General information on the new pricing formula

This topic is of a more general one so we can all gain some more insight on how the new pricing affects our models.

For specific question and help with your model pricing go here:
https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=21408 &start=0&

This is a quote from https://www.shapeways.com/support/pricing and contains the basic formula behind the pricing:

And here are some very helpful graphs by Mr Nib.
I will be hunting and collecting some more. But feel free to post helpful data here.


And

Here is another example but with a "low density" cylinder. It is similar to the last example except 6 long gaps are cut from the wall to lower the density below 10%. As with the previous example the "cylinder" is scaled only in the x and y dimensions. Low density models now are often much more expensive than before which is why I did this analysis. Note that the major price drop is only due to the ability to fit the 40 mm ball into the central cylinder void beyond some scaled size. That does not apply to all situations so you may never be able to reduce cost by enlarging your model. Anyway, the model for this analysis looks like this:



And the same curve sets as before...

There is a small discrepancy in volume calculations on the site.
I have moved all posts with regard to that topic to a new thread:
https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&goto=102 401#msg_102401

Please keep it on topic and clean.

interesting

Here is another simple example. I will edit and add the charts later. In this case it is a 40mm diameter disk which is 1mm thick. The variable for the model set is a 1mm diameter rod that passes perpendicularly through the center of the disk. It starts with a 1mm long rod which being the same thickness of the disk means it does not protrude from the surface of the disk. It's just a disk.



The last model has the same disk but a rod that is 81mm long, meaning it projects outwards 40mm from each side of the disk.



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Here are the charts. Unfortunately the old price data has been removed from site so I zeroed out that column of data.







What's interesting about this example is that large price changes for a rod length of less than 40mm are primarily driven by the changes in machine volume. Beyond a rod length of 40 mm the price increases are caused by increases in rod material.

I thought I'd supplement the last example and add the machine space image. This is a great example of how machine space can quickly expand even though you are adding a small amount of material. Since people are wondering about this subject again.

I think people will always wonder about this subject. Because there are so many factors when it comes to the particular shape of your model, it's hard to visualize it all at once, and making a change to one pert of the model to decrease material/machine space or adding a loop/sprues to cut back on labor costs will always change one or more of the other factors. I've been experimenting with the same set of 14 parts for the past week, separating them into their own files, adding multiple quantities, spacing them apart with sprues and loops, etc., and every time I get unexpected results that I have to troubleshoot to figure out.

It's definitely a much more complicated pricing method than before and we all appreciate the level of transparency that comes with it (although I don't think it's 100% transparent how they show the prices in the model details, but that's a topic for another thread). But the confusion as to how it works is renewed with each model we upload, and will probably be that way for awhile until we've had enough tests to grasp the concept. Before it was as easy as thinning walls and breaking your files into multiple parts to pack together in order to get an ideal density. Now it's having to visualize the machine space prior to upload - a feat that takes the software in the viewer a minute or two to figure out for models with more than 100k polygons in my experience, then adding material and labor costs to that.

I honestly have no idea what price to expect anymore but it's something we'll all have to get used to, I suppose.

It's nice to see what it looks like. My 'My Models' was getting too filled with clutter so I blew away all my test trials.

More valuable information. This will work for the new one who is just going to start his/her career.

As for myself, I could never think of any designs that were economically compatible with the new pricing structure, so I gave up on it and started building my own SLS printer. I did have all kinds of ideas for designs concerning the old pricing structure and was just starting to get into the material at the time of the change, but now, nothing. I hope that one day Shapeways will go back to the old pricing structure because it's always nice to have Shapeways selling my designs.