News from Shapeways: They’ve enabled print-on-demand services at Thangs.
Thangs is one of the larger public 3D model repositories, with an enormous number of options. The service attracts considerable numbers of 3D designers, who present their products for sale in many cases.
But now there’s another option: these designs can be 3D printed by Shapeways and then shipped to buyers. There is no longer a need for buyers to have their own 3D printer.
That’s actually quite important because Shapeways is providing industrial-level 3D print services. In other words, they can print items in metal, for example, which is quite difficult for hobbyists to do at home due to the extreme costs involved.
This is another key step taken by the resurrected Shapeways, which had declared bankruptcy some months ago. The assets of the company were acquired by the original owners, who are in the midst of restarting everything.
One feature that they were not able to recover was the online marketplace from the original Shapeways. It has somehow been lost when the service shut down. Rather than building it again from scratch, the brains at Shapeways had the brilliant idea of acquiring Thangs and building in the print service later. That would immediately give them a massive market and countless 3D models.
Thangs has been operating as it was before, even after the acquisition. However, this week we see a change: the 3D print on demand service has now appeared.
At least it appears in some of the 3D models on Thangs. In Shapeways’ announcement, they presented some 3D models from jewelry designer “www.replicaprops.com”, which are printable.
At the top you can see a listing for the “Supergirl Legion Ring”, which can be printed. The only print option is for brass at US$81.38.
It’s likely that the Thangs designers have to opt in for print services, and many have not yet done so. In fact, it’s actually difficult to find printable models on the site. They seem to be indicated by a green tag on the top right of the product icon labelled “Ship to you” when searching.
The advanced search box does not (yet) provide an option to filter by printable models. That seems to be an obvious next step for Thangs. However, it is possible to search for printable models by hitting the main menu item, “Print On Demand”. I was able to find quite a few in this way. However, it’s still only a percentage of the models on the massive site.
Nevertheless, the number of printable models on Thangs will only increase, and with that a great deal of business will end up at Shapeways.
Via Thangs
