Thanks to Tober for printing some things for me. Here's a direct comparison between Shapeways (left) and the Anycubic Photon resin printer (right).
In some areas notably the ribbing on the side and the logo area top of the boot the resin printer is much better. However fore and aft the shapeways print is superior. Also with the resin printer the object requires supporting frames so the nubs have to be placed carefully and afterwards cleaned off the print. You can see where they were placed on the back and sole of the boot. Both prints just have a coat of gray primer to highlight the surface impressions.
Removing supports is just about always going to be tricky.
All in all, it's not terrible. :/
Which brings us to where we are today...
I can see where the resin printer would excel. Things like figures and organic shapes.
Front and back of the shapeways print plus the sides of your resin print would be the best result. The ribbing on the side I was really impressed with.
These are my first two successful models uploaded to Shapeways:
This is what happened when I cut the supports off from my Shapeways dual rifle set:
And it's the not the first time it's happened with a Shapeways item.
I am curious why the inside is white and the outside is red.
Why isn't it red all the way through?
I'm using FreeCad to build my 3D objects.
It's a bit complicated at times, but I think I've gotten good enough at the program to design 3D printable objects.
Very interesting comparison, I'm curious just how small that boot is?
I also wonder if they were printed in the same orientation, that would produce different results on different surfaces as well.
Thats most interesting, I'm guessing that the colour is a dye. what material are you printing in?
Theoretically any 3D printing/Additive manufacturing method is suited to organic shapes, it's the greatest strength of the technology
From the Shapeways materials page it states that it's printed then dyed.
Not very big. The pics with the coin show somewhat an indication of size. I think it's a trade off as to what side is going to be more detailed plus the fact that supports are also necessary. I think that some clever tree design is required.
Also hard surfaces. 90 degrees means 90 degrees and flat is flat, print layers notwithstanding.