Variants- Your feedback Needed

Another thing that Selling page material pull down selector needs is the ability to select more than one material at a time. The way it is now you need to constantly re-click the pull down to keep adding another material. (The control key does not appear to let you add multiple materials within one drop down.) If you are adding 20 materials you need to do this with 40 mouse clicks! (Maybe it's an April Fool's joke?) Another approach is to have an option to activate all materials and afterwards deselect the ones you don't want to sell in the list that is generated.

Yes. This really needs fixing. My current workaround for it is to use Shapeways less, but that's not really ideal.

Is this not going to be fixed? Or is there another way to add/price groups of materials together that I'm not seeing?

Probably doable via the sales spreadsheet (csv) - the list of material numbers was posted on the API forum some time ago.

I joined the beta by checking BETA PARTICIPATION in my profiles settings.

Where can i find the variants feature. I have so manny models with different variants. Thats too much fr my shop page. id really love to use this feature.

Cheers,
ps915

I thought there was a bug in changing titles. But I guess it's related to this. Or is it a bug?

You can change the title of a model on the details page, but you can also change it on the materials page when you click on a model from the associated model pull down. Only the change on the materials page appears as the corrected title on the product page in the store (and I'm not certain at the moment what title is appearing on the my models page). In the long run will the models associated under a product have their own distinguishing titles or will it not matter what they are set as? For example will the top level product page have a title like "Imitation Oreo" and the variants be able to titled to something like "Small Imitation Oreo" and "Large Imitation Oreo"? Or won't it matter? I get the uneasy feeling that whatever I do now will need to changed in the future because I'm not sure how this is all supposed to work when variants hits the scene. It's confusing.

And in the example mentioned previously of the same ring being able to be ordered in plastic or a metal like steel, with processing happening in the background to select the correct model, the models will most likely look different, probably because engraving or embossing heights must be different (same goes for ring sizes depending on what ring dimensions have been scaled). Exactly what image does the customer see when ordering the ring? Do they get to examine the actual renders somehow before placing their order? Will there be something equivalent to the what's in the box feature that shows the render for the model they are ordering?

Question/request about what will happen when variants are implemented:

Let's say I upload three models, each a different size of the same bracelet design, and right now because there are not variants I make them into three separate products. Then say that I promote them or maybe they are linked to from some other sites. THEN variants are implemented and I move them all into one product with three variants. It seems like this will cause some broken links. Is there a way that there can be a redirect or something to the new locations of these designs?

I'm trying to decide whether I should hold off on uploading a bunch of models that have variants and sizes and then move them into variants later when that is available, or whether I should just sit on these things for now and wait for variants.

Laura

I can't say I fully understand exactly what they are doing but each uploaded model has its own SPIN number so the general url should remain valid for each model even after it becomes a variant. If you want to use the short url that's another issue. Those have been problematic for a long time.

If a variant part is converted to something like a for-sale-not-public part then there could be linking problem if the model now requires a key for access. If it becomes part of a new class of parts such as for-sale-variant then maybe it can still be linked to without a key but won't show up in the store view. It would still be in your shop inventory but they could filter the store display and keep the variants from displaying there.

I don't really understand what the top level will look like. Is it a whole different "model" container that only directs to the variants or uploaded models put inside of it? Will there still be descriptions and tags etc. within the variant models? Or is that stuff only going into the top level container? Does search apply to every variant or just the top level? So many questions!

I'm going to clean up my store the old fashioned way, and then slowly port over to the variants thing if it makes sense. That means having one visible top level model and linking to the for-sale-not-public variants within the primary product description using the key on the url. If there's a link floating out there with a key the link should remain valid as long as that model is set for-sale. A really big potential problem is if the key can change every time you fiddle with a model. The bottom line is that I think the best way to link things is to always use the address with the key to avoid linking problems, but I could be wrong!

Hey Hunter,

Any news on when the variant options will be available for testing?

Regards

Yeah, this would be a welcome feature.

Hi Carlos, Max and everybody else!

So the short version is that we are getting very, very close with Variants.

We will be doing some user testing over the next few weeks and I hope to have a concrete date for a full launch very soon.

If you have any questions please leave them here and I'll try to respond quickly and in detail

Thanks for keeping an eye on this!

Hunter

Please add me to the beta testing group

Dear hunter_yaw,

i am waiting so long for this feature and i dont want to wait any longer. I have really really manny variants of my designs i want to sell but i dont want to spend my ne next two years on uploading these Designs to shapeways. So can you tell me when the feature will be released? If not, i will upload all my Desings to other printing services who already have variants on their system.

