There’s a page selling the new printing service to the public. Is there a place where hub owners can go to see what is involved with printing for Thingiverse? It is al very new, so I’m sure the information will change over time, but some kind of living document would be interesting. Details about the order process, how the order cost is determined, what percentage the hub gets, how does the hub deal with problems or unprintable models, etc.
Sorry, this is written on my phone. Hopefully its readable.
Thanks for your interest in Thingiverse. Filemon is right that at the moment we’re still in a pretty early stage and not adding more Hubs to the integration till the demand grows significantly. We’ve selected the current Hubs based on their track record and level of experience with the 3D Hubs platform.
The order process is streamlined, so that the customer doesn’t have to interact with the Hub, instead all details are gathered upfront and all prints are shipped to the customers. If files are unprintable we feed this back to Thingiverse and the customers gets refunded by Thingiverse. The cost is a standardized on a set CM3 material price and we take a slightly higher fee than on normal orders as there is less work involved for the Hub.
Let me know if there is anything else you want to know
The price is based on the material required to print the object with standard settings 200 microns layer height and 20% infill.
Indeed the Thingiverse designer can get tipped in 2 ways, either they set a fixed price for their design, or a pay-what-you-like model, where its up to the customer to pay an amount to the designer.
Is 3dHubs going to be sending information out to Hubs that have signed up regarding the progress of this project? I don’t keep green filament, for example. If we’re 6 months or more from when my Hub might be added to the list then I don’t have to worry. If things are progressing more rapidly, then I may want to proactively order the filament.
I know this is a couple of months old but I stumbled upon this and needed to make sure something things are clear. When you mark something as non-commercial you are stating that a person may not receive monetary compensation for use of the model (under any circumstances). I completely disagree with thingiverse’s decision to allow you to manually allow it - as it is a violation of the license. I have talked with a lawyer and we both agree - NC means that money cannot change hands. Period.
If someone comes to my hub with a model they got off of thingiverse marked with NC I must refuse to print it - even if it was ordered through thingiverse with the author manually enabling the button. Unless there is something in writing that states “I grant the right for commercial purposes with ordering through 3dhubs button blah blah” - I would be in violation of the license and you could take legal action against my company. That is the core problem with this.
Think about it - it seems you are ok with this process but how would I know (without having something in writing) that is what other 3D modelers are ok with? Maybe they only want small hubs to print out their models? Local hubs? etc The only thing I have to go off of is the license they marked for their model - which was they stated that people may not make money off of it.
The person who posted the model is the one who chooses the license. They are also the one who chooses to enable 3dhubs plugin, which is disabled by default on non-commercial models. Seems pretty clear. Noone else is forcing the modeller to enable printing.
The only part I don’t like is that the process doesn’t include a way to pay/tip the modeller as part of the process.
