On-Line Pen Design Studio

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Thanks

Thanks for the proofing - is one reason this is a beta version. we'll fix stuff as it is caught - as you can imagine is a lot of detail creating this. I'd like to know of any other errors or corrections necessary.
Ed
 
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Hi John, good points,
1) We sell Cocobolo in 16 varieties (from bowl to spindle to pen blanks) and the app "picks" the most appropriate choices for the pen you're looking at. In this case, yep, the bad news is we only offer Cocobolo in 10 and 5 packs for your pen, the good news is We offer it at a very good price of onoy $9.95/pack of 10. It also figures out how many blanks you need to buy based on the size of the pen and blanks.

2) We try to show a "Typical" blank and the rotation feature does show variations. Our QC process tries to "standardize" the figure/color of the wood we deliver.

3) Would you rather buy an app to keep on your PC (perhaps at a cost cause it would be a lot more maintenance for us to support that style) - or just have a web version thats "sales" related? but could be personalized (via a login) and free.
 
I like it and it works great, you need to see if they can make it print on the pen part, when I printed it that part was blank, that way I could give a copy to my customer and also keep a copy for myself and have the customer sign off on the design....
 
What, no more cut and paste with Photoshop? I agree that the pen should be rotatable and posibly show the capped pens open/closed/posted. The ability to scan in blank swatches to fill in the pens would also be extremly valuable.
 
I love the idea, and hope they will eventually give the blank choices of all wood and also acrylics. PSI is on the right track with this.
 
A solid effort. It's nice to get a sense of what a kit/blank combination might look like, but with the caveat that the emphasis is on "might".

It would be nice if your flash image allowed two separate controls. The first one would allow you to rotate the blank to your preferred position on the kit, and the second would rotate the kit and blank together for a more natural look.

What I liked most about the program was just seeing the blank move. It gave me a better idea of what it would look like, and as a result I've spotted a number that I'm going to have to try.

I would like to see an option to just download the blank files and have the ability to play them without the kit. If I have a customer with me, I can probably give him a pen to play with in the finish he wants, and then just play some different blanks for him to consider. Maybe have a subscription service where we could be notified when new blanks were available; a blank of the month club if you will.

Overall, a very intriguing option.
 
On line design

hi,

Lots of pros on this one including:

  • Easy to learn what to do
  • Easy to use to switch a variety of woods with the fittings
  • Does what it is supposed to
Since a lot of us often use two different woods it would be nice if we could show tops in one color and bottoms in another...I don't think that would be difficult to program. I noticed that I would like that on PSI Longwood.

I think a down loadable version would be nice but not necessery in my mind...a way of personalizing on line would be nice too.

Some things will be a little tricky in that there are big variations in what you get from the same species of wood but over all I think you've got a winner.
 
I think it's the nicest tool I've seen yet for giving customers a reasonable facsimile of a pen combination they're considering. Kudos to you and your team.

On the downside, the pen finishes aren't very realistic. Brushed Satin on the Classic looks a lot like chrome, for example. Color is okay, but the sheen is wrong. I'm picking nits, but you invited them! :)
 
Works great. Two ideas for improvement.

1. Make "logging in" a requirement for showing the materials cost. That way when working with a customer you don't log in and no pricing is displayed. To order the materials, simply log in.

2. Make it where you can put one material on one blank and another material on the other half. I just doubled you sales, by ordering two pieces of material instead of one.

The program works nice.
 
I agree with every one its great cept for the wood previews i think are not quite right, the rest looks good maybe a option to hide prices would be great

J Roussel
 
Ed, I think it is a great tool. It will have more use for those with either less experience at pen turning or with less ability to imagine what a pen would look like. I like it for a quick easy way to see how a different material will change the look of any given plating or pen style. As pen turners get more into acrylics, home brews or the less available materials it will have less and less value for them. I still think it is a powerful tool for penturners to make selections they will be happy with.
 
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