Is FUD going to dissapear for a while at the end of the trial period?

Is it planned that FUD will finish for a while at the end of the trial period or will we go go straight to a production version?

If it goes what will happen to models only available in it ? - I assume they will become unobtainable.

I've been re-jigging some of my designs to take advantage of the thinner walls in FUD, but this has made them unprintable in other materials.

Tom

A similar thread was started 2 days ago - https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=5206&a mp;start=0&

To quote Ana - "One of the factors that decides whether or not we keep it on is simply how much the community likes it/buys it. Another factor is how reliable of a material it is for the community's designs. We're making sure its a viable long term solution for the community, but we're well aware of how excited everyone is about it. "

@stop4stuff Cheers!

@tebee The materials and operations team is still figuring out what things will look like, although my guess is that if FD/FUD stay on in the materials portfolio, they'll remain uninterrupted. You raise a good question about what happens to models which are only available in FUD, if FUD goes away. We'd have to make sure to give you guys a good amount of advance warning to alter your models as need. Do you think 2 weeks would be sufficient?

Some things like this: https://www.shapeways.com/model/253523/planetary_die.html just could not be done in any other material. If you take it away then the model just can't be sold until you make available again or another material that can except such small gaps without fusing.

Hey mctrivia, as I said, we'd just give you a good amount of advance warning.

But really, I want to make sure everyone realizes that we know the community loves this material, and now we're just making sure that the quality and minimum cost effectiveness are there. If all of those are there, we're set to go. And we really want to be able to make everyone happy.

If you make FUD available permanently, then I'd end up eventually re-designing almost every model in my shop to be available in FUD only.

It's not practical for me to begin that process yet.. because of the possibility that the material might go away, jump drastically in price, or heaven forbid, be required to be thicker.

At this time, with the exception of new stuff I'm adding, I'm advising customers to buy (old) things in FUD for the smoother finish, and that I'll get to work adding finer details to my designs once FUD is permanent.

Can we get an early report on what issues the production team is running into? Breakage? Excessive Reprints?

Let's go Elmer!

one issue is parts being smooth on only half the print. there are a few reports in the It arrived section.

At the moment I am not producing models to sell in FUD, afterall there is no point designing the models in FUD until it has been confirmed as a full time material.

I would guess currently 90% of orders are just test prints being done by designers and no doubt sales will increase 10 fold once people are designing models exclusively in FUD and making them available in their shops.

Regards,

Jack

Would be bad for my project I am working in currently because I designed it with a detail level only FUD can reproduce. Any idea how long it will dissapear??? I would vote to make it a standard material!

Regards,

Leon

Thank Pete, I think you have made it clearer what some of the issues are from you point of view with FU/FUD.

From our point of view , as designers, it would be helpful though if we had a little more feedback on how things were going with it.

For a start are the delays with production just due to capacity problems - I assume it's a slower process - or are you having production problems - lots of models failing and having to be redone which results in both a waste in material and machine time.

I think it's a material which is an answer to many of our prayers but it's a bit worrying knowing how much of our resources to devote to it while we are still uncertain of it's future.

I personally now have about 30 models that wlll only work in FD/FUD. If it goes a large chunk of my current future strategy goes with it. But I'm at the point were I am reluctant to devote too much of my own scares resources - time and money in my case - to it without having more feedback on how it is going and what it's future is likely to be.

I realize you cannot give us assurances at this point, but any hints would be be gratefully devoured and help to reassure us!

Tom

Thanks again Pete - I feel a lot more confident now !


Now where is my last FUD order? - this is my first production batch, i.e. stuff for re-sale rather my own amusement.

Tom

Just joined the community with the aim to do models for 1:5000 spaceships and 1:300 sci-fi gaming, I already suspect that this material is going to be pretty much my main type. Looks like I will hold of for a while until I know what the future holds.

How far behind are the FUD orders? I'm still waiting for some parts from 30th May.

Well I've got one from the 18th May - any advance on that ?

Hi Guys,

All late orders from May will be sent out before the beginning of next week!

Regarding the trial period, this is what our blog states:

The demand for Frosted Detail and Frosted Ultra Detail has been overwhelming, and we hear your enthusiasm! We have learned a lot running the trial for these 8 weeks--much about design limitations, material properties, and most importantly how talented our community is at designing amazing things.


We are extending our trial period for an additional week until the end of next week. Over the course of the next week we will be doing a thorough evaluation of the entire trial. Rather than stopping to trial to evaluate, we want to continue ensuring that your designs can be 3d printed while we look back and plan forward. We are doing the utmost to ensure your demands for high detail materials and prints are met, and we hope to find clever ways to make this material a permanent part of the Shapeways material family while maintain great quality and lead time. In the meanwhile, we will also be working hard to get late orders out and to better manage lead times going forward.

We hope to have some good news for you next week, so until then--please hang tight and we look forward to helping you create!