More Comprehensive Image Customization

Discussion in 'Shapeways Shops' started by PeregrineStudios, Dec 17, 2012.

  1. PeregrineStudios
    PeregrineStudios Well-Known Member
    Hey there,

    One of my pet peeves with the Shapeways product creation is that I can't really choose the order my images appear in. Sometimes they appear in the order uploaded; sometimes they seem to order themselves randomly. I'd love a click-and-drag interface to customize what order the images appear in, much like Etsy. Again like Etsy, it would be great to have the ability to customize the zoom factor of image thumbnails (ie the thumbnail appears zoomed in on a particular point, and clicking it takes you to the image, which is full size).
     
  2. Bathsheba
    Bathsheba Well-Known Member
    Yes please on ability to reorder images, it's very annoying when images come up misordered and I have to delete all and upload again. This actively discourages me from adding images to objects: adding even one means a several-minute commitment.

    This matters -- it will never happen that I don't care what order they're in.
     
  3. bartv
    bartv Member
    Noted. Thanks!
     
  4. bartv
    bartv Member
    To follow up: I brought this up during yesterday's Product meeting and was informed that we just started a project to re-work how we use images on Shapeways.com. Some of your wishes are already on the drawing board, others (like the zooming) weren't yet. I forwarded this thread to the team and they were happy with the input. So if you have more wishes - post them here!

    Bart
     
  5. woody64
    woody64 Well-Known Member
    Concerning images there are some further topics remarkable:
    - viewing different angles
    (currently I reuse the background image for the 3d rotation as additional image since it shows the item from different sides in one picture)
    - using hyperlinks

    Woody64
     
  6. vandal968
    vandal968 Member
    1. Ability to change the angle that shapeways has rendered the part. Often they are backwards or upside-down and they are never shown at the most flattering angle.

    2. Ability to remove the default shapeways rendering entirely. If we can't adjust it, at-least let us delete it so that we can use better pictures to illustrate the product.

    3. Page view counter. It would be great to see how often our items are being viewed, wishlisted, etc. That would help designers see which ideas have better potential to help guide future design efforts.

    4. Give the option to apply markup as either $ or %. Give the option to apply it to all materials in one shot, so that you don't have to enter a markup 20x.

    cheers,
    c
     
  7. kspence
    kspence Member
    Give formatting options so we don't need to know HTML tags. It's much harder to use that way.

    Need to be able to delete the rendering you give us, as they generally are upside down and frankly look terrible.
     
  8. Bathsheba
    Bathsheba Well-Known Member
    PLEASE.

    If I can't make it be at a decent angle, yeah I'd be happy to be able to get rid of it.

    OH GOD YES. WHY IS THIS LAST NOT THERE?
     
  9. JeremyMallin
    JeremyMallin Well-Known Member
    In general, I agree with everything you said above... BUT, I just had a major breakthrough a couple weeks back regarding item 1. If you can convert your files to .X3D before uploading your model will automatically show up in the proper angle like it was in your modeling program. .X3D also has the added benefit of working with Full-Color Sandstone prints as well. I took Shapeways' recommendation and started using AccuTrans to convert my files to .X3D before uploading. It's available as a free trial or a $20 purchase.

    Hope that helps.
     
  10. Dragoman
    Dragoman Member
     
  11. Innovo
    Innovo Member
     
  12. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    I also think the default render and the 3d view should not be removable.
    They are a good way to ensure that "what you buy is what you get".

    Now.. I do think the developers should give the shop owner a way to request that the default view be rotated about some other axis.
    Several of the different design programs have a different sense of what is "up". I use Truespace, and if I export a STL, then it appears in the render correctly, but if I export a WRL and then use Meshlab to convert it to a STL, it ends up flopped over on it's side. Shouldn't be too difficult for the developers to give us an option to rotate the default render on request... in fact it might be possible to just export one frame from the 3d view out as the default render.

    @bathsheba: Give the option to apply markup as either $ or %. ??? Why not use the CSV markup feature??? That allows you to update all markups on all models at once.
     
  13. AmLachDesigns
    AmLachDesigns Well-Known Member
    I agree 100%


    A brilliant, elegant and (now I've read it) simple idea. I cannot believe that it would be too hard to implement either.


    Effective? I suppose so.
    Consistent with the 21st century, modern (younger than me!) users and the way the rest of the site works? Not so sure.

    The csv approach might be acceptable if you could set up your whole page that way, i.e. materials, markup, description (inc HTML if you wish), tags, category. But for just mark-up, imo, no.

    Setting up a model page is a major pain. It is in everyone's interest to facilitate the creation of data-rich, interesting, enticing shop pages which are easy to maintain.
     
  14. Bathsheba
    Bathsheba Well-Known Member
    Agree, CSV is a bug not a feature.

     
  15. bartv
    bartv Member
    Hey guys,

    I just want to assure you that we're tracking all your suggestions here. I do agree with the notion that the preview render is relevant because that's a 'guarantee' of what you'll get.

    Thanks!

    Bart
     
  16. kspence
    kspence Member
    Yes, having the preview rending is good to guarantee what you get, however, having that preview upside down doesn't have value. Being able to pick the angle would be best, or at least be able to flip the axis
     
  17. MrNib
    MrNib Well-Known Member
    Having a manually rotatable and zoomable 3D preview mechanism would be nice although it might require more computing power in the Shapeways servers and risk causing user compatibility issues.

    There's also another idea that can alsobe served by a user's dedicated website or posts in the forum, but having 5 to 10 linkable user or store related web pages available that are located in the same directory structure as the store might be useful. You could dedicate those pages to designer information, special instructions, general photos, archived pdf documents, etc. without having to navigate outside of the store environment. And unlike something like posting in the forum it allows the store to better arrange and structure information for the customer.