Shapeways should allow designers to sell their designers

[Luv2Fight]

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?

[Flixtix]

Shapeways really doesn't target the 3D Printing community. Websites like Thingiverse do that. Shapeways targets people that like "things", and want to buy cool and/or unique things. I really doubt they'd gain many new members by allowing designers to offer downloads of their designs. I could be wrong.

[Eddie]

Actually Shapeways does now allow this. However I believe all downloads must be free.
See the link in the screenshot below "download now"?


Or check it out yourself at: https://www.shapeways.com/model/6730...&materialId=90

There are quite a few designs on there like this.

[ToyMakerRon]

Honestly I doubt many people with 3D printers even visit Shapeways. They would be more inclined to visit Thingiverse I think.

[Axebaneblade]

Well, the home 3D printers use a completely different technology than the SLS 3D printers that shapeways uses. Many of the designs would not even print correctly on a home printer. Also, shapeways can physically ensure a print is correct before they ship it to a customer, which helps reduce refunds and unhappy customers, but if they sold 3D designs, how could they even be sure that the customer has a home printer that will successfully print that object? Would they want to deal with the possible negative feedback/reputation that might come with customers who fail to print a design they bought, even if the fault was with that person's home printer/settings?