Hi Guys, hi 3DHubs,
I recently had a request to print a quite complex model. The model itself had 10.3cm^2, but I had to add another 13cm^2 for support structures. Not even this absolutely increased my print times, it also increased the material costs - it more than doubled it.
Which brings me to an interesting point…
3DHubs is calculating the price always on the model size, but never looks into the material that is needed for support structures.
Either their calculations should automatically add - at least - some basic support structures before calculating the material or they should allow the Hub to manually adjust the material used and send it back to the customer for approval.
Anyone had similar experiences?
@3dHubs: What do you think?
Carsten
4 Likes
Hi Carsten,
Thanks for reaching out about this.
Printing an order that will end up costing you more in material costs then the amount you would earn is not exactly ideal so I would advise every hub to do the following.
During the review step of the order, before accepting, download the models that were send in and load them in your own slicing software. Check if the material volume that was automatically calculated by our slicing process is 100% accurate. If this is not the case, you can easily adjust the material volume here:
Then, if the model requires supports for printing, you can add these extra costs to the order by selecting the “Add additional services” on the right hand side of the order page.
I understand that it would be ideal to have all of this automatized but due to the fact that we still have a relatively small team and dozens of different 3D printers/printing techniques on the platform we are a bit outnumbered on this front.
We’ll be working on this in the future but for now, I hope this system works for you.
All the best,
Robin - Head of Customer Support - 3D Hubs
3 Likes
Xeno
3
Adding extra for added material and time to add support, I always communicate to the costomer, before adding it,
best is to add the support yourself, you know the best orientation to print the object.
But because 3DHubs calculate material cost with volume, but I never print with 100% infill,
so support is usually already in the material cost, and a nice present to tell your customer you will not charge extra for support 
On the contrary @xeno. 3Dhubs bases the cost on 20% infill. It is a source of some frustration to me that this means that we are put into the difficult position with customers of breaking the news to them that the cost will be higher than they’d been led to believe.
Carsten i always scan the model and recalculate the cm3 and adjust this in the price, which is possible
Perhaps 3Dhub can make an comment in the preorder that there could be extra costs due to infill or support for the best result…
3greetz
John
Exactly!
I knew I could not be the only one with this problem. Some models end up being double the cost and we look like con artist.
3D hubs staff, please put a disclaimer on your website. Many models require support and the customer should EXPECT there to be further charges.
