New study on personal 3D printing needs RepRap community input

Hi RepRappers,


Data is being collected for the second annual Personal 3D Printing Insights study by Photizo Group. Understanding how big of an impact RepRap has on the idea of desktop or low cost 3D printing, we want to hear from RepRappers. Many of you responded last year, which we greatly appreciate.

You can participate in our study here, it only takes 5 minutes and you'll be entered to win some 3D printing prizes including giftcards to buy 3D printing materials or parts from Amazon, or a pass to 3D Printshow in London this year.

I hope posting this isn't against the rules - I checked the sticky. We're not selling anything, we just want to hear from the community. Thanks all.

Photizo

Most of the people here build there own printer, your survey assumes we have bought an off the shelf job

Hi Paul, thanks for the comment.

You actually can input for a self built kit - we know how popular they are. When you reach the "General Usage" page, the third question in the series asks whether the printer the survey is referencing is a pre-assembled printer from a manufacturer, or a self-assembled printer from a kit or parts.

Took the survey, and I did find plenty for those who build their own printer from a kit. I found nothing I can remember about those who sourced their own parts and made their own design. Those who do feel accomplished and proud of their work, it's not the easiest thing in the world, so proper placement for those people would be nice. A few parts that could use more multi-choice rather than single choice, and a few more options. It's a nice survey, best I've seen in a long time, but could definitely use a little more work and go more in depth.

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Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

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MrDoctorDIV
Took the survey, and I did find plenty for those who build their own printer from a kit. I found nothing I can remember about those who sourced their own parts and made their own design. Those who do feel accomplished and proud of their work, it's not the easiest thing in the world, so proper placement for those people would be nice. A few parts that could use more multi-choice rather than single choice, and a few more options. It's a nice survey, best I've seen in a long time, but could definitely use a little more work and go more in depth.

We greatly appreciate your feedback. If you'd like to share some ideas for the future, we're all ears. Thanks for taking time to complete our study.

As far as the self-built printer from a kit versus from sourced parts - this is something we may add specific designation for in the future. Generally, in the full scope of the study, those that build their own printers from sourced parts are a small portion, but I agree that I think the distinction between the two is important. Several people last year input in "Which brand is your printer" that it was self built from parts, which helped us distinguish between a kit and a parts build. Based on this feedback we will add in more options for this in the future.

For those that see this, make sure to leave some feedback for us in the second-to-last question of the survey!

Just one more thing I remembered; I'm in the process of building a printer, so questions for those currently building one might help as well. Those inside the learning curve can often have some good insight, as it's fresh and often less biased, though often uneducated as well.

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Realizer- One who realizes dreams by making them a reality either by possibility or by completion. Also creating or renewing hopes of dreams.
"keep in mind, even the best printer can not print with the best filament if the user is the problem." -Ohmarinus

Thanks to all who have participated thus far - the response from the community has been incredible (as expected).

For those interested, here's a writeup from the editor of 3Dprintingindustry.com on the study, as well as an interview conducted by 3D PrintShow on it. You can still participate at the link above.

http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/08/22/2014-personal-3d-printing-insights-survey/

http://3dprintshow.com/photizo-group-3d-printing-survey/

I got to the end of the survey, then it wanted my email address but didn't offer any sort of privacy policy or marketing opt-out.. So I abandoned it.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

In the questions that ask when we started in 3d printing or when my 3d printer was purchased, you don't have 2014 as an option. Since it's now August, there's probably quite a few people like myself that have just gotten into this in the current year.

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dc42
I got to the end of the survey, then it wanted my email address but didn't offer any sort of privacy policy or marketing opt-out.. So I abandoned it.

The email is totally optional, and not required to complete the survey. Notice that if you leave it blank and click 'submit' the survey will ask you if you intentionally left it blank (doing so excludes you from prize drawings). You can simply click submit again to submit your completed response without sharing your email.