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Post by lightning on Dec 15, 2015 8:36:40 GMT -9
I am curious how many paper modellers are using automated cutters these days?
Does anyone know stats or have educated guesses?
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Post by Vermin King on Dec 15, 2015 9:31:17 GMT -9
I think it depends on your purpose. Most of the members at papermodelers.com cut by hand, and will sometimes buy laser-cut parts for super detailing of kits. The goals of 'modelers' is different than gamers, who see something they want to get on the table quickly.
I'd guess that more gamers as a percentage use cutters than folks that are strictly modelers. For modelers, hand-cutting is just part of the process
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Post by oldschooldm on Dec 15, 2015 10:21:10 GMT -9
Some statistics may be available from vendors who ship cutfiles (.studio) separately from their PDFs. They usually provide it as a download option. I think fatdragontom and bravesirkevin do this and might able to provide some insight. Also, perhaps squirmydad knows how often the attachments on this board are downloaded (but I know there was a reset a year or two ago, so beware those stats.) I do know that when I create cutfiles and post pictures of my builds on social media, it does often cause a spike in sales of that kit - but who knows if it's related to the cutfiles at all... jjensen, Dave, or anyone else: Do you have a any stats? I can't see how many times my dropox has been accessed, but I'll keep looking.
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Post by oldschooldm on Dec 15, 2015 10:50:08 GMT -9
An interesting question might also be:
Of the modelers that have cutters, who might buy/build/promote my model if it came with cutfiles?
I know that if I see a model complete with cutfiles, the probability I will buy it skyrockets - and the likelyhood I will build/mod/share it in the immediate future is quite good.
If your carts come with cutfiles, I'll buy and build them immediately. If not, I'll probably wait until I need carts to build them, and then hope that someone else has already made cutfiles - and if that hasn't happened, THEN I will make them.
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Post by ignatious on Dec 15, 2015 14:04:38 GMT -9
I am completely with oldschooldm on this. In fact his posts and his cut files had fair bit to do with me getting a silhouette sd. It changed everything. I wouldn't have built the FDG winterhawk castle without a cutter (thanks to pblade at the FDG forums who makes cutfiles for their releases). Since then I have skewed towards products with cut files. To give an example, one of the times DGM had a big sale (I think it was mid summer) I went through the threads and purchased everything I found cutfiles for that I didn't have (I believe mostly made by oldschooldm , thanks again). I'd also like to reference this thread link where oldschooldm and mproteau (Paper Realms) (another great source of cutfiles worthy of gratitude), discuss this topic.
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Post by bravesirkevin on Dec 15, 2015 17:14:23 GMT -9
Some statistics may be available from vendors who ship cutfiles (.studio) separately from their PDFs. They usually provide it as a download option. I think fatdragontom and bravesirkevin do this and might able to provide some insight. Also, perhaps squirmydad knows how often the attachments on this board are downloaded (but I know there was a reset a year or two ago, so beware those stats.) I do know that when I create cutfiles and post pictures of my builds on social media, it does often cause a spike in sales of that kit - but who knows if it's related to the cutfiles at all... jjensen, Dave, or anyone else: Do you have a any stats? I can't see how many times my dropox has been accessed, but I'll keep looking. I get a lot of cutfiles being downloaded, but a lot of people are grabbing them just because they're free and not because they have a use for them. In fact, I often have to explain to confused customers what they are. I'd say the number of automated cutter users is pretty low. Somewhere between 10 and 50. Still think it's worth doing the cutfiles though.
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Post by bluecloud2k2 on Dec 15, 2015 21:49:45 GMT -9
A cutter is on my wish list.
I am wanting to phase out my non-paper miniatures for paper ones since they take up less space.
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Post by lightning on Dec 15, 2015 22:21:31 GMT -9
I am curious for several reasons. As stated above the ease of cutting with the machine might stimulate a potential customer to buy if there are cut files available. Another aspect I am thinking about is, what if the design get's uncuttable WITHOUT a cutter. Since I got mine, I have reduced my manual cutting to probably 5%. When cutting the spoked wheels page yesterday I was wondering if I would cut this without a cutter. I have textured the spoked wheels in a way that the space between is black so it would work without cutting out the spaces, but still I reminded myself to be aware when creating a model that not everybody has or wants to use a cutter and not get too complicated in the design. Another thing I have learnt (from bravesirkevin 's post) is that I will package the cutfiles with the model in order not to confuse the freelooters
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Post by bravesirkevin on Dec 15, 2015 22:38:03 GMT -9
Another thing I have learnt (from bravesirkevin 's post) is that I will package the cutfiles with the model in order not to confuse the freelooters My main reason for releasing them separately is that making the cutfiles can take a fair bit of time so releasing them together could result in a delay of a few days. The other benefit is that you get to bump the announcement thread when you release the cutfiles 3 days later
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Post by lightning on Dec 16, 2015 0:21:25 GMT -9
As I am developing with the cutfiles (they are generated automaticaly in my pipeline) I definitely have them ready for release But the bumping part is worth considering, thx!
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Post by Vermin King on Dec 16, 2015 4:59:27 GMT -9
As I've mentioned on here more than once, I believe that we are sometimes lacking in self-promotion. I remind people to put links to their websites and FB pages in their signatures and suggest other forums to promote their products.
I hadn't thought of the bumping your release by adding cut files a few days later. This makes a lot of sense
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Post by oldschooldm on Dec 16, 2015 7:38:10 GMT -9
I am curious for several reasons. As stated above the ease of cutting with the machine might stimulate a potential customer to buy if there are cut files available. Another aspect I am thinking about is, what if the design get's uncuttable WITHOUT a cutter. Since I got mine, I have reduced my manual cutting to probably 5%. When cutting the spoked wheels page yesterday I was wondering if I would cut this without a cutter. I have textured the spoked wheels in a way that the space between is black so it would work without cutting out the spaces, but still I reminded myself to be aware when creating a model that not everybody has or wants to use a cutter and not get too complicated in the design. Another thing I have learnt (from bravesirkevin 's post) is that I will package the cutfiles with the model in order not to confuse the freelooters You can think of it this way (I do): Detail areas are filled (usually with black) so that hand-cutters can opt to not bother cutting them based on personal level of detail/effort tradeoffs. The cutter folks get the full deal - real cut spokes, etc. If there is a possible tradeoff for model strength, group the detail cutlines so they are easily disabled (set to No Cut) in the cutfile. What little design I do is cutfile centric as well. In short, Studio is my vector drawing program that outputs cutfile-format files. :-)
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Post by mgkatana on Jan 19, 2016 18:48:32 GMT -9
I have to agree with the general consensus that cutters appeal to the gaming crafters. I know that I now actively look for cut files and will bypass products that don't offer them or where some good-hearted soul has not created them. It is a matter of hours of time saved when I can use a cutter.
Because I'm using them as gaming pieces and their are likely to be damaged over time, small deviations aren't a big deal. I can color flaws in with a blending color and move on. I can see where that would be a huge concern for those who are using it in models. I recently did a bare tree from FDG that I just wouldn't have bothered with without a cutter. It would have taken a good hour to cut out 4 sections of the branches. I would have used their simpler model which takes about 10 minutes to cut. The first one looks much better, but when I want to create half a dozen or more trees the time constrains make it unworkable to handcut.
Michael
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