
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Then a bigger RED BOX would come up saying:
WARNING SOME MORE !!
Are you sure you want to scale this object?
We are warning you.
Don't blame The Designer, or Shapeways if what you get is not what you were hoping for.
Better yet, click here to contact The Designer and have them customize their model exactly to your desires...
or click here to go your own way...
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Now everyone feels more empowered.
* Purchasers get to think, "Wow with this cool futuretech I can custom personalize this dohicky to be just how I want it."
* Designers get to sell their designs to a wider audience without having to anticipate every desire, and spend cumbersome amounts of time allowing for every possibility. Also The Designers get to more rapidly experiment with their creations and optimism them, and make more mobetta products and the beat goes on...
* Shapeways gets to sell more products to more people, at minimal overhead to their infrastructure.
* For the few of those people who are not happy with their product, they cant say we didn't warn them.
also The Designer could chose not to allow scaling on a per model basis.
Everyone wins?