From my perspective it makes no difference, except if user would like to print just one item, then the time and weight calculation is for whole plate instead of single item.
This is something that IMHO deserves it’s own guideline in wiki for uploads: when it’s OK to upload “v2” of something and when it should be simply new profile (and probably privating the old one). The downside of updating just profile is that the model isn’t marked as “new” and I do think there should be a way to announce that the model got updated and have it reflected on uploads page somehow, so that there’s less incentive to upload very small change as “v2”
Ah, the old Cobra Effect of incentives
Point farming will always happen to some degree, where there’s incentives present.
That’s the way to go! When something could form a “set”, it should be included as a single model.
Then you can choose to include multiple profiles or multiple plates within a single profile.
Personally, I would go with the second option, as I believe the complete set should be in one profile with multiple plates — this way, people can rate the entire set rather than individual pieces.
Another profile could be created for a scaled version, for example.
Unless the rules have changed, this is a problem with MakerWorld’s rating and comment policy on models. If the designer were to include all these models in the same print profile on separate plates, then if a user didn’t print ALL the plates they will not be able to leave a rating or a comment. I find this policy frustrating because it forces you to do things just like this just to get a rating or a comment. Without ratings, your model will never get popular. You can see in this situation it has worked out for the designer. I would do the same thing until they change the policy. But I’m with you, it would be much nicer to get them all in one!
I hadn’t considered this. Thanks for bringing it up!
I have a number of models where I include duplicate parts on their own plates with variations printers might prefer. It’s doubtful anyone would print all the plates and this explains the lack of reviews on those models.
Sigh. So it looks like trying to accommodate those without an AMS or providing alternatives is sabotaging those models. I guess something else to do - delete the extra plates on existing models and put them up as other profiles or just not bother providing options any more.
If the print profile (and therefore the model) forms a set, why wouldn’t the user print all the parts?
Take, for example, the user from the initial post about poker chips — all the models had almost the same number of downloads because you need them all to complete the set you want to use or play with.
There are only a few cases where you might skip some parts — for instance, with a set of vases, you might only need one style. In that case, a rating is still useful but less accurate since the whole profile wasn’t printed.
In this rare case, you’re right, it would help if MW offered an option to rate only the part you actually printed, rather than the entire profile, but instead you as designer could add multiple profiles with single plate. So the rating would be always accurate.
Huh, I didn’t know that and it looks like neither did others…
I wanted to do a separate post to seek out guideline clarification since I’d rather not force users to rate all plates if I do next set (and I was planning to do things that wouldn’t be even a set but a variation), but I had a look at Print Profile Upload Guidelines and here are relevant parts:
Recommended:
4. Separate versions on the different plate (not mandatory)
If your models have variants, place each variant on a separate plate and name them accordingly. This allows users to conveniently select the desired version.
Prohibited:
8. Splitting a model into multiple print profiles for uploading
If a model has multiple parts, putting them into a single print profile can prevent users from overlooking any parts during printing. Additionally, it helps maintain a cleaner and more organized model page.
A permitted exception is if a component of your model has multiple variants; you may upload the variant as a separate print profile, although it is recommended to uploaded variants as separate plates in a print profile and name the plates accordingly.
So from what I understand and given the language here it looks like:
a multi-part model should have all it’s parts in a single profile, so that nothing gets lost.
If there are variations available, those can be uploaded as separate print profile. It is allowed but not recommended.
So say for example if you have a model of a clock, all basic components should be within a single profile, however you can create separate profile for different clock hands, different clock faces and so on. You actually don’t need to include duplicate parts since Bambu Handy allows choosing which objects to print from any of the given plates (and so does Bambu Studio, dunno if you can choose what to print form printer’s touchscreen). That seems to cover all bases: be within guidelines AND allow individual pieces have rating.
So to apply that to other mentioned uploads:
The poker chips noted by @michelem - those are indeed against rules since that’s a set. Those should be same model and could be either multiple profiles or single profile with multiple plates.
The barbie keychain mentioned by @TJB - those are OK - it’s a single model with different profiles and users are only interested in their own name. The problem for them is that print profile should have a real photo and I’m not sure whether the creator be willing to print 200+ keychains
Ohhhh, this should change. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t rate a model on here, and it’s because the last plate was a variation on the model. That’s not cool! This should absolutely be a feature request to be able to rate without printing all the plates.
This is not true, I’ve done this many times.
As long as 1 plate is printed successfully it will show in print history/ratings & be considered completed.
I don’t know for certain myself but @lion7718 says above you just need to print a single plate to rate. @Johnny_Bit is asking @MakerWorld for clarification.
This is incorrect, you don’t need to print it at all or even download to leave comments. You also do not need to print ALL plates in order to rate or for it to count as a print. It’s been this way for as long as I’ve been using MW personally.
Yeah, I did get rating prompts after printing the first of several plates in multi-plate profiles. Similarly however, I was also refused the ability to rate after having printed multi-plate profiles when a single plate recorded a print failure despite being good.
It is evolving though. I haven’t had a chance to make MakerWorld prints for 2 months now though. The printer is running through a couple of non-MW multi-week prints
As @EnoTheThracian mentioned, the rating offer comes up after one plate. It can be a mashup plate (I like to save time and condense plates) but there must be a time percentage involved because I’ve had the rating refuse to continue and default to a “Failed Print” option after you select rate.
I think the option to rate after the first plate is needed, eg. you have 254x barbie name keychain profiles nested in one model.
@Johnny_Bit The 1gram cube was a scam not too long ago when farming was less polished. They’d have mules dumping these and download/print up to 20 then delete/repeat again. MW managed to wipe that out somehow.
The original scam was related to how MW used to reward profiles.
If a user created a print with 30 build plates in a profile, they would reward the uploader for every build plate even if only one was printed.
They added something tiny on one build plate and loaded up the others. The points were based on the amount of material used. The scammers would print the small thing, get a successful print logged to their account and be rewarded for the tiny plus as many full build plates they included.
They operated multiple accounts to limit their exposure, creating profiles on one account and downloading on many others. Grabbing the gift cards and cashing them in. Then usually sold off the printers wherever they could to turn them into cash.
