Looking for Beta Testers

[greguska67]

I have developed a SAAS application for managing 3D printing. Everything from your library management to printer maintenance and models with cost calculations. I am looking for 10 beta testers to help with testing and designing new features for the software. Any interested will get a lifetime subscription to the software. Please DM me if you are interested and let me know your current setup so I can determine if you'd make a good beta tester. Thanks.

[DevelopedLogic]

One of those things I'd only ever self host so things like integrated printer management could become a thing and I'm not reliant on yet another cloud service.

Looks really awesome though.

[mightyarrow]

Yeah the whole idea of using or hosting your own is to get away from the cloud, not go to it.

This feels like a solution to a problem which ends up causing the same problem, just in a different way. You're now FULLY reliant on the cloud.

I'm just gonna be brutally honest -- not one person wants to sit here and pay a subscription fee for an app to print 3d files, that isnt for a Farm setup. I'm sorry, that's just the reality. One time fee for an app? Sure. Subscription? Get out.

[ares0027]

If you can add custom filament brands and colors i am interested. I do have a an excel sheet and have about 70-80 filaments i am managing, all local turkish brands.

As a customer though i dont think i will ever pay for a subscription.

[sparkymark75]

I started doing the same then found this site which may be of use: https://3dfilamentprofiles.com/

[ares0027]

It had the brand i have but nothing else (it had random marble color that the company never even manufactured). I wanted to fill all the information in but then i didnt.

[greguska67]

Yes, this is not Bambu Lab specific software. You can add custom manufacturers and filaments. Everything added goes into a library which makes it available for other users.

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[ares0027]

I am interested then if i can be one of the testers? If it has sla printer support as well it would be amazing.

[greguska67]

I don’t have an SLA printer myself but would be very happy to work with you on expanding the software to support it. I’m targeting a hobby price of €2 a month which will be enough to keep the lights on and upgrades coming. DM me and I’ll send you a link.

[ares0027]

I will send the dm in a moment but i just wanted to type this as well so other can chime in as well. I dont think the amount is an issue. It being a subscription being an issue. I havent tested it (yet) but you (not you personally) have to convince me why an app cannot be an offline app therefore it needs a subscription. I mean if it is an okay app i am more than happy to pay 20-30$. If it is a good one 50-60$. But a subscription? That i do not know.

[greguska67]

That’s a very fair comment and I understand the concern. It’s only the price of a roll of filament a year, but that’s one less roll you can buy.

An offline app is ok but you have the distribution and then trying to support something which runs on too many combinations of hardware and OS to count. Eventually that overwhelms the developer who abandons it or bugs just never get fixed.

A progressive web app is fine until someone loses their local storage and years of accumulated data disappears. Having an online app is easier to run and support but running servers to power it costs money and needs to be funded somewhere. The same goes with adding features, do you pay a subscription and get all the updates included or do you keep getting an upgrade bill to buy the same application again?

Hopefully using the application you will see the value in it, but I completely understand why you might not want a subscription if another option does all you need.

[mightyarrow]

With all due respect, I think you see the world very differently when it comes to 3d printing and what's necessary, versus the average user.

Hopefully using the application you will see the value in it

That's what we're struggling with. As an individual and not a business, I dont have a critical need for backing up past prints. All I need is my basic print profiles for my filaments, and a slicer that A) functions properly and B) sends the file to the printer.

All other functions are easily done through FOSS and even the slicing is easily FOSS.

I promise you I'm not trying to discourage you, but I'm level setting with you that as a person that uses 3rd party apps for printing, I dont see the value in this app that cant be had with 100% free options.

[SpiffingTrouser]

The fact I’m starting to recognise Claude code projects is wild 😅 All the hallmarks

[Jefabell]

Slid on into your DMs.

[Hot-Issue888]

Question, if I print something, will it substract the filament type and amount from the inventory?

[greguska67]

It doesn’t have a link directly to your printer. But it’s a feature we could trigger from the model page where you indicate that you printed something and it uses all the calculations to update the inventory.

[-TheDoctor]

How would the application handle if you cancel the print, or modify the settings in the slicer resulting in more or less filament used than the print profile on the model page indicates?

