Keystone Details is officially closed until further notice

[randgust]

I only had one part out there as an experiment (Randgust) and had just done a test print on my son's printer that came out so darn good that I decided not to do any further Shapeways work - and then the announcement.  I was certainly stunned.  But that's indicative of the business model problem that was overtaking them.  As bad as it hits operations like yours, look at the stock price, the drop made Enron look like a soft landing!  High was in the 80's and now roughly 20 cents a share.

John, your stuff is so good there has to be a way - hang in there.   I'd keep the domain as that cost is just minimal, actually - at least for a year to see how this sorts out.  And nothing, I mean NOTHING was worse than their market search engine.  The web page you developed was the only way to find anything there - I'd done comparisons and it just baffled me.

As much as you don't want to be a 'cottage business', it rapidly became obvious to me that you couldn't make enough money via Shapeways to pay for your time even developing a part.   I can't believe that another avenue won't open.  I'm also convinced that there's another tech people here even on the forum that would work with you given your design capability and existing files.

I worked with another modeler that was attempting to do Shapeways for printing, and he finally gave it up when he realized that he could neither control quality of the outbound print or get enough margin to be competitive.  I even tried with him to resin cast off his prints and that was a complete and total failure, both of design and execution - mostly because of the trapped air porosity in the prints bubbling into the molds.

I did a lot of work to get into metal etching, was actually successful, and abandoned it as the time involved, hazards, and production rate were impossible.  I ended up finding a professional etching service that made excellent parts at a decent price.  Game changer.

Hang in there.

[brill27mcb]

It's pointless to keep guessing about what the situation is. Does anyone know what the Shapeways vendor agreement (that people probably had to click "Accept" for) says with regard to ownership and use of a vendor's designs? That should spell it out, along with any other clauses concerning transferabilty, etc.

Rich K.

[thomasjmdavis]

It's pointless to keep guessing about what the situation is. Does anyone know what the Shapeways vendor agreement (that people probably had to click "Accept" for) says with regard to ownership and use of a vendor's designs? That should spell it out, along with any other clauses concerning transferabilty, etc.

Rich K.

The page seems to still be there, available for your legal counsel, at least as of 10:30 pm 7/18/24:
https://www.shapeways.com/terms_and_conditions   

[chessie system fan]

Here's the whole relevant section, in case the website goes dark one day.

7. Intellectual Property Rights of 3D Designs

You, as a designer, retain all your intellectual property rights in your 3D Models, including without limitation any and all derivative works like 3D renders. Except for the rights and licenses with respect to your 3D Models specified below, Shapeways shall not use, modify or display your 3D Models or derivatives thereof. By uploading your 3D Models to the Services, you represent and warrant that it is your original creation and not copied from any third party and/or entity. You further represent and warrant that you have all rights to grant the below licenses to us without infringement or violation of any third party rights, including without limitation, any privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights.

By uploading your 3D Model to the Services, you grant Shapeways a non-exclusive, royalty free, worldwide, transferable, and sublicensable right and license (i) to use your 3D Model for the manufacturing of your 3D Model in order to fulfill your order; (ii) if you offer your 3D Model for sale through Shapeways, to use your 3D Model for the manufacturing of your 3D model in order to fulfill orders of your 3D Model made through Shapeways (iii), if you indicate that you want your 3D Model to be a CoCreator Model during the upload process (a) to display such CoCreator Model on the Shapeways Website and (b) to use and modify such CoCreator Model for the manufacturing of your model in order to fulfill the order of any other user of the Services; (iv) to generate and display 3D renders of your 3D Model; and (v) to use the 3D Model as necessary for the operation and maintenance of Shapeways Services including without limitation for the internal testing and educational purposes of Shapeways and Shapeways manufacturing partners.

You can change the rights for CoCreator Models via the model detail page of the 3D Model at any time; provided that any then-pending order for such 3D Model shall be fulfilled by Shapeways. With regard to any non-published 3D Model, in order to protect third party intellectual property right owners who, in such case, may not be able to benefit from our Notice-Take-Down Procedure, we retain the right to review and refuse any order when it, in our sole and exclusive discretion, appears to infringe third party intellectual property rights, or in our discretion the 3D Model does not comply with our Content Policy.

By removing your 3D Model from the Services, you terminate all licenses granted to Shapeways and its users to such 3D Model under these Terms and Conditions; provided that Shapeways is entitled to use your 3D Model to fulfill orders of your 3D Model that were placed before the removal and may continue to use the model for internal testing and educational purposes. Note, specific terms in the Co-Creator section: As a customer of a CoCreator Model, by providing specifications for a CoCreator Model, you grant Shapeways a non-exclusive, royalty free, worldwide, transferable license to use, copy, modify, display and distribute your specifications, with the right to sublicense, for any purpose.

Please note that any intellectual property right of a manual CoCreator Model created by the Shapeways shop owner with the use of your specifications will vest in the shop owner who created such CoCreator Model.

[Lemosteam]

I think this quote in the agreement is most pertinent to the IP:

"By removing your 3D Model from the Services, you terminate all licenses granted to Shapeways and its users to such 3D Model under these Terms and Conditions; provided that Shapeways is entitled to use your 3D Model to fulfill orders of your 3D Model that were placed before the removal and may continue to use the model for internal testing and educational purposes. Note, specific terms in the Co-Creator section: As a customer of a CoCreator Model, by providing specifications for a CoCreator Model, you grant Shapeways a non-exclusive, royalty free, worldwide, transferable license to use, copy, modify, display and distribute your specifications, with the right to sublicense, for any purpose."

I was able to delete ALL of my 3d model uploads from Shapeways using the "My Models" page and selecting the trash icon.  I lost count of how many models I deleted after the first two pages of models.

The models on my page came up sorted for latest first so as I deleted away and got closer to the end, I had many fond memories of the designs as I got closer to the end, the funniest being "Ed's Frankenhorn" for one of his CR projects, and "mom's day", a base I had printed for a special bobblehead figure that I had modified to look like my wife for the holiday.

[Dirk Jan Blikkendaal]

Thanks for the tip John......

I tried to delete my own files some time ago after the bad news got out but then no success.
I just tried again and it looks like all my files are deleted and shop is/has closed down........

I already updated my website.......... www.atsfnscalemodels.com......... all my models will be available directly.

Shapeways served a purpose, certainly the first years were OK/good. I never had big problems and smaller ones were always solved overhere in The Netherlands......... thanks for that.
And please keep in mind that modelrailroading never was their primary target or intended big winner........... it just came along as and added opportunity!
 

[Jimbo]

@Lemosteam  - does the closure of Keystone Details mean the end of the Protomate coupler project?

Jim