Print for others

[3d-hubs 0]

How often do you get asked to print something for a friend, for a neighbour or even a local business? It's not always as easy as it sounds, right? :smile:

We've quit our jobs at 3D Systems and we've been working hard to make this easier by building a platform which connects people who want to print with local printer owners.

So far our website is able to check & fix files (using Netfabb), calculate a price for your prints, process the payment and show which materials, colours and print quality are available at each location.

Once we get 10 or more print locations in a city we open our platform. So far we're up and running in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Eindhoven. Berlin, London and The Hague are opening this month.

If you have a 3D Printer and like to print for other people every once in a while feel free to join our community of 400+ printer owners.

We're just getting started so we are very open to learn from the Ultimaker community. If you have any ideas you can post them or just comment.

In the end we want to give more people access to 3D Printing and building 3D Hubs makes that possible.

Brian and Bram

 

[corngolem 0]

connects people who want to print with local printer owners.

 

This, is made impossible by that:

 

Once we get 10 or more print locations in a city we open our platform.

 

Capital cities, even the 10 biggest cities don't make the majority of the population and they don't make the majority of 3D printers.

By waiting for a city to have N printers, people of that city will never have access to a 3D printing service (through 3Dhubs.com) before YEARS.

[cyclone 0]

I'd have to agree with CornGolem. Seems like a doomed to fail setup.

Why would a city require 10 printers before it unlocks? That seems ridiculous.

MakeXYZ is a similar system, you can find people close to you or find someone

with a printer that meets specific criteria (size, plastic type, numbers of printers etc)

Shipping is handled by the system so requiring a local printer isn't a problem.

Also, I'm not sure how things are in Europe, but in the States there are

a lot of cities with the same name, but the system doesn't allow you to

put in Country or State/Provence. That should probably be added.

 

[3d-hubs 0]

Capital cities, even the 10 biggest cities don't make the majority of the population and they don't make the majority of 3D printers.

By waiting for a city to have N printers, people of that city will never have access to a 3D printing service (through 3Dhubs.com) before YEARS.

 

 

You make a valid point CornGolem, what we've experienced from Amsterdam and Antwerp is that many people want to experience 3D Printing up close. By having a minimum number of 3D Printers in a city we make that much more likely, as people pickup their prints themselves. We also organize opening events, and regular meetups where we do live printing and scanning. By having 10 printers we cover a broader range of materials, colors and print qualities in all active cities, as well as guaranteed printing capacity.

On the other hand we are considering to open up more and more cities (so lowering the threshold) now that we're improving our platform from actual user feedback from the 3 live cities we have.

 

[3d-hubs 0]

I'd have to agree with CornGolem. Seems like a doomed to fail setup.

Why would a city require 10 printers before it unlocks? That seems ridiculous.

 

We aim for truly local production, less shipping is better. We believe that's one of the great things about 3D Printing, you can make what you need on location and only ship the digital files. On top of that having X amount of printers in a city makes sure there is enough choice in quality, material and color. Most cities pass 10 printers quite quickly, this month we're adding Berlin and The Hague to the platform.

 

 

MakeXYZ is a similar system, you can find people close to you or find someone

with a printer that meets specific criteria (size, plastic type, numbers of printers etc)

Shipping is handled by the system so requiring a local printer isn't a problem.

 

We're more focussed on the local community, connecting makers with people who want to 3D Print and allow them to experience it either personally or in one of our meetups. Of course we do also allow users to choose materials, quality and filter on print size.

 

Also, I'm not sure how things are in Europe, but in the States there are

a lot of cities with the same name, but the system doesn't allow you to

put in Country or State/Provence. That should probably be added.

 

Thanks Cyclone, we're working on this. I've added to our Uservoice page.

 

[alex-marakesch 0]

Oh, just registered yesterday on your site. Was first in my city and actually country, but unfortunately my country, Ukraine, not in the list=(

Sorry just checked, it appeared=)

 

[3d-hubs 0]

Oh, just registered yesterday on your site. Was first in my city and actually country, but unfortunately my country, Ukraine, not in the list=(

 

Hey Alex, I just added your city Odessa to our platform, with new countries we have to manually flip a few switches here. Great to have you on the platform! Let us know if you run into any problems or have ideas.

 

[nick-foley 5]

Yeah, the minimum req. to launch a city is a problem. We're still the only 3 printers in NYC!

