Sometimes it's hard to be an N scaler

[peteski]

Smooth Fine Detail Plastic = FUD
Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic = FXD

Both under the heading of "Fine Detail Plastic"



Jason

Under Materials > Scale Replicas  I only see 2 choices: Sandstone and Fine Detail Plastic.

Drilling down to https://www.shapeways.com/materials/fine-detail-plastic I still only see Fine Detail Plastic.

[wcfn100]

Scroll down to the FAQs.  It's the first one about available finishes.

Jason

[peteski]

Scroll down to the FAQs.  It's the first one about available finishes.

Jason

So instead of offering 2 separate selections, then just hide it in the FAQ?

What finishes are available?
Smooth: This finish offers a smooth surface and high detail
Smoothest: This finish is capable of the highest detail and smoothest surface

That is clear as mud to me.     I understand that it is the same material, simply printed at different resolutions, but the old way they presented the choices seemed clearer to me. 

I'm also further confused by what Randy wrote:
The latest shell I got was printed in white (not black) and in "Smooth Fine Detail Plastic".  The truck sideframes were the same stuff, but one was gray instead of white.
It's nothing like FUD.  FUD is both translucent and very brittle, and is porous.  This is flexible, no visible striations that I can see, only sign that it's even printed is the telltale remnants of the mounting sprues off the bottom of the shell.

Smooth Fine Detail Plastic (per your statement) *IS* FUD.  The Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic would be  FXD. But both are the same translucent whitish plastic. Not gray like Randy describes.

I know that Shapeways also offered the dark gray material printed on SLA printers, but I can't find it under materials page. That material was used on several locos shells described in TRW threads, and it is smoother than FXD, but it has other problems.  It seems that this is what Randy is describing (but that is *NOT* Smooth Fine Detail Plastic.

Call me confused again.

[wcfn100]

That is clear as mud to me.     I understand that it is the same material, simply printed at different resolutions, but the old way they presented the choices seemed clearer to me. 

When you are working with an uploaded model, the interface is different and the choices are clearer.

Jason

[bbussey]

Brian

Have the machines doing the actual rendering gotten better, or better calibrated?  The stuff I have recently received has been extremely good.

I’m guessing recently recalibrated. I can attest that when they opened the Long Island City plant, the FXD parts were perfect in quality and scale, especially to what was coming out of Sweden.

[bbussey]

The Roger Williams RDC shells referenced are listed as Smooth Fine Detail Plastic, which is FUD/FXD.

[peteski]

When you are working with an uploaded model, the interface is different and the choices are clearer.

Jason

Good to know.  But earlier iterations of the websites also had much cleared description of the materials. Now the customer-visible site it is all flashy with not substance. They dumbed it down.

[basementcalling]

Shapeways website is getting harder and harder to get any useful info from.   
Randy, they have changed the names of all their materials. Randy, if you go to https://www.shapeways.com/materials , could you point me to the material you are describing?  What is its name there?

Not only that but I guess in the changes to the website they deleted old favorites files, as all my saved products on my favorites list where gone when I logged in Monday. 

[Cajonpassfan]

For supposedly cutting edge technology company, they sure have a ridiculously hard to navigate site. And to try to find something? 
Otto K.

[Lemosteam]

For supposedly cutting edge technology company, they sure have a ridiculously hard to navigate site. And to try to find something? 
Otto K.

Hence the reason i created my own website (which has it's own search) that takes someone directly to the product on SW from the website.

The shop owner can add tags for improved search-ability, for instance I add "Keystone" and "Details" tags to all of my listings.  if you search for "Keystone Details" you get my whole collection, plus a few Keystone and a few Details:

https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace?type=product&q=keystone+details

[randgust]

If you want to find something, use Google.   It will find a shapeways product faster on their website than anything on the Shapeways site search can.   I can't find the same stuff via the Shapeways search that I can via Google, but I pick up a Shapeways page easily.

OK, so I'm trying to verify some information here back with the designer just on the material.   Wow, tangled web.

I'm just really impressed with the end product, but trying to find out how it was done is interesting.  Original designer on Shapeways said he sold the file, and that's not where the box came from.    I got a box from 'out of the box models' and it's not entirely clear if it was Shapeways printed and then sent to me, or printed by him on his own equipment using.....????   And this shell doesn't show on his list anywhere except on the original designer.   Anyway, I'm asking and I'll update here.   Looking at the shell again, wow, it's really good.   I can neither see nor feel any striations at all on the curved cab roof.
He also appears to have all of David Cutting's Shapeways designs on his website including the TP56 shell, gensets, etc.   Davids website is expired, but his shapeways store still shows the same designs that Out of the Box shows, right down to the photos, so yeah, I'm confused.
Apparently there's at least a minimal amount of selling and trading of design files going on behind the scenes here.  Another paradigm shift going on here, and you thought understanding several different marketing levels of the Trix U28 was hard to follow.  Trix?  Aurora? Model Power?  Con-Cor?

[JMaurer1]

I've been to their website before (and I'm waiting for the SP boxcar that is sold out/coming soon). On the site it does say:

"These models are 3D Printed to order on our Formlabs Form2 SLA 3D Printer"

Sounds like they print their own now.

[JMaurer1]

D'oh. Now I remember why I knew who they were. I just bought the SP 40 RPO from them that is BEAUTIFUL! Printing is super sharp and (for reasons I will never understand) a full detailed interior (its a 40' RPO with only 6 small windows that you really can't see into). Owner is Dan Greenblatt and (I'm guessing here) the other co owner is Nick Lorusso (I do know Nick and also know that he is involved in some way). Their stuff is very reasonably priced and just beautiful. No, no kickbacks or even discounts for me, just a big fan of their work.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I feel for Shapeways when it comes to search and categorization of their site. They have the eBay problem: an unmanaged and user generated product taxonomy.

That's not an easy thing to setup or manage so you end up relying on tagging. However, tagging has its own issues, especially when it's being done by many individuals. For example, what's the proper tag for N scale stuff: "N Scale" "nscale" "N-Scale" "N scale trains"? And remember, Shapeways has no consistency enforcement mechanism.

[peteski]

If you want to find something, use Google.   It will find a shapeways product faster on their website than anything on the Shapeways site search can.   I can't find the same stuff via the Shapeways search that I can via Google, but I pick up a Shapeways page easily.

OK, so I'm trying to verify some information here back with the designer just on the material.   Wow, tangled web.

I'm just really impressed with the end product, but trying to find out how it was done is interesting.  Original designer on Shapeways said he sold the file, and that's not where the box came from.    I got a box from 'out of the box models' and it's not entirely clear if it was Shapeways printed and then sent to me, or printed by him on his own equipment using.....????   And this shell doesn't show on his list anywhere except on the original designer.   Anyway, I'm asking and I'll update here.   Looking at the shell again, wow, it's really good.   I can neither see nor feel any striations at all on the curved cab roof.
He also appears to have all of David Cutting's Shapeways designs on his website including the TP56 shell, gensets, etc.   Davids website is expired, but his shapeways store still shows the same designs that Out of the Box shows, right down to the photos, so yeah, I'm confused.
Apparently there's at least a minimal amount of selling and trading of design files going on behind the scenes here.  Another paradigm shift going on here, and you thought understanding several different marketing levels of the Trix U28 was hard to follow.  Trix?  Aurora? Model Power?  Con-Cor?

You either don't visit the Product Discussion section here, or you just missed the discussion.  It is all explained here:https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=45364.0