You’re right. Bad settings can create noise. On the other hand, a hub owner who has enough experience probably knows his machine and his filament very well.
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The results of the survey are on 3D Printing Industry :
http://3dprintingindustry.com/2016/01/21/new-global-filament-directory-builds
Pretty cool article. Thanks for the awesome work Gauthier.
Currently we only have data on what material is being used (i.e ABS, PLA), not specifically on filament producers (like Colorfabb PLA). That might be something we could ask Hubs to specify in the future - it’d also be a great way to show customers what exaclty they’ll receive in term of material properties, color etc.
Once we differentiate materials in a such manner, it’d be possible to subtract the “printer effect” - we just need large enough pool of data.
There are two ways to approach: One is like our trend report, which is based on data from orders, including customer ratings. The other is asking our Hubs to review the materials they use and rate them (like we did for the 3D Printer Guide). I’d opt for the 2nd one - Hubs can provide more comprehensive data on their materials since they actually use them.
I would be keen to know which “special” filaments are gaining in popularity. Colour would also be interesting.
To be honest, I personally don’t think filament manufacturers/brands are all too important as we all have our own preferences anyways having invested time in getting our settings right for the filament brand we use. It would all become quite confusing for a customer if suddenly filament brands were listed… the customer wouldn’t be interested in that I can’t imagine.
I agree with you Bali, specifing which fliament we use on each order would really only work if we used 1 or 2 filaments, I use and swap around filaments from 6 different companies so would be very tricky if we allowed customers to specify filament as well as printers. 3D Filament Guide would be an awesome annual report!
That’s right. It might be an easier task to just make a filament guide once a year by asking a limited number of people to rate filaments. Gauthier actually already made an awesome job with his filament directory.
Still, I think that it would be interesting to know on a monthly basis what kind of filament the hubs worldwide really use and which one is trendy.
This kind of information is mostly useful for hubs owners because if they pick the good filament, they can improve the quality of their product. The filament brand name doesn’t have to be directly visible for customers on the interface. They already have enough trouble choosing between pla, abs or pet. 