I really love shapeways, but know there is a point i just want to know a date or i dont want to wait any loger! ;-)

You can also contact me via private message!

Cheers,
Phil

@ps915 We're working as fast as we can on building this feature, and would like to give it to you soon. To help, can you tell us what are the variants that you need for for designs?



What are they?
Your images don't clearly tell us what the variant groups and variant options are yet.

Can you list them out in their entirety by,

The Variant group :
group options?
A
B
C

ie

Ring sizes:
US size 1
US size 2
US size 3
etc?

You can also email them to Community at Shapeways dot com

Hi Andrew,

thanks for the quick answer.

Background Info: My prodcuts have all different sizes or angles or uniqe sets of variants depending on the main product. The product itself is alsways the same but as i told there are for example different angles for action cam mounts for example droneracing.

So here is what would really help me:

I want to create just one product with different options:

Parent: For example product "Drone A - Action Cam Mount" has these options:
"Drone A - 15° Action Cam Mount" = Drone_A _15.stl
"Drone A - 25° Action Cam Mount" = Drone_A _25.stl
"Drone A - 35° Action Cam Mount" = Drone_A _35.stl

So i want to create the poduct "Drone A - Action Cam Mount" and want to upload all the files together with an multiple uploader.
After that i just want to use one product description for the main product and also set the category and tags just one time.
Then i want them all in the same colors/material. So it must be possible to select the parent color/material and then just hit a button "set material for all variants".
Price is a bit difficult because of the different .stls. So this must go the old way to select it for every material/color.
Next point is: i want to generate Renders where all variants are the same orientation. So mabe just set orientation of one variant an check them to all other.

In the end i just want the different prodcuts in my store with with maybe a numer of variants underneeth it. Then the customer can choose the parent thing and then choose a variant and color/material.

You saind you need this from me:

group options?
A
B
C

I dont need fixed categories. Lets say all my designs are these:

parent: Drone A action
- variant: 15°
- variant: 20°

parent: Drone B action
- variant: 20°
- variant: 30°

parent: universal LED mount
- variant: 27mm
- variant: 28mm
- variant: 30mm
- variant: 35mm

Can i use all these variants on across all my products?


So you need these lists of categories from me? (just an example)

- variant: 15°
- variant: 20°
- variant: 20°
- variant: 30°
- variant: 27mm
- variant: 28mm
- variant: 30mm
- variant: 35mm


What i if my next design will add this variant

- variant: 37mm

Do i have to add a new global variant option?


Maybe it would be better to have different and unique variants for every product you want variants for.


I hope you see what my needs are and my next question is, what of these is yet implemented in shapeways, and how is the beta variants working? =) hope i can join the beta and finally get all my designs uploaded so my customers can put together some addons for their drones from your printers.

So it will be so damn helpfull, if we have a multiple uploader and these things i said above, to rapidly uplaod manny files. if I had to imagine that i has to uplaod all my STLS and pick every material, color, price, orientation, tags, description... my public store wil have so manny pages..


Regards,
Phil

Hello
my question is how i make the connection between the size variat and the matching model for print?
i upload all sizes model i put in the variant size list but when i select a size from the product page i see that it is always refering to only same size model, size8

thank you in advance

kobi kor

Hello

Hello
I assigned one variant type the "Ring Size" for this type i have 7 different sizes this means i need to have 7 different models uploads and to assign each model to the matching size so when a customer orders size 7 the system will automatically selects the model size 7, i couldn't find how to do it

Hello
I assigned one variant type the "Ring Size" for this type i have 7 different sizes this means i need to have 7 different models uploads and to assign each model to the matching size so when a customer orders size 7 the system will automatically selects the model size 7, i couldn't find how to do it

Hello,

I was wondering if you can make the "Ring Size" Variants go to Size 16?

Also wondering if you can add the ability to create are own custom variants? Eg. Click on Variants - Custom... then Enter a custom variant name for my product. This would be very useful.

Thanks,
Gregg

I agree with Phil (@ps915): I would like free-style variants too (ex: "squared corners"/"round corners" for dice, or "regular"/"blind-friendly" for a puzzle or "10cm height"/"15cm height" for a sculpture).
I understand Shapeways' need for normalization, but we also need some freedom when the variants' list is not enough.