Earlier, in another thread an issue about materials not showing up for the customer was brought up. It was suggested by @Filemon to create a specific thread for the issue. The point of this thread: to bring awareness and hopefully resolve the issue. The issue: for FDM hubs now, there is actually an issue with the system, in which the customer can only see two materials, ABS and PLA unless they specifically search otherwise. If you’re confused as to what we mean by this, check below for some pictures! Thanks again everyone for the collaboration, give this post a one up if you’ve noticed similar issues or if you too want to raise awareness!
Hey @PepCo_Parker I think I know what you’re talking about. For my Hub it’s even worse, my two materials shown in the Hub listing are PLA and Rigid Ink PLA. So, just PLA then. The displayed materials should really be a formed line separated by commas showing all the ones you’ve listed (within reason).
I dont see that issue when I searched. I clicked the 3D Print button in corner of screen, put a file in, then under my hub in listings clicked either prototyping plastic or other materials. I then get a pop up that shows all my materials in a drop down box
If I understand well, the issue you’re describing is not new. With the ‘old’ material carousel, whenever a customer would select a group, only materials in that group would show.
For example, General Purpose Plastics / Prototyping plastics will give ABS, PLA, ColorFabb XT and 1 or 2 more. These groups have never included the more ‘exotic’ materials. So nothing changed there.
What has changed, it that in one of the new checkout variations we ask a customer to select a material group first, before going to Hub selection. This does mean it becomes somewhat harder for a customer to select more ‘exotic’ FDM materials. The customer would need to specifically search in order to find those.
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) provides an alternative method for producing investment casting patterns that can provide dramatic time and cost savings. FDM technology is an additive manufacturing process that builds plastic parts layer by layer, using data from CAD files. FDM makes it possible for the foundry to produce a pattern that can also serve as a prototype for form and fit evaluation. In one day, the foundry can provide the customer with a prototype that provides a perfect match to the casting that would be produced if it becomes the pattern. The strength of the materials used in the FDM process makes it possible to put the FDM component into an assembly and perform testing. If any problems are discovered, the foundry can usually make the changes requested by the customer and build a new pattern in about 24 hours.
As soon as the customer approves the prototype, the foundry can move into production by using the FDM parts as patterns for investment casting. Since FDM is an additive process, the pattern can be as complex as needed without any impact on cost. (With injection molding increasing pattern complexity often requires a more complex and more expensive tool).
I had the same issue, but after asking to the support it appears that when you select Prototyping, only ABS or PLA are available. To see other material, customers have to choose the material, so for me 3dhubs is restricting FDM because this not so financiarly interesting as SLA or other which are more expensive and so give more money to 3dhub…
