I've been aware of 3D printing companies for a few years now, and the relatively low costs. I only just heard of Kraftwurx tonight, but here's a few others:

www.xxxxx.com/
www.xxxxx.com/
www.xxxxx.com/

There are also 3D maker communities, such as:

www.xxxxx.com/tag:toy

So how does Kraftwurx compare to these? Has anyone else had experience using other sites like this one? Is there a larger community out there? I'm not sure what percentage Kraftwurx takes from the artist's sales, and I'd like to know that.

Hello Abby, Krafwurx is very different from the ground up. We posses the original vision to empower not only 3d artists but engineers,CAD specialists,traditional artists,crafters and makers with not limited methods and materials but all currently available technology. This is thanks to our core system "Digital Factory"tm.

Digital Factory tm helps Kraftwurx to maintain the most competitive material/production cost. Kraftwurx gains from processing of the transactions alone. Artists are given a standard %25 profit and are allowed to price the item higher if they choose to gain even more profit.

We also like community. Generating a network of engineers and artists of all types is invaluable. This way the industries further merge to increase the quality and complexity of the 3d modeled products.

Co-create/Alchemy. Everybody can design and sell 3d models as real products. This is possible by allowing those without advanced software knowledge or access to upload proposals for items they would like to have created and sold. 3D artists can use Alchemy to ask for a CAD created piece they would like to further add art to. Leading to more product possibility.

Kraftwurx isn't stopping their either. Soon their will be many more services provided associated with manufacturing your custom designs.

Don't want to sound too sales-pitchy. But that is my best explanation of how Kraftwurx differs from previous 3d printing service providers.

Hello Abby,

Kraftwurx is a truly global company. We currently have production facilities in Australia, South Africa, the United States, Europe, China, Russia, South America and more.

As you mentioned some of the other companies, let me offer the following feedback:

Kraftwurx was arguably the first 3D community concept...under the name Digital Reality. You can still find the original publication here:

2006-2007 Demo

There are still some articles about it on the internet including Make Magazine and madeforone.com. For example:

Make Magazine Blog
Made For One

We decided to focus our efforts on developing the tools for the past 5 years instead of a website. What you will be seeing over the next few months will the be the roll out of Digital Factory™ which is the software system that runs Kraftwurx.com.

What sets us apart besides more than 7 years of development is our approach to Digital Manufacturing. The "other guys" are trying to grow their global network by establishing their own facilities in different regions of the world which si expensive, slow and results in everyone paying higher shipping rates if you do not live in the region they have production in.

Kraftwurx approach and patented method is to establish a co-operative network of existing facilities around the globe to serve you and help grow the 3D printing industry as a whole. The bureaus are hungry for work but they don't thousands of people calling them up to do work for every person...Kraftwurx Digital Factory™ system acts like Air Traffic Control, routing jobs efficiently to the bureaus to make their lives easy while maintaining the ability to serve you globally.

This means you can sell your products efficiently worldwide. It also means you can make friends worldwide, collaborate worldwide and of course be worldwide. It also means that we are already offering more than 2 times the number of materials that our competition has available only 3 weeks after launch. We also have precious metals including gold, platinum and sterling., something the other guys do not offer as well as Stainless Steel, Inconel, Titanium (Yes, Titanium!) and even 3D printed Aluminum. In total Kraftwurx has about 45 materials so far and we expect to add a few more soon!

We will be telling much more of what we are doing different in the coming weeks and months but the magic will happen in 2012. We hope you will get involved and help us Print the Planet.