Final Negotiations on FD/FUD

by setting up a standard point. What I would do is ask you to use netfabb or something else to shift your model so that point 0,0,0 was a safe place to add the spruce and that the spruce could travel backwards along y access without interfearing with anything.

I see. Love to see how it turns out.

I guess I could also shift and rotate the model for you if you want to enter in an x,y,z location and a free axis for the shaft.

I usually have a shaft underneath my vehicles to act as a handle during painting. It would be easy for me to move the vehicle with the shaft to specific location so that you can connect the spruce to the end of the shaft.

I have another question for Shapeways. Have you find out the reason why some models are printed half smooth/glossy/transparent and the other half opaque/rough for FUD?


If I am going to pay more, and if I get a model like that, can I have 50% refund? :laughing:

you can get reprint or 100% refund if they screw up a print and you ask.

Is the discoloration just wax that wasn't removed? Or is it an actual flaw in the build quality? My understanding is that FUD just prints in a higher resolution than FD. Can the machine be run in both resolutions at the same time? Doing both FUD and FD? If that's the case, then I'd suggest maybe not doing that... because an awful lot of my models have that 50-50 look.

btw, cool Phantom. How long/what scale?

Yes, I know. And Shapeways' CS provide excellent service.

On the other hand, if the "effect" is random and they don't know why, it would be a waste of time and money. I'm still waiting for my 10% breakage reprint and don't know when they will be ready or if the reprints will be okay in quality. Meanwhile my whole batch sits here and cannot be delivered to customers.

That's a 1:144 Yak I bought from Small Scale Shop:
https://www.shapeways.com/model/195518/010a_yak_38_forger.htm l?gid=sg33816

I had this problem also with WSF and was duplicating several parts to one piecr:
The startup costs for WSF made my parts expensive. Unfortunately the $5 for FD/FUD break it completely for my parts.

For WSF I hat also a discussion with shapeways:
1) having small pieces without a "spruce" would be a boomerang since the cost problem is the cleaning process.
2) therefore I've added a spruce and built 10x packs of my items to cover the start-up costs.

I did this for several months but its a lot of work. Therefore I've implemented a blender script recently which does 90% of this job for me:
https://www.shapeways.com/model/274429/10_x_btit_forage__tam_ __tbn_.html?gid=ug
This item is already generated.

To achieve that the item has to be loaded, the script has to be executed and the new item has to be saved by hand.
(Parameters are: Number of copies, needed y space ... )
It's not a general purpose script but maybe a starting point.

Regarding half smooth/half rough models...

I've seen a couple of railway models (1/160th scale) - not mine, so I don't have photos - that recently came back. Surfaces that seemed to be parallel to the printing process were strongly (emphasis, strongly) rastered. Other surfaces, including some curves were perfectly smooth.

I don't get it - I would expect angled surfaces and curves to suffer from "aliasing" type effects - not flat surfaces at 90 degree angles.

Is this typical of FUD output - or something new cropping up - or a problem in the model itself.

Sorry I don't have the model to show - just asking in generalities here as a newbie....

Thanks,
Lou

I had some On30 tieplates printed. They are pretty darn small ..



Close-up ..



Note that in the middle of the photo the lines in the piece .. while directly above it .. it's smooth. Shrug. Now .. they are right at the limits for printing FUD (.3mm thickness) so this could just be me hitting that printing limit.

Thanks! Amazing stuff those tieplates!

Very anxious to see my first group of models - hopefully it won't be much longer...

- ljj

When you guys say "spruce", do you mean "sprue"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprue_(manufacturing)

I am familiar with making a sprue when I do mold making and casting, but not familiar with a spruce.

I'd love to know about the inconsistent surface in FUD as well. It's the only thing holding me back from printing a large number of files.

Lincoln

I think this post holds part of the answer. At least it explains the inconsistencies in the model I've had printed.

/Fredrik

I had the same thing happen to my FUD models.

What I am wondering is if it something that we are stuck with, or if they have managed to stop the problem.

Lincoln

Well I would like to add my voice to the chorus of disappointment. I also make tiny things that could never feasibly absorb a $5 start up fee.

Since discovering Shapeways I have spent hundreds of hours (and dollars) designing and modelling parts for a miniature toy range. I have even spent a decent amount of time on a website that was going to point to my Shapeways shop. Then, just like that, Shapeways taketh away.

What sort of things do they imagine people want to print in ultra detail? Small, highly detailed things, of course! Now I do understand that printing 6 cent parts is not sustainable, but slapping a $5 start up fee is absolutely the wrong way to address the situation. A minimum cost of $5 per file would be more acceptable, or as someone else suggested, a $5 start up, which includes the first x amount of material.

Shapeways, I implore you: please reconsider this action.

Here's an example of what I am referring to (and BTW, this is a beautiful model!).... On one side of the phonebox, the surface is smooth. On the next side, the rastering/scanning lines are very evident, and in fact, at a 45 degree angle. When modeling metal things, this is a problem and its not clear how easy it would be to sand it out, given the fine details on the surface.

https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=5777&a mp;start=0&

Thanks! :blush:

Those diagonal lines, whilst noticable (at 2.5 real life size in the post image) are quite small, probably in the region of 0.05mm or less. And funnily enough, the side you say is smooth has just-visable-to-the-eye horizontal lines across, the smoothest sides of the model make up the whole roof area.

Wierd stuff this FUD.

I final got a $4 coupon for reprinting my broken FUD soldiers. But when I uploaded the file containing the number of soldiers to be reprinted, it cost USD9 because of the $5 start up charge.

So, now, even with the coupon, I need to pay $5 for Shapeways' bad print!

Thanks to CS, the coupon is ultimately updated to include the start up charge. I think this start up charge should be a default addition to coupons for reprinting FUD items.