Hey makers,
I was wondering if anyone has experience with variations of a design and whether you put it under one listing or multiple. Here are a couple of examples. I have a coffee lid holder. One that holds 5, 10, 15, 20. Do you list them separately?
I also want to do variations on a basic mtg deck box I make it would be size and decoration.
Thoughts on traffic and downloads and feedback from your community. I’m not trying to game the system but I’m also not trying to have designs get lost.
I put it all in one posting! Depending on the variation too, I’d try and put it all in one print profile.
For example, here’s a card organizer set I had done. I put everything on their own plates and named accordingly. When the user navigates to this on the phone app, it makes it a nice experience. Everything is conveniently there and you can print what you need directly from the app. When loaded up on the desktop, all the parts are laid out for their best print position, and you can combine them onto a single plate if desired.
I think it depends some on what kind of variation it is. All of those card boxes were obviously part of the same set. In the example of the coffee lid holder, I’d keep it as one posting, and probably as one print profile too with the instructions of “print the size you need”
Certain variations though would warrant a separate print profile. I make a canister object and it’s variations go in two ways. The tallness and the width. So there’s a small medium and large print profile, but within each of those print profiles is the variations of height for the given size.
For an end user it just makes it easier the more you can consolidate and group things. There is a designer on makerworld that put up print profiles for each color of their design, and it is so obnoxious. It’s like 10 print profiles that could have been one.
I haven’t created a lot, but one posting has different peg sizes, and I just listed them as different profiles since they were all the same “design”. (i use design loosly for my stuff)
Okay I like the way you have it here. I have started to tinker with the different print profiles. I don’t think I fully understand how they work on the phone if you have 6 plates on a print profile. I could definitely understand have 1 profile for all the things though. That could be very easy for the end user.
I think it’s worth taking the time to explore the app, how it works, and how print profiles are presented on there.
So, here’s the print profiles, when viewed from the app. We’re looking at the small, the next one is the medium, and there’s a large off screen.
If I go into the medium, you can see I have the height variations (The caps/ends are off screen past the height variations). Each one of these is a separate plate on that print profile.
Here’s a shot of that print profile in Bambu Studio
Putting all variations into one print profile is the most convenient for the designer and for the most part, for the downloaders, too. However, there can be two drawbacks: 1) The print time show on the profile is all the variations combined, which can be a big number and can potentially make it unappealing to some users; 2) when users gvie ratings, it will not be clear which variation they rated. Giving each variation its own profile (within the same upload) can avoid these two drawbacks.
That’s a great point. Definitely wouldn’t want any negativity with a print profile. I’d definitely be scared off by a longer than expected print time.
It depends on what experience you want to offer. If you follow the diverse discussions on this forum, you will find that people do not have a unified solution. I prefer having each listed separately and following this with my models. It has more benefits for the end-user and is only more work for the author.
When I am searching for models, for me it’s important to see at a glance, print time and and filament consumption. If a model comes with variants, I want to see also that to maybe foster my decision to print or not.
User Benefits:
Author Benefits
Examples:
Swatch Display Board Case, Variation on Slots
Drawers, Variation on Size
Still on this one, I need to explain what to print, and list print times because there are 2 use cases for the same size, that need explanation - not happy with that.
Boxes, Variation on Size, Shape
I would go for dedicated profiles anytime.
EDIT: I forgot a downside on print profiles
The user only can see the 3D Preview of the original model.
This is well thought out and I can see everything you are talking about with your models. Makes a bunch of sense. Thank you.
For a user to be able to give the profile a rating is it mandatory for them to print every single plate of a multiple plate print profile?
I have one project online with 2 profiles and 13-16 plates per profile. For the project to finish, there is no need to print every single plate, it just depends on the users preference and liking.
Nevertheless I got now just a little over 80 prints/makes but still not a single rating.
Thats a little strange because normally I expect one rating after every 10prints or so.
So I am wondering if it’s not possible to rate until every plate is finished? (Same like the not allowed 5 star rating when a print fails)
@Tanklet ?
@laisch a user can rate a profile after the first print.
The user does not need to print every single plate. BambuLab sends reminders to users to rate the prints - sometimes users do not rate them.
Edit: I noticed that users rate profiles more at the beginning of a month, probably because the rewards are reset and they can get more points for a rating. Not sure about that.
I didn’t know that you get points for rating. I was just comparing it to my other models and thought there must be something wrong.
But that could be totally the case here because of the 50pts / month for ratings. Thx
190 makes and still not a single rating.
Now it’s getting really strange.
Maybe it’s because of the flexibility of the profile?The user can remove parts to customize the print like I mentioned in the model description.
Maybe MW does some checks if parts of the model are missing and doesn’t allow to rate anymore?
I think it can take a little longer to get ratings on projects that are a little more involved, and require a decent amount of printing. I’ve had a few projects like that, and they got into the hundreds of makes before I saw a rating.
I can see that with your LED light too. It is super cool, but also an involved project. Something like that takes planning, and buying supplies, and it’s not just something most people would pop out in a day.
It’s just that. I mean, I have plenty of other items too where there’s multiple modular variations within a print profile, so obviously most users aren’t printing every plate, but they still rate. So. I don’t think Makerworld is limiting people’s abilities to rate based on if they’ve printed all the plates in a given print profile. I think it’s just like I said above, more involved projects can take a minute before they start getting rattings.
Even with that though, I’ve had some more straight forward objects take a minute to get their first ratings too. It’s hard to predict or control the fickle nature of people. You’re going to stress yourself out! I mean, your object is doing great. About a week with 187 prints, all those collects and likes. You need to flip on those cool shades 
It is the start of a new month, so perhaps ratings will start coming in again. I had a lot of pending ratings to give, but waiting until today so the points meter would reset.
Looks like you were right. Depending of the size this takes fore sure serversl days to make. Took me about a week to finish it myself 
I think you got my intention of this post wrong in this case. I was not worried about getting or not getting some points from the profile, I was just thinking that there is maybe a bug in the system (like the 3 star only rating for not finished or failed prints) and some admins should maybe have a look on it.
But since I now already got one rating I can say that organizing lot of plates in one profile should be fine also.
Nop. After printing one plate, a user may rate this print profile.
I’m currently also in a situation where I’m a bit unsure about what the approach would be the best.
For the Bathroom Contest I’ve created this sign
Sliding Door Sign with interchangeable inserts by Leif3D - MakerWorld
which is at the end a pretty universal project that can also be used in other areas. I got my first requests to do inserts for the kitchen, and I’ve also designs for inserts in office environments, kids / gaming rooms, working spaces and so on almost done.
Currently I’ve 6 build plates, but if I do everything I’ve in mind for this I might be ending up with 15-20 build plates at which point it gets very hard to showcase in the listing what it offers.
Would you guys separate them into themed sets of 5 or so like one set for bathroom, one Set for kitchen etc and then cross link the models in the description?
Or should i keep everything together?
My main concern with spreading it out is that I’ve seen people spreading projects out just to farm more points - something I don’t want to do myself.
But on the other side at which point does one listing get too messy?
Appreciate thoughts / feedback.
