Beware 3D file conversions!

The purpose of CNCKing.com is to provide high quality TESTED and PROVEN files… so I was surprised when a customer bought some of our files and told me the files didn’t work. That can’t be I told him, I had photos and video showing the designer’s files WORK. After a little back and forth to isolate the issue, I discovered that I was at fault.

This customer had lots of 3D printing experience so he suggested that I try the files by uploading them to Shapeways to see for myself that they didn’t work… low and behold, he was right! That didn’t solve the mystery though as to why these designers WERE able to 3D print the files and I was not… then came the realization that, to make things easier for customers, I had converted their original files into a variety of other formats… and those are the files that didn’t work!

What was happening is that the files loaded-up fine within 3DS Max and Netfabb – my two testing platforms for files after photos are sent to make sure the files are fine – were exporting the files into other formats that just didn’t work. For instance, I convert a variety of my laser and table router designs in EPS, AI, DXF and some to CDR so I had assumed, load a file as STL and export as COLLAda (.DAE) and others should work just as well. Nope!

So, in the future, all files that I upload to CNCKing.com will be verified using Shapeways as a final test of both the original file (sometimes things get corrupted) and I won’t be converting the originals in other file formats.