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Currently, in order to print in full color sandstone, you have to supply the somewhat unwieldy combination of the shape as an OBJ file plus a color map as JPEG on PNG.

Some pieces of 3D modeling software don’t support the split OBJ / UV map format. Chimera, a software used to model biomolecules, is an example. It can happily do VRML and X3D but not UV maps. So, to upload a color model from Chimera to 3D Hubs, you need to go through a time consuming conversion process.

Why not allow unified and more recent 3D formats that can bundle all necessary information into a single file, removing the need for separate shape and color information. 3D Hubs should allow VRML and its successor X3D. Why is this not possible? Can the sandstone printers not handle these formats? Other platforms like Shapeways have already enabled VRML2 and X3D for color printing. It’s time for 3D Hubs to update.