I'm a product designer, and wanted to share replacement parts to repair older products to extend their life.The idea behind Shapeways is excellent - designers design unique things in CAD, or share proprietary parts by putting the 3D data files used to make the parts into a virtual shop. From here, customers can find a product's replacement part (or unique design etc.), choose material and quantity and pay Shapeways to make the part.. BUT..1. The process for setting up a shop is tedious, and TOTALLY non intuitive.2. The prices are way too high - other 3D printers are quote much less for same or better materials.3. The spreadsheet to set up an account and take a small royalty is so complex - I gave up trying. Shapeways force you to download a totally unclear spread sheet with unfathomable columns. Then details are supposed to be added and the spreadsheet re-uploaded ! All this SO UN-user friendly, its beyond a joke.Its as if Shapeways are just an expensive 3D printing outfit, who have tried to increase their customer base beyond professionals, but without really doing much to build a proper public facing interface (even professional 3D printers, such as protolabs, are better, easier to use and lower costs).Unless Shapeways can improve all this I cannot recommend it to end users, designers, hobbyist or customers.
