Customers can place multiple models in a "single" .stl file

[grantbeall]

This may be a rare occurrence for most hubs but I’ve had instances where a customer will upload a single file to be quoted but the .stl file will contain multiple parts to print. This can allow the customer to bypass startup costs for different models and the quote will not be accurate.

(I realize this problem can never be solved 100% since you could connect two models with a single line and claim they are now one part.)

I’m wondering if there would be a way to add a step to the .stl pre-processing that verifies there are not separate parts in a single .stl

[keebie81]

I havent had this issue. But i also only charge the setup fee once no matter how many parts there is.

[BennyHeretoHelp]

Hi Grant,

I don’t quite follow what the loophole is here. A customer can already upload multiple models to an order, and therefore only paying the start up costs once for the entire order of multiple parts. This is working as intended. The quote will be correct for the models, because we calculate on sliced volume, and the price of the combined model, will simply be the same as the price of all the individual models.

As a matter of fact, a lot of Hubs already do what this customer has done. To maximise their build volume, they print multiple things at the same time, whether they are personal projects, or printing different orders at the same time. Lots of Hubs, when faced with an order of a ton of different, small parts, will combine them themselves in order to maximise their printing potential, and save on time.

I genuinely believe that your customer was merely trying to be efficient, or perhaps do some of your prep work for you. If you could please elaborate what part of the customer handling his printing this way is unfair or exploiting the system, then I will raise the issue with my superiors.

Thank you.

Best,

Benny - 3D Hubs Customer Support Agent

[Perry_1]

Typically, most customers I have had request one material, same layer height, etc. for multiple parts. My setup for a situation like that is the same for one part or five, so I charge 1 setup fee.

If a customer has many parts with different layer heights or colors, then I have to think it through…

[MindFuLL]

Hello Benny,
One of the recent additions to the pricing options is “subsequent prints”. The description isn’t clear and I’m a little confused. Would this charge be added for each additional unique part in an order or does it also apply to multiple prints of the same part?
-Jesse

[garthvh]

You can use cura to split the parts and upload them individually to the order before accepting if the fee is the issue.

I’m not sure there is a perfect solution, since many of the people uploading “plates” of parts are downloading them from somewhere and tend not to be terribly experienced as designers.

Sometimes I like getting plates of parts because often each plate is one color, sometimes they are terribly laid out.