Shapeways, the consumer-oriented digital manufacturing service, has received a lot of positive press since it was recently spun out of Philips Lifestyle Incubator. Originally in closed beta testing limited to 500 participants (though this seems to have been relaxed - I had no problems registering), Shapeways allows users to upload designs and receive a quote for the model’s manufacture in a number of different materials. Accepted file formats include .stl, .dae and .x3d, and the maximum file size is 64Mb which seems pretty huge - I very rarely create a full assembly in .stl which is even half that size. However the maximum number of polygons is 250,000 (due apparently to the processing time and the need to display models on computers without high-end graphics cards), and the problem of a model not being accepted occurs quite frequently in the Shapeways forums. But given that Shapeways is still in beta it seems to be working well, and the enthusiasm with which it has been received by some users is encouraging for those of us who argue that there’s a demand from consumers for the ability to design and manufacture their own products.

Nonetheless, one of the requirements for using Shapeways is a knowledge of CAD in order to output a 3D model in one of the formats mentioned above. As I have argued previously, knowledge of CAD is the gateway to manufacture (assuming we are not talking about craft production), and without that knowledge it doesn’t matter how easy it is to upload and pay for a model to be produced, it’s not going to be embraced by consumers without the time or interest to learn a 3D modelling program. This is one of the strengths of Ponoko, whose laser-cutting manufacturing method allows users to supply files in .eps format from 2D drawing programs which far more people are familiar with. But it seems Shapeways are attempting to address this issue with the launch of their Creator service.

Light Poem lamp © Shapeways

Essentially, the Creator service allows users to customise the shape of a pre-designed object. Currently only one product is available, what Shapeways calls the Light Poem lamp, which is based on Philips’ Imageo LED lamps; this in itself is an interesting approach, since it could be thought of as an early instance of a manufacturer encouraging the consumer modification of its products. Creator runs as a Javascript application, and on opening the Light Poem model the user is presented with a 3D model of the lamp, with a default text of “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. The lamp is customised by changing the text, and by choosing from a number of fonts.

Default Creator Light Poem configuration © Shapeways
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The first thing I noticed when running Creator was how crude and unpolished it looks. This may be due to the beta status of the project, but the rectangular boxes and non-anti aliased text give it a distinctly un-Web 2.0 feeling. The model can only be rotated using the arrow navigation symbols, rather than left click and drag with a mouse, and although a mouse wheel will zoom in and out, the model ‘freezes’ if you get too close, which then requires the view to be reset. Worst of all in my opinion, clicking ‘Help’ takes you to a web page which contains no articles relating to Creator.

The first stage in customising the lamp is to create your own text, which is typed in the box at the top right of the screen. Although the model updates quickly to show how your text translates to the 3D object, I immediately became frustrated by the limitations placed on the text that can be used. To begin with, only upper case and numerals are allowed - lower case and punctuation won’t work. ‘Foreign’ letters and those which use accents are similarly prohibited, and whilst the text editor will accept spaces, it won’t allow carriage returns. I can understand the probable reasons for this: one of the manufacturing problems is trying to ensure the structural integrity of the product, and lower case letters with their ascenders and descenders would make this difficult. Punctuation would cause similar difficulties - a full stop or comma has a lot of surrounding space which might weaken the structure - though it is harder to understand why accented letters are not allowed, particularly as this pretty much limits the appeal to only those who want to write in English. In short, without punctuation and the ability to start a new line, what is written never feels like poetry, more like a slogan.

Creator warns if the model is likely to be structurally problematic © Shapeways

The choice of fonts is relatively limited, there are five, but the inclusion of Gill Sans means you can start to subvert things a bit. Without serifs, ‘1′ appears as a block when written, thus the model below:

Light Poem from a pattern of ‘1’s in the default font
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changes dramatically when the font is changed to Gill Sans:

Light Poem from a pattern of ‘1’s in Gill Sans
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Having decided on the text, the next stage is to decide the ‘Wrapping Style’ - is the text horizontal or spiralled? This is a fairly simple choice, but again it demonstrates how the Creator service has been poorly implemented. In some instances, swapping from spiral to horizontal, or vice versa, will create problems where a structurally sound object in one configuration becomes unsound in another (as gaps appear, or letters hang in mid-air). To fix this means going back a step, when it would have been perfectly simple to include the wrapping style choice in the first step, along with the choice of font. This is particularly annoying if you continue to the third stage - choosing the material - and then decide you want to change a word or the font, because stage one will have been frozen; the only option is to exit the application and restart it. And this is even more frustrating when you realise that actually there is no choice of material, all that’s on offer is ‘white, strong and flexible’.

Text can be oriented in a spiral or a set of rings
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If this sounds like harsh criticism that is unfortunate, because I would very much like to see this initiative succeed - if nothing else it will make some of the central arguments of my thesis easier to sustain! And if these are issues which beta testing is intended to highlight, then it could be they will be attended to quickly. But I find it difficult to understand why the Creator service looks and performs poorly, when the Shapeways site in general has none of these problems. The Creator is intended for those with no 3D modelling skills, and who likely have no experience of rapid manufacturing; it seems to me these are exactly the people who will be put off by a frustrating user experience. A bit more time spent polishing the user interface might have highlighted and resolved these concerns earlier.

One of the issues I am continually running into in the course of my research is that of brand image, and how manufacturers might try to protect or control their brand in a future where consumers can manipulate and control a product’s form. And it’s easy to demonstrate what brands might be up against using Creator. First of all, what does a manufacturer define as an acceptable product?

Light Poem profanity
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Nike gained a fair amount of unwanted publicity when MIT student Jonah Peretti tried to order a pair of NikeID trainers with “Sweat Shop” stitched on the heel, a lesson they apparently learned as it is now impossible to specify “Sweat” (”Shop” is okay), along with profanities and, apparently, words from gang culture. The schoolboy in me was happy to discover that Creator has no such filters, and will allow you to design a lamp with as much swearing or offensiveness as you like. Whether Shapeways would actually make a product to such a specification is another question. In a reply to a forum question about X-rated designs, Joris Peels who is Shapeways community manager suggests such models would be okay, provided they were not publicly shared, but I could imagine this attitude might change if a media campaign were started of the type that the internet seems to attract. Then imagine a future where it is possible to custom design sex toys or replica hand guns, and it seems inevitable that Shapeways or other services will have to employ a significant degree of censorship.

The second question, of course, concerns copyright. Shapeways terms and conditions make no reference to copyright infringement, though apparently a legal framework around the service is being drafted. I have little doubt that copyright infringement will be prohibited, but this is obviously easier to spot in some instances than others, and I wonder who would bear responsibility in cases where copyright was infringed? Or more bluntly, who would be sued - the customer who has paid for the object, or Shapeways who have profited from selling it? Perhaps Prince, who seems to have an aversion to anyone using his work, would take offence to a Light Poem lamp which used the lyrics to “Let’s Go Crazy”. In which case, judging by past behaviour (YouTube, Ebay), he would go after the ‘host’ rather than the customer.

Light Poem from the lyrics to “Let’s Go Crazy” © Prince, reproduced under the provision of “Fair Use”
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For other examples of user customisation of a product’s form, visit Zapfab and FluidForms.