Road To Major Fud Improvements Starts With Repricing

Changing prices one-by-one model is the least problem. Yes most of us may have dozens or hundreds of models and that would sound like "frustrating" but its not. You see, the most difficult part and main issue is that all the multi-parts items have to re-edit from the start, attach all the loose kit parts on a sprue and re-upload the files. So far, we had the chance to host up to 250 loose parts into a single file. Now, each loose kit part cost $1 as addition to total price - just imagine a 60-pieces model kit like THIS one. We 're doomed!

@Anyuta : exactly what is the Problem.
I've also kits with many parts.
I think then I can close the shop.

Your best bet on this is to make the top a separate part that is assembled by the customer.

Steve Hunter

Ah, but then you get hit by the footprint costs. I have current and upcoming kits that use a lot of real estate on the platform...

I sincerely hope that in this quest for fairness in pricing, that the top sellers aren't negatively affected or this will impact Shapeways profits tremendously.

Will there be an option to prevent a tech from moving parts within the multi-part model I upload so that my footprint does not change?

Same thoughts. After some analysis, the products of most of my shop, too, will decrease in cost, notably those that sell best. Only my largest products increase in cost, a few by 100% or more. Although change is scary and I'm sure we're going to have some surprises, good and bad. Like Stony, I, too, think overall this will be a good change.

I share Anyuta's concerns about support material affecting surface smoothness, and the crystallization problem. A designer being able to set the orientation certainly helps. For some models, surface smoothness is more important than cost, so some analysis of each design will be needed and then likely some orientation setting. With more than 800 designs in the shop, that will take a long time to do but probably worth the effort.

It is good to see that SW is trying to make FUD/FXD even better and I very much appreciate that we have been given some advance notice.

Hi thanks,

Most of my designs are currently kits with multi-part models, In another thread, a Tech mentioned that they have the ability to separate and move the parts within my models I did not know this prior, but it wasn't a big deal till now, IMHO.

Take the example of a locomotive shell, hollow inverted bathtub. If I take all of my loose parts, sprue them up and place them INSIDE the hollow shell (if I am not worried about surface quality) to intentionally reduce the footprint and save on wax use, I won't want them pulled out or it will increase my cost because the footprint will increase no? OR, will I get a double-hit on the footprint or is the footprint based on the overall model coverage?

A link to a not for sale design that only you will be able to see.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/D2VZJFX8F/?key=e790122a2522d56a0ec73b9d0ee929c3

I don't have access to the backend tools to do an actual cost estimate, but those can very easily be laid down to produce for the minimum Z axis cost, and then you'll have a $7 upcharge for the separate parts.
But, those could very easily be sprued together on the ends, and I'd bet that the net cost is around a $2 reduction over current pricing.

I'm just guessing, but without sprues.. about $5 more expensive, with sprues, $2 cheaper.

Is there, or will there be, a way for us to check what the effect will be on our individual models before the launch date of the new prices ?

Tom

The new price structure is very complex and difficult to understand at this stage. I do want to modify the designs in preparation, but I need to know ASAP what the consequences will be be for my current designs. When will we know?

I'm deeply concerned about part of this change. I do see the potential for some of my designs, but some need to be altered and I'm not sure how this needs to be done to get the costs down.
To name just one, I have a design with 40 parts. It is already designed so the orientation will be as good as possible. So yes, I'm happy with finally being able to have a fixed orientation. The $1 per part cost is in my view excessive, especially for small simple pieces. I either have to add sprues or split the design over two files. Both actually. This means my manual needs to be altered, my advertizing needs to be changed, etc., etc.

What also annoys me very much is that I again have to order test prints so that my customers know they'll get their entire (modular!) order. I've barely covered the costs of my previous test prints and I'm not sure it will be worth it to go through this again.... unless the prices drop to such a level it will be more interesting for me and my customers.... I really hope it will, but I have my doubts.

In particular I'm interested how this will effect these two designs:

1) the number of parts is what mainly concerns me
https://www.shapeways.com/product/KVAW85RWW/ets35x01-hotchkiss-h39-set-1?optionId=59153188



2) the height and wax required is what makes me especially concerned about this one.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/U...iss-h39-set-2-option-a-sa18?optionId=58872307

The thing is... after the debacle that was the price change of WSF I'm dreading this. Yes, maybe 70% will decrease prices and 20% will increase, but how much? If those 70% decrease a 2% and those 20% increase a 300% (like it happened back with WSF).

I doubt we will feel that price decrease too much and this will just eliminate multipart models.

Why is there no preview of the price changes, like there was for WSF?

Yes, before (actually now), optimisation for FUD/FXD was easy. I just hit "volume" in 3D modeler and I immediatelly saw, if the optimisation was worth the work.
In future, it will much more difficult. Is it worth to swap height for space in machine? Is it worh to swap support volume for machine space? Or even worse - is it worth to swap price for quality (when modeler will _know_ he swapped lower price for lower quality - should customer know?)
Sometimes it will be difficult to imagine the result - if the optimisation was worth the work - it makes no sanse to give it many hours to get 1 USD cheaper model.

But I'm quite lucky, I have to say - I've already changed all my smaller scale models (N and TT) to B-HDA (so I have it sprued already, where it makes sanse) and I advertise it as "default" material in my shop (and now I'm getting most order in this material).
So when the prices of FUD/FXD model will rise, I will just hide those materials from product page and give customer option "B-HDA only" (and keep it like this until B-HDA prices will rise - no recommendation here).
0 scale models are in WSF anw probably will migrate to HP Jet Fusion at some point, so only H0 models are left for FUD/FXD - and there I'll see, if I'll keep them or leave them (even now they are quite expansive, so they are not selling much - removing them or keep them barely salable at all is not much harm for my shop).

If the $1 hit per part is just a ploy to eliminate mutli-part models, I may just have to close up shop. I have counted on this for delicate parts in my kits that need a clean finish all over the parts, using a sprue might ruin the individual parts when the customer tries to remove the part from the sprue or destroy the surface finish I need for a clean design.

In these cases the customer will have no recourse for replacement because it will be "their" fault.

Also, think of all the extra material that will increase the overall cost when adding the sprues to connect all of the parts.

Sorry to be a pessimist, but I see no advantages for the shop owners here, especially on multi-part files..

Curious, have you ever compared this kit price to a multi-part, non-sprue model to see the material cost difference?

I agree with the choice for the new pricing system. A lot of items will significantly drop in price, making 3D printing more attractive to a larger audience.

It will however take many modellers a lot of time to re-optimize the models for FUD. On the other hand, models in FUD will come closer to the WSF price so you might sell more models in FUD that were designed for WSF.

Erik

Yes. If you run a shop, the Pricing CSV tool will export old and new prices on your inventory. With that CSV file, you can also adjust new margins, upload it back, and update markups to all of your products.

For models, you can see before-after pricing in model edit and you'll be able to download a CSV of your models with old and new FUD prices.

This pricing structure requires data that we historically haven't generated, so our model processing needs to go through all models stored in Shapeways and search for a cheapest orientation and create support material information. We estimate that on May 22nd we should have this processing done and we can switch over to new prices.