Hi Savannah,
The twisty-puzzle community is discussing the Puzzle & Multiparts files issue also at the
Twisty Puzzles Forum. As you understand, the sudden huge price increase has stirred a lot of emotion, as puzzle designers have invested tens of thousands dollars into Shapeways models, and tens of thousands of man hours on the designs. Unchecked, we would lose all our customers, and our investment in Shapeways would become sunk cost. We hope you will not let that happen.
As promised, here is an initial list of questions on this issue. Expect more to follow.
-How does the new pricing model work? What are the optimizations? Do we still need to hollow our parts to reduce cost?
-Do we still need to make those silly powder holes that only aggravate the powder issue at both Shapeways and the buyer?
-What are the design parameters for sinterboxes? How does the Shapeways "machine" know whether a model has been properly sinter boxed?
-What are the design parameters for sprues? Is Shapeways willing to polish sprued models? Would sprues be cheaper than sinterboxes?
-How about our legacy model into which we have invested tens of thousands of manhours?
-What solutions can Shapeways provide that does not require us to re-model, remesh, re-upload re-prove each of these already proven models?
-What toolings can Shapeways provide for packing optimization, automatic sinterbox generation and automatic sprue generation?
-What solutions can Shapeways provide for multi-part models that is cheaper and more customer-friendly than ordering each sub-model separately?
-What solutions can Shapeways provide to handle the 1M-triangle limit? Many models go beyond this limit if we need to add triangles for sinterboxes or sprues.
-Would Shapeways be willing to offer the "lease a tray" option? That is, I arrange a full 3D-printer tray, optimally filled with puzzle pieces, and Shapeways prints the whole tray. Shapeways could shake out the recyclable powder, but you keep the pieces dusty. I would take care of the cleaning, sorting, shipping, etcetera. Would you be willing to discuss such option?
Thanks.
Oskar