I don't understand why Shapeways doesn't allow designers to sell ONLY the design for their objects. So many people have 3D printers at home now, that they could print these things themselves and save money. Of course this wouldn't make sense to all designers, so it should be an option. Shapeways would lose the sale on some products, but they could charge commission for each design sale as well. They would gain more users to their site this way, and be one of the first larger sites out there that allow people to sell designs without selling the actual product.

I can see that some designers may not like this because people could download the design and print a hundred of them. However, there are a ton of designs on there that I don't think that would be the case with. What do you guys think?