Questions regarding printing

I have 3 little questions :

1, Earrings Hooks are still provided by Shapeways ?

2. What is the minimum you use for thickness for the earrings , 1 mm ? (Got some designs and don`t want to kill them due wrong measures)

3. If you have a little time like 3 min , to check my shop and tell me (from your experience ) if : a. For the circles if will print correctly or they get digital look - is thickness 1.5 mm ok or I can go down 1 mm breakage kinda` scares me. (I have in my shop "Leaf Kiss" modeled with "Subdivision modeling" and others are without)

I can`t afford to print some models right now from my country , so asking is first thing to go then model the things up.

I`m thinking thickness like : 1.5 mm pendants , 2 mm for bracelets and rings.

But I don`t know how a sphere will look or cylinder will print , if will print ok or get that "Flat shading" digital look.


I have a "Snake" themed abstract set that includes Ring+Pendant+Earrings and another one themes "Cross of Sacrifice" Rings+Pendant+Earrings.... don`t want to redo something due misinformation.

Thx

1. nope

2, depends on the material, size and design

3. Smoothing is a visual thing and the printers can't see. Any faceting shown in the preview render will be on the model, general rule of thumb is to have the face sizes at half the material minimum detail size, e.g. for Strong & Flexible plastic the min detail is 0.2mm, so 0.1mm face size is best.

Paul

Thx for the answer Paul!

That means I must do all things in Subdivision Modeling and let Shapeways do the Boolean Operations in their software. I will start with the designs that are flat shaded by nature with mechanical look and others SUBD like lvl 2. And rethink some of my Designs (Including some sculptures) with this things in mind and to be available in all materials skipping ceramics.