Personalising every unit of a run without raising the price
A mould makes a thousand identical parts; a printer makes a thousand different ones for the same cost. How to design the part to exploit that.
It is the one advantage of 3D printing that has nothing to do with price or speed, and it is the one almost nobody uses: the machine does not care in the least whether the forty parts in a batch are identical or all different. There is no mould to change and no tooling to reset. The cost of personalising each unit is zero.
Design a base and a variable zone
The practical way is to separate the part in two from the outset: the geometry that never changes — the outline, the logo, the keyring hole — and a reserved zone for whatever varies. That zone needs a defined rectangle, with its height and width fixed, so a short name and a long one both sit properly.
The three limits to fix beforehand
- 1Maximum character count. Work it out from the longest name on your actual list, not a sample. "Mª del Carmen Etxebarria" is real, and does not fit where "Ana" fits.
- 2Minimum cap height. If you scale text down so the long name fits, the stroke can drop under 0.8 mm and stop reading. Two lines beat one tiny line.
- 3What to do with accents, ñ and ç. Decide whether they are included, and check on a sample: not every typeface places them the same way.
How to send us the list
A spreadsheet with one column: one name per row, written exactly as you want it to appear, with its capitals and its accents. We do not correct spelling or change capitalisation — what is in the cell is what gets printed, and that way there are no surprises. Attach it through the contact form along with the base model.
And always order one sample carrying the longest name before releasing the run. It is the only way to know the worst case fits, and it costs one unit.