Feedback request for upcoming FDM Quality Guidelines

[Q_Scott_Kaye]

There should be an option for the customer to select removal of support material or not and have it priced upfront. Also, support material needs to be factored in the price at the start as often times I have parts that have more support material than part material! Finally, customers who choose to print at 200 microns for cost reasons seem to expect 100 micron resolution and may complain.

Maybe there should be two tiers here. Professional hubs with$10K plus printers who can produce professional results and charge for it and Hobby Hubs with Hobby level machines that produce good quality but not at the level of the Pro hubs and charge appropriate prices.

[PlastiPrint3D]

Unfortunately the price of a printer rarely gives an indication of the quality of the print. I have seen prints come off 100k machines that are good for nothing but the bin and incredible prints come off a well tuned £300 printer.

Unrealistic customer expectations is another wonderful discussion point. Unfortunately with the perception of 3D printing in the wider world that it can do anything and is instantaneous it’s a real issue to bring home the reality to a customer.

[Sean_Houlihane]

I understand that its important to provide a consistent expectation, and maybe the solution is to agree deviations from the spec in advance, but I feel this adds unncessary cost to some parts.

I recently printed a structural part (to hold a lens) which has a 5cm long un-supported beam. With a support grid at 5mm intervals, this printed fine using PLA on a cheap FDM printer (as evidenced by a repeat order). I don’t think I’m able to print flat overhangs to the specified quality, even if I used 100% support - and there is a risk that aiming for a directionally consistent print will lead to poor orientation choices.

[Robin3D]

@PlastiPrint3D @rkelly @John3d @PepCo_Parker @Enza3D @cobnut @Perry_1

Hey guys,

First of all, Happy New Years! I hope you all had a great holiday period. My apologies for the delay in my response, I also had some time away from 3D Hubs and 3D printing because I was spending time with my loved ones.

I can tell this topic is quickly going into the direction which we feared already when we started this entire project. I can completely understand that these guidelines can come across as intimidating but please understand that they are not meant as such. The reason why we started this project to begin with is because me and my fellow admins came across orders where the quality of prints that were delivered to customers were far below what the average Hub prints creating a terrible experience for customer and giving FDM printing a bad name. The FDM guidelines have been created to set reasonable expectations for both Hubs and customers.

From the very start of this project we set out to create guidelines in co-operation with our Hubs. That’s why I created this thread 2 months ago before any guidelines were created: Talk Manufacturing | Hubs.

Afterwards, we created a first draft that we send out to a first selection of Hubs and asked them to give their feedback/suggestions directly on the Google Document we created. Once we took all their feedback we created the version that you see now in this thread. After a week I saw almost nothing but positive responses and we went ahead with the implementation of the guidelines which will go live in a couple of days.

Now, the main issue that I see is the topic of the dimensional accuracy. I am still completely open to suggestion on how we can formulate this differently. The guidelines are not set in stone and if we see something is not working as intended, we can change it.

Please know that I am reading everything you guys have to say and I really appreciate all your input. I hope that I’m correct when I say that your concerns show me that you care about 3D Hubs and what happens to this platform.

If you have any additional concerns about 3D Hubs as a whole, you can always reach me through robin@3dhubs.com

Best,
Robin - 3D Hubs

[Robin3D]

@Perry_1 I hear you, what exactly feel uncomfortable to you? And do you perhaps have an idea how we can tackle this for you?

[PlastiPrint3D]

Here’s a simple idea, make the guidelines optional. Rather than forcing hubs to abide by them, allow hubs to opt in or out similar to the student discount option. Have another badge or make it a searchable option for customers.

My issue with this and some other things that 3D hubs does is that there is no way to opt out. It’s forced upon us which instantly puts me on the defensive.

[Sean_Houlihane]

One reason that ther may have been a delay in feedback is that people might have read the guidelines, and felt they had an interpretation which made sense - then later came here to read the detail (or made a print for a specific purpose) and realise that the context can have a big impact on exactly how the guidelines are interpreted.

Sure, use these guidelines as a benchmark, and require a hub to agree to deviate. Under the guidelines, this part Dial Gauge holder for Anet A8 by tsh2 - Thingiverse is impossible for me to make. See the surface where support was removed on the square at the bottom, all untidy, but quite functional. It didn’t occur to me on first reading of the guidelines that you intended to block me from offering parts like this.

[Vienna3DPrint]

Hi Robin

Do not reduce it to the accuracy. The mandatory removal of the support is another unsolved issue.

Until now I charged either nothing for it, because the object was small and easy to remove, or for support material as it was like 50% of the print, or both: support and removal. Sometimes the customer wanted to remove the support himself.

What now, if the customer wants to remove the support himself ? (To safe money)

It´s quite unfair to raise the overall price, because that affects support free prints also.

Should the hubs, regardless from the wishes of the customer, charge the removal of support (and remove the support anyway) ?

I also just removed the support. I did not tweak the print. Some objects are just crazy ! On big objects it really took several hours just to basically remove the support. With sanding and what so ever finishing this process may take days.

Which customer is willing to pay for it mandatory ?! Well, some want the support removed, but others not.

And as mentioned before: This guideline will make it very hard for single head printer hubs to continue to print with support.

3D hubs may improve the overall quality, but also raises the overall price for 3D prints.

bye, Tibor

[JothamB]

I have no issue with setting standards for surface finish and supports and such. What does concern me however is how tolerances are set so high that even ABS plastic shrinkage could potentially put my part out of tolerance.

+1 on optional dimensional tolerances with a searchable badge

+1 on setting standards for surface finish and removal of support structures.

