Heads up re Makeprintable.com

[dkightley]

Thought I'd post a warning about something I've had happen wit using the repair service from http://www.makeprintable.com

I found a minor slicing issue with a model and submitted it to their repair service, which repaired it seemingly okay. After printing, I found that the dimensions of the model....a body shell for a T gauge model railway carriage.....were not right. The shell did not fit the chassis!

I checked the model in my CAD package....and the dimensions were correct. I then compared the unrepaired stl file with the repaired stl file....and the overall dimensions in two axes were different!. One dimension was 5.16 mm in the original, and was 5.25 mm in the repaired file. I ran the same shape through the Netfabb repair service....and the repaired model was perfect!

On reporting the issue to Makeprintable, their response was:

We are sorry for your experience, but our mesh repair, rebuild the model from the start that is why the size of the model sometimes changes.

For me, this is a showstopper! I'll have to use Netfabb from now on....and have to convert the file back to stl afterwards!

[kabali16]

Are these dimensional errors random or uniform ?

Thanks for the info. I wouldn't run functional parts/assemblies through their website. But for most other cases like display pieces, it is still a good alternative.

[reemaj3d]

Hi dkightley,

This is Reem from MakePrintable,

We do apologize for your issue. It's correct that currently our wall thickness feature is automatic and it may change the dimensions of the wall thickness. Our R&D is working on an updated fixer that will give you accurate dimensions. This will also allow you to choose the wall thickness that you need. We have fixed your model using this update and emailed it to you. We will let you know once we've implemented the update. We hope that you will continue to use MakePrintable!

Kind Regards,

[dkightley]

Now that's turned a very disappointing response into some very good customer feedback.

I was going to post the text of an email I just received....but I've been beaten to by Oday.

Having thought about this reply......this may be a solution to S3D's stupid way of destroying models in the slicing process where the wall thickness is below one extrusion width. Running the model through the modded repair service may result in the ability to thicken up wall thicknesses of 3rd party models to allow S3D to print them. Not a solution for me....but may be for others!

[wirlybird]

Wow, great feedback from MP! I am also impressed.

Interesting idea Doug on applying the MP fix to S3D.

[dkightley]

Just had an email advising that the upgrade mentioned above will take place on 19th January....and the site will close down for a period whilst the upgrade take place.....between 0900 GMT to 1400 GMT.

[reemaj3d]

Hi Doug,

Our next update will not contain the feature you're looking for, as that is currently still being tested. Our release on 19th will be to phase out beta and roll out v1. The updated feature will be released in one of the next iterations, and I will personally let you know when it's live.

[dkightley]

News from Makeprintable.com

Your updated MakePrintable account is ready and we have migrated your models to our new and improved UI. As you can see, we've enhanced performance, increased the speed of repairs, introduced the 3MF file format, and enabled texture support as a part of our feature set.
To log you can use your current login details.

For your convenience, we have launched three monthly subscription plan, Free, Pro, and Plus.

Free offers our standard set of features and 3 repairs per month.
Pro offers our premium set of features and 10 repairs per month for $7 per month.
Plus offers our premium set of features and 50 repairs per month for $25 per month.
Pro and Plus’ premium features include hollowing, and wall thickness adjuster and much more to come in the next few sprints.

Don't know what to say, really......