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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on Jul 3, 2024 19:41:16 GMT -8
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Post by Mr. Trainiac on Jul 3, 2024 20:16:47 GMT -8
That's not too surprising. 3D printing has become a lot more accessible to the average hobbyist in the last few years. Why pay for an expensive print when I can just design and print a model myself? It's cheaper to buy a 3D printer than it is to buy a 3D printed locomotive shell from Shapeways. The biggest issue with the 'marketplace' business model is that the quality of the products are dependent on the individual designers who upload them. I wouldn't mind paying for a highly-detailed shell, but a lot of the models on there were simple and amatuerish with poor instructions and little information about proper details parts or aftermarket components needed to make a functional model.
I designed and uploaded some models to Shapeways. I didn't make a ton of money, but it was fun to get that PayPal deposit and buy a freight car with it. Recently, one of my more popular models was flagged for having dimensional errors that would make it difficult to print. This is the most frustrating part of Shapeways. The design standards changed over time, and you constantly had to support your models and provide updates when a print failed, even if it worked fine in the past. I questioned whether it would even be worth my time to update the model. Now that this news release has been published, I see that I made the right choice.
Shapeways was a great resource when 3D printing was in its infancy, but hobby printers that can fit larger models have priced them out of the market. In the future, I think we will see more specialist shops like 3D Central pop up to support the hobby market. Now that regular UV resin printer have the build volume to make most model trains, there is no need to pay for super expensive commercial printers like Shapeways offered.
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