[Robin3D]

Hi @Vienna3DPrint,

I understand what you’re saying, but please understand, these guidelines are the default for what both parties should expect to deliver and receive. A lot of customers will not think about supports when sending in an order and will definitely not expect to receive a print with supports.

If you have the exception of a customer that does not want the support removed, feel free to deliver the print with supports. As long as it’s clearly discussed and agreed upon on the order page, anything goes basically.

I can’t repeat this enough, the guidelines are meant as a tool to align expectations between customer and Hub.

If you have a huge print that requires a lot of support, discuss it with your customer through the order comments. Perhaps they want to do it themselves, or you can charge them an hourly fee for the amount of time it will take you to remove the supports. Or perhaps the order should be printed on an SLS machine instead which doesn’t require any supports.

I hope this communicates well that you have the option to deviate from the guidelines as long as your customer is aware and agrees with you.

Best,
Robin - 3D Hubs

[Robin3D]

Hi @Sean_Houlihane,

Thank you for your response. Please understand that we don’t want to block you from anything. If you receive a model like the one in the Thingiverse link and you can only deliver it “untidy”, simply discuss this with your customer in the order comments. If he/she agrees, this completely fine.

We just don’t want the situation to arise that for you, it is very obvious that you can’t print this part very cleanly but the customer is not aware of this and is in for an unpleasant surprise if they were never informed of this.

" EXCEPTIONS

These guidelines apply to all FDM orders on 3D Hubs and can only be deviated from when specifically discussed and agreed upon between Hub and customer in the comments section on the order page."

I hope this makes sense.

Best,
Robin - 3D Hubs

[Robin3D]

Hi @PlastiPrint3D,

It is indeed a simple idea to make the guidelines optional but the problem is that it would prevent us from solving the problem we are trying to tackle. We’re trying to align expectations of both you as a Hub, and your customer, who often will be completely new to 3D printing and is only used to seeing injection moulded parts.

If you cannot meet the guidelines for whatever reason, please discuss this with your customer and align his/her expectations. Communication is really the main message here, we are not trying to make the lives of our Hubs more difficult. We want to make sure that all customers are aware of what they can expect from the 3D print that they order.

You can deviate from any part of the guidelines as long as you clearly communicate this to your customer and they agree with the change.

I hope this makes sense,

Best,
Robin - 3D Hubs

[PlastiPrint3D]

Is this really that big a problem? Honest question how often does this come up?

[Perry_1]

I think you want to hit on wording that both requires good prints from the hubs, and educates the consumer, while encouraging communications between the two.

Here is an example:

Dimensional accuracy. approximately +/- 1mm or 1%, depending on which is greater. Tolerances and spacing for parts that fit together should be built into the model. Please discuess tolerances for such items with your chosen Hub.
Surface quality: consistent, no delamination. Discernable details above .8mm. Please discuss with your chosen Hub if you have details below .8mm that are pertinent to the print.
Post processing: supports removed. As supports require additional time and material, there may be an additional fee for supports and support removal that is not reflected in the original quote from your chosen Hub. Surfaces that require support will have distinctive marring and will be less consitent.

----------------------

The key might be to try to get the customer to add some communications. I get a ton of prints that include no comment from the customer, it is just a model. So I am usually the person to start the communications, which is fine, but it would be great if we could encourage customers to add comments from the start!

[PepCo_Parker]

See Robin, I disagree with this. I think the communications should be in the opposing direction. We as hubs should not have to talk almost poorly of ourselves to explain that there are guidelines that this platform has put in place that are unreasonable. This right off the bat makes us hubs look suspicious. In my opinion, this is the wrong way to go about it. You guys should be educating hubs on proper communication with their customers, asking them if tolerances are needed to begin with, not forcing it upon them. This gives us hubs more control, and gives the customer a better experience. I know that last part for a fact as any time someone is new to 3D printing, I go through a little spew about it all and what to expect, what it’s good for, best materials for certain situations etc. Forcing these guidelines seem unnecessary and in my honest opinion will only create frustration for both hubs and consumers.

[PepCo_Parker]

And that was exactly my point oh so long ago. This seems like a solution for which they are creating a problem to fit. I can’t stress this enough, if this was a problem then it was due to lack of communication not lack of rules. I really don’t think this is the way to go about this.

[PepCo_Parker]

No offense Robin, but you’ve spat in our faces with this one. Basically what you have stated here, is that you took selected people’s criticism and acknowledged it, then based on those few views which you guys selected, you already had enough mindset to implement it, but them put up a forum post to again only portray the illusion that we had a say. And you may try to argue against that, but pushing the update through right before the holiday season, despite the discussion on here, only proves that. I dislike that a handful sampling made the decision for all of us hubs. It affects all of us, why shouldn’t we all have had a say?

[keebie81]

Maybe its me but I dont understand the big issue with a 1% or 1mm accuracy whichever is greater. Thats a quite large tolerance. If you cant print within that you need to work on your printing skills. I typically get under 0.2mm tolerance on parts I print. Looking at a part I did a while ago its off by .08 to .1mm

[PepCo_Parker]

No offense but if you don’t understand it, you haven’t read this thread. There have been numerous points as to why it’s not feasible, and I have even stated that hitting the targets isn’t even my personal concern, it’s people manipulating those rules to get free prints. I suggest you start at the top and read your way down to get a full understanding of the points raised.

[keebie81]

Well the same customer that is going to manipulate these rules to get free prints would most likely still complain and get a free print without these rules. This is also why you should price your prints to accommodate for the once in a while customer that causes issues. Same with any business you need to weigh the risks and prepare for them or close up and find something else to do