WITHOUT ANY WARNING TO PEOPLE
Apparently they got rid of some of my favorite materials, randomly renamed others for no apparent reason and just… Why??? Some kind of notice would have at least been nice so I could have updated my Etsy listings before people started ordering stuff in materials that no longer exist?
Here’s the official announcement that can be found on the Shapeways Forum
Hi everyone!
We are so excited to announce the release of updates to our materials portfolio. Available, starting today are:
- Silver: Antique Finish
- A unique finish that gives a rugged personality to your pieces
- Full Color Sandstone: Matte Finish
- A smooth and matte finish for even bolder colors
- Steel: Matte Bronzed-Steel Finish
- A subtly rustic finish for industrial chic pieces
- Professional Plastic (previously known as HP Nylon Plastic) is available to sell in your Shapeways shops
To make for a simpler, more user-friendly creation process, we have also updated our Materials Hub. Along with lovely new end-product photography, we have now broken our materials in to benefit driven categories which will help guide you to the right materials for your projects. The new categories are:
- Strength & Value
- Professional Finishes
- Industrial Strength
- Scale Replicas
We’ve done some renaming of our materials, more details on that can be found here in our updated Materials Naming Guide. We’ve also begun updating our Model Upload and Checkout flow to make it easier to pick your materials and finishes.
You may also notice some changes to the material offerings; as part of this refresh process, we decided to say goodbye to some of our less popular materials including:
- High Definition Acrylate (instead try our Black HP Nylon plastic or Frosted Ultra Detail Plastic)
- Acrylic Plastic (instead try our Frosted Ultra Detail plastic)
- PLA (instead try our Strong & Flexible plastic)
- Metallic Plastic (instead try our Gray HP Nylon plastic)
- Elasto Plastic (instead try our Strong & Flexible plastic)
- Castable Wax
- Matte Gold Steel (instead try our Polished Gold Steel)
- Matte Bronze Steel (instead try out Polished Bronze Steel)
- Porcelain
If you have purchased or sold any these materials in the last 6 months, you should have been notified via e-mail. If you have any of these materials enabled in your shop, your products will no longer be offered for sale in these materials. If your product was only enabled in one of these materials, it will now be listed as public, but not for sale.
Shapeways is ever-evolving, and we will continue to focus on providing the right material solutions for your projects.
We can’t wait to see what you create with this updated experience!
So how’s everyone else’s morning???