@Sonic_Sun, i think you miss the point. the potential 70% percentage of items to get lower prices is actually virtual. in reality the percentage of items with lower prices is much less. why? because the automated setup for fud is horribly messed up and it results higher prices, no matter the number of parts, no matter the size of parts and no matter the orientation of parts.
any lower price - if any - for the moment is a matter of pure luck. as for my designs - since you asked - i see no difference in price. no matter i tried different orientation, it simply doesn't work! no matter loose parts attached on sprue to be considered as a single piece item, no big difference on price. the only new feature i can see by now, is a new complicated to understand price calculation guide, while shapeways is not fixing problems for fud plastics, ignoring the 30% of items and hoping that the remaining 70% of products could raise sales
if you noticed, designer HOLDEN8702 rightly complained that his item was automaticaly oriented in a standing position causing higher price due longer measure on z-axis. wanna hear the worst part? he had no choice to make the part pararel to 3d printer's tray, in order to reduce model's heigh and ofcourse production cost. explanation given by shapeways employee MitchellJetten, mentioned that the amount of supporting wax in cm3 when model is placed standing, is about half of amount of wax when model is pararel on tray, but he forgot to mention that only few mm difference in z-axis (height) could multiply cost due the complicated formula of production cost calculation. you missed one critical detail! heigh affects production cost much more than supporting wax does. automaticaly orienting the models in a standing position is causing much higher prices and designers cannot fix that nor have any control ! now, do you understand why everything is messed up and why the announced 70% of items with lower prices is only virtual and not realistic? shapeways is hoping to increase sales , only by relying on a virtual percentage 70% of total items and will completely loose the rest 30% at last.
an item cost $10 before new prices and $9 after new prices is considered as a "success" for shapeways and filed into the 70% percentage group of "reduced price" products. i would not be happy because reducing price from $10 to $9 is not so great "success", it does not makes big difference and there is no need to cheer about. same time, i would honestly have no problem if the price would become from $10 to $11 after new price and no need to worry about - the $1 only difference is not something to be sad about. on the other hand, an item cost $10 before new prices and $50 after new prices is filed into the 30% percentage group and does makes big difference ! why ? because re-orientation of model does not help, total parts reducing doesn't makes sense and shapeways will completely loose customers of this specific item. plus,
a designer who will flee on another 3d printing factory for lower prices , will never return back to shapeways .
see my point? see why i strongly believe that new prices were applied without adequate preparation and without ensuring that the system will work smoothly under any condition ?