Shapeways lost 16 models during uploading

Discussion in 'Bug Reporting' started by panguver, Apr 17, 2015.

  1. panguver
    panguver Well-Known Member
    Hi,

    Shapeways loose 16 models right now during uploading 30+ models. When it will work again?

    Thank you.
     
  2. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    Is it that the models are not (yet) showing in your shop, or are you getting some kind of error message?

    The only time I've "lost" any model is when the geometry was bad and the upload actually failed.
    But, I'm usually not doing mass uploads.. I wait for a model to display any errors before I move on to the next upload.

    As you upload a model, and it first displays the prices, make note of the SPIN (or model#) for that item. If for some reason the processing fails after that point, you should be able to still get back to the item via the SPIN, even if it is not showing int he public shop.

    Outside of that, if I knew that I had uploaded 5 models in rapid succession, I myself would wait about half an hour before they show up in the shop.
     
  3. panguver
    panguver Well-Known Member
    Hi,

    Thank you for fast feedback. If I will await all procedures for each model, I will upload five model per hour. Instead it I upload all models first (close window after uploading) and wait all absolutely unnecessary check procedures. Earlier I can see all my models in "My models" directly after uploading. Now i found it in unprintable models with marks "loading" in checks rows.

    In my opinion, uploading process needs to separate from the printability checks process and make checks directly before ordering or placing in shop for sales.

    Thank you for idea to see in unprintable models. Now unchecked (but uploaded) model = unprintable model.
     
  4. draw
    draw Well-Known Member
    This has happened to me a few times. It does help to let an upload fully finish with all processing. If you rush things with too many uploads, even simple ones, things can get goofed up. Generally when this happens you can still see the designs in the My Designs window but they may not show up in the Shop Inventory, at least right away. Sometimes you might need to click on the show unprintable models in the My Designs window and it will show the rushed models that somehow become corrupted, in which case you can re-upload the file to that model. Other times you might need to just let things settle down. Best bet is to not overload your share of computer processing resources. It's not an infinite resource so if you're throwing too many designs at the servers there's no reason to expect everything will work well for you.




     
  5. draw
    draw Well-Known Member
    One more thing. I haven't tried all permutations of uploading, but this does tend to happen if you use the upload button while you're on the upload page of the model you are waiting to finish processing. What Shapeways should probably do is disable the upload button while a model is processing until it is safe for a user to upload a new design.
     
  6. mkroeker
    mkroeker Well-Known Member
    If you are essentially doing batch uploads, wouldn't it be better to use the shapeways API rather than the browser-based interactive upload ?
    (Probably naive question as I never tried the API and do not know its current status)
     
  7. panguver
    panguver Well-Known Member
    Hi,

    Where I can press button and my 100+ files will uploaded to Shapeways? On most of other similar services I can drag-n-drop all files to one window and all of it will uploaded automatically. I no found this function on Shapeways yet. What is API and how I can do it?

    Thank you.

    PS. All unchecked (not unprintable) files was moved from unprintable to "My files" during some time. But some truly unprintable files stayed there by null Bounding box reason (typical error for Shapeways). So most uploaded files become available in "My files" for next processing. It's good.
     
  8. mkroeker
    mkroeker Well-Known Member
    See https://developers.shapeways.com - this seems to be a javascript library with some php and python bindings for interfacing your own software to shapeways. I kind of would have expected a sample standalone uploader application but did not see it,
    but as you seem to be writing your own software for your variational modeling already, perhaps adding their API functions to it to do the upload is all you need.
     
  9. panguver
    panguver Well-Known Member
    How I can use API if I am not a programmer? What is Piton? If you cannot able to offer simple button for bulk uploadings, please not send me to API.
     
  10. draw
    draw Well-Known Member
    I'm not positive but I think the API might also let you set available materials and mark-ups during upload so it could be a time saver with respect to populating your store. With such a large offering of models it might be worth it to hire a programmer to do the API stuff so you can concentrate on generating more unique designs and more revenue instead of dealing with digital bits.

     
  11. panguver
    panguver Well-Known Member
    Thank you for ideas but pricing is not problem for me after creating EXCEL configurator of prices with ability to set fee as % + $ for each material. I can change all prices during several minutes for all of my models with all materials (1100+ models).
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2015
  12. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    <drumroll please>

    For those reading this thread that are adventurous enough to try some programming:

    I have been working with the API for some time, mostly doing some advanced reporting.
    In the spirit of trying to help the community, I have posted a set of sample code that includes a bulk uploader - it is over in the API category of the forum.
    https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&goto=114 098#msg_114098

    Note: These tools are not for the feint of heart. It takes a bit of fortitude to work thru the steps required to get it to work on your own. Hopefully, what I've posted above will simplify some of the process.
    Read The Directions <grin>
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2015
  13. panguver
    panguver Well-Known Member
    I would give a link to the competitor, with which I no need to become a programming guru for uploading multiple models at once, but... I will banned on this forum for such posts.