 

[3d-hubs 0]

Yeah, the minimum req. to launch a city is a problem. We're still the only 3 printers in NYC!

 

Our first focus is Europe, so we haven't promoted the US cities yet. However we'll be in New York Friday 30th of August till Sunday 1st September. We would be happy to meet up and exchange ideas with you Nick, just drop me an email brian@3dhubs.com if you're up for that.

 

[ciclopez 0]

Yep, we are only two in Madrid too... I understand the minimum of ten printers to make an opening event, but I think it would be better to unlock the cities from the beginning and make the event when the minimum of ten printers is reached. If it takes too long to reach the minimum in a city like Madrid maybe people around here wanting to print will order prints in other cities, and that is the opposite of creating a local community and saving shipping and environmental costs. I think it's better to have a few printers around than nothing.

Anyway, you are doing an awesome work, keep it going!

[3d-hubs 0]

Yep, we are only two in Madrid too... I understand the minimum of ten printers to make an opening event, but I think it would be better to unlock the cities from the beginning and make the event when the minimum of ten printers is reached. If it takes too long to reach the minimum in a city like Madrid maybe people around here wanting to print will order prints in other cities, and that is the opposite of creating a local community and saving shipping and environmental costs. I think it's better to have a few printers around than nothing.

Anyway, you are doing an awesome work, keep it going!

 

Thanks for the feedback! We're playing with ideas to open up cities earlier/faster, but we don't know how soon we'll release something like that. Keep on #rocking in Madrid

 

[3d-hubs 0]

@Alexander @ciclopez, you have a point, we're exploring alternative ways to open cities and are taking all the above comments in consideration. The current model also has some advantages:

 

• [*]people have more choice in materials, colors, size, accuracy, etc.

[*]people local alternatives/backup when that printer breaks down or the owner goes on a holiday

 

Of course in the long run each registered printer should be active, independent of where they are based. Our next step is to have a lower number of required printers in smaller cities and we're preparing our platform for this change.

 

[3d-hubs 0]

 

We just did a count in the website and turns out there's now 140+ Ulitmakers on the 3D Hubs website, which makes it the most popular printer on there. :smile:

 

[aaron 2]

I believe that you should base the status of a city on its population. For example, my city, Billings, is small enough to an extent that it will probably never have 10 members online. However, it is also small enough that people will be willing to drive across the city to pick up a print.

 

[3d-hubs 0]

I believe that you should base the status of a city on its population. For example, my city, Billings, is small enough to an extent that it will probably never have 10 members online. However, it is also small enough that people will be willing to drive across the city to pick up a print.

 

Hi Aaron,

In principle we agree with you but the current focus is our role out strategy, after this we will open up more to smaller communities. So we first aim to bring 3D Hubs to the bigger communities where we will have decent coverage with at least 20 print locations, that's currently taking up all our resources.

Cheers,

Brian

 

[alex-marakesch 0]

Good day!

I have a problem! I try to reset my password, receive e-mail with link to reset. But when I go there, it's error there=(

 

[gadgetfreak 7]

I have multiple 3D printers with different capabilities. I have now registered only our Ultimaker, but we also have a Delta Tower, capable of printing up to 60cm tall objects.

Can you add so that it's possible to add multiple printers?

Also, I have materials that is not listed in the materials section; PLA/PHA blend and Colorfabb XT (amorphous copolyester). Can you add the possiblity of adding materials yourself?

Thanks

Daniel

 

[ian 32]

just looked at utrecht in holland on your map... it looks like an ultimaker invasion force... LOL

 

[3d-hubs 0]

Good day!

I have a problem! I try to reset my password, receive e-mail with link to reset. But when I go there, it's error there=(

 

That's strange...if you can contact us at hello@3dhubs.com or +1 646 419 3737, we'll see what the problem is and fix it for you. Cheers, Bram

 

[3d-hubs 0]

I have multiple 3D printers with different capabilities. I have now registered only our Ultimaker, but we also have a Delta Tower, capable of printing up to 60cm tall objects.

Can you add so that it's possible to add multiple printers?

Also, I have materials that is not listed in the materials section; PLA/PHA blend and Colorfabb XT (amorphous copolyester). Can you add the possiblity of adding materials yourself?

Thanks

Daniel

 

Thanks for suggesting Daniel. Currently we are adding materials/printers manually, but our platform is contineously being improved. We'll add your printer/material suggestions asap. Bram

 

[alex-marakesch 0]

Already fixed+)