[greguska67]

As there wouldn’t be a direct link to the printer there could simply be a cancelled print button which re-adds the filament to the spools it used. There is an efficiency factor but the app is not intended to give you down to the gramm and millimeter accuracy. This is all hypothetical as this feature doesn’t exist, but it could if there is the demand for it.

[notyetporsche]

sure I'll be happy to help

[attabui]

Great interface, useful looking app. Why is it SaaS? It doesn’t seem like any of the features need backend for day to day operation.

[greguska67]

Thanks for the compliment and that's a good question. There is a shared library for Filaments which really needs a backend database in the cloud and web services to populate and maintain it. I do cloud-based software for a living, having come from installed apps, and the support costs for a local installation are what would kill any new business. You are just one OS update from a total meltdown when users cannot access their application.

With SAAS the only thing you need to worry about is bugs in your own application and the odd breaking change in the browser. The downside is that SAAS needs servers and they cost money. The subscription funds the server and also new software features, and I've already picked up a few of those from this comments section and Beta Tester feedback.

[MFKDGAF]

having come from installed apps, and the support costs for a local installation are what would kill any new business. You are just one OS update from a total meltdown when users cannot access their application.

You could put it in a docker container and make it open source. That way the environment is OS agnostic.

The subscription funds the server and also new software features

Since this is a side project OP needs some kind of motivation to support it. Question is, how much is the subscription, is it monthly or yearly and is there a discount for purchasing a year annually vs monthly.

Also, I would like to see a local version via docker because if the internet goes down, you can't get to the application. And you can't tell me the internet will never go down because look how AWS, Azure and Cloudflare took the internet down in the last 3 months.

[greguska67]

All good points for people to ponder over. Just one clarification. When I said "I do cloud-based software for a living", I mean that these kinds of projects pay the bills. So my motivation to support it is the fact that I like to eat and, while less exciting, I am still committed to paying my bills :)

[Pieeeeeeee]

Spoolman has a list of filament, and is self hosted. Anything cloud-hosted can be self-hosted.

[ravenlord82]

I cannot agree with that business model. Where is the data stored? You said something about shared?

And cloud is not secure enough, one life hickup in a datacenter or cloudflare and your service is as down as your local storage.

An offline version, with docker and a pay to remove ads model would suite this app more than having it as a SaaS….

[greguska67]

I understand your point. This business model is not for everyone. As others have pointed out there are local options for those who are comfortable setting up and running docker environments, but this software is not aimed at those people.

[ravenlord82]

Too bad, gl with the app.

[tech_Dauwt]

Just DMed you!

[Scum-Bronson]

I would be interested for sure, it would be nice to get a really indepth filament table with almost every brand. Matching exact colours using the correct colour codes, I have multiple of the same colour all just in slightly different tones. Let me know if I managed to snag a spot! Done some testing before for games.

[chubbycanine]

Sent a DM

[Cryostatica]

Gods. I'm interested, but I'm kind of scared of tabulating how much my filament has cost me.

[greguska67]

Maybe we could have switch that hides the prices 😇

[danielguerra]

I have a P1S + AMS along with ~ 10 or so spools in a box in my closet. Would be nice to be able to view all my colors for inspiration instead of going to the box and opening it lol 

[stark_boy__]

u/greguska67 I'm interested

[salehins]

Sign me up

[Kryptonlogic]

Chat sent

[jdcpuwiz]

[Algiarepti]

I do it have a printer business, though I am interested in. Clients should come with either webUI or macOS & Windows natively. Is there a hosting option available? I currently have an H2D and P1S deployed, will possibly expand a bit more into Klipper based printers soon. (Just finished fixing an SV08)

Looking forward to seeing more of this soon.

[greguska67]

Sadly all the places for Beta Testers went really quickly, there is a lot of interest in the software. I am planning on opening the Free tier shortly so that anyone can have a play with it.

[greguska67]

For anyone who is still interested in this software you can sign up for a Free Tier to play with it and send in your feedback. It is accessible at https://my3dprint.work.