I really like these. A simple slot along the top for those who want to use it for upgrades/damage would be nice though.

I would advocate for an area for upgrade cards, the slots for the cards can be at a 45 degree angle or something so you have a cascading list of cards where you can probably see the name at a glance. This also takes much less space than flat cards, and is a bit more user-friendly than straight vertical.

Here's a model of the tweaked version. I'll have to wait to borrow an alternate art ship card as well as sleeves to arrive to confirm everything fits right. You can see that it uses a little less plastic and might print faster. It still specs at $32 on Shapeways so that's not desirable. I've started looking at a few plastic manufacturers, and I'm seeing why companies like Reaper have used Kickstarter to get molds made.

I'd also like to explain more of my thinking on upgrades and damage cards. First is that my design philosophy with this was to make it as compact as possible. That is partially why the tokens overlap the ship card (the other reason being that I like how it looks).

Second is that I'm trying to think how my opponent is going to be able to recognize my cards from across the table. If people have to start walking around the table to see which cards are on which ships, I see a time where the organized play rules will require that you keep your cards in full view of your opponent easily. I've looked at a few of the other upgrade and damage card trays that people are using, and I don't think they add anything except making it easier to transport them. With this design, you can still stack the cards on the tray and move everything. Small and medium ships will even fit on the tray pretty easily, too.

I'm a huge fan of this design, very simplistic but it looks slick.

I'm thinking that to make the upgrade card issue as manageable as possible, I am going to make a series of very simple trays that hold 1, 2, 3 and 4 cards in a row each. Then you'll be able to select one of more of them to hold exactly the right number of cards without wasting too much space - it should keep them neat and tidy but separated to each ship. Also allows you a bit of flexibility for different table setups depending on space restrictions.

I'll give it a crack and see how it goes anyway

Is that $32 per piece that you would make? This design is definitely awesome.

In regards to the upgrade cards, maybe you could make separate detachable trays (holding two upgrade cards vertically) that would then snap into the left side? They could have some sort of tongue & groove system so you could snap together multiple upgrade trays in a line, then snap into the main card tray? Just a thought.

Here's a model of the tweaked version. I'll have to wait to borrow an alternate art ship card as well as sleeves to arrive to confirm everything fits right. You can see that it uses a little less plastic and might print faster. It still specs at $32 on Shapeways so that's not desirable. I've started looking at a few plastic manufacturers, and I'm seeing why companies like Reaper have used Kickstarter to get molds made.

I'd also like to explain more of my thinking on upgrades and damage cards. First is that my design philosophy with this was to make it as compact as possible. That is partially why the tokens overlap the ship card (the other reason being that I like how it looks).

Second is that I'm trying to think how my opponent is going to be able to recognize my cards from across the table. If people have to start walking around the table to see which cards are on which ships, I see a time where the organized play rules will require that you keep your cards in full view of your opponent easily. I've looked at a few of the other upgrade and damage card trays that people are using, and I don't think they add anything except making it easier to transport them. With this design, you can still stack the cards on the tray and move everything. Small and medium ships will even fit on the tray pretty easily, too.

Do you need the raised up area in the command dial area? It helps identify "Command dials here" but that's not really going to help the dials from moving when you move the tray around. Every little bit helps.

Alt -art ship cards are just with the long edge horizontal. They are the same size when in tarot sleeves as the regular ship cards. Just turn it ninety.

But the problem is that all of the game information is pushed out to the edges for more art and is possibly covered by the tokens.

Is that $32 per piece that you would make? This design is definitely awesome.

In regards to the upgrade cards, maybe you could make separate detachable trays (holding two upgrade cards vertically) that would then snap into the left side? They could have some sort of tongue & groove system so you could snap together multiple upgrade trays in a line, then snap into the main card tray? Just a thought.

$32 is the price that Shapeways would charge someone to print one tray. The plastic is really cheap, so that's quite a markup in my opinion.

The tongue and groove idea is one I've been considering. Even if I don't use it, it would allow for other enhancements, by me or anyone else. If I end up going a molded plastic route where changes cost a lot of money for new molds, I want to have something that is adaptable as player desires and game rules evolve.

Do you need the raised up area in the command dial area? It helps identify "Command dials here" but that's not really going to help the dials from moving when you move the tray around. Every little bit helps.

Alt -art ship cards are just with the long edge horizontal. They are the same size when in tarot sleeves as the regular ship cards. Just turn it ninety.

But the problem is that all of the game information is pushed out to the edges for more art and is possibly covered by the tokens.

Your last point is why I'm going to borrow on from someone local. Just to be sure.

Is that $32 per piece that you would make? This design is definitely awesome.

In regards to the upgrade cards, maybe you could make separate detachable trays (holding two upgrade cards vertically) that would then snap into the left side? They could have some sort of tongue & groove system so you could snap together multiple upgrade trays in a line, then snap into the main card tray? Just a thought.

$32 is the price that Shapeways would charge someone to print one tray. The plastic is really cheap, so that's quite a markup in my opinion.

The tongue and groove idea is one I've been considering. Even if I don't use it, it would allow for other enhancements, by me or anyone else. If I end up going a molded plastic route where changes cost a lot of money for new molds, I want to have something that is adaptable as player desires and game rules evolve.

Do you need the raised up area in the command dial area? It helps identify "Command dials here" but that's not really going to help the dials from moving when you move the tray around. Every little bit helps.

Alt -art ship cards are just with the long edge horizontal. They are the same size when in tarot sleeves as the regular ship cards. Just turn it ninety.

But the problem is that all of the game information is pushed out to the edges for more art and is possibly covered by the tokens.

The $32 wasn't much of a change from the first version I ran through Shapeways' pricing information. That tells me material cost is very small in their calculations.

Your last point is why I'm going to borrow on from someone local. Just to be sure.

Wow Shapeways really is a bit of a rip-off...you'd think if the material cost was so cheap, you'd be able to rattle off a bunch of these at near the same price point.

I'm not a big fan of the alt-art cards because the game information is more or less secondary on them. While you don't want cards to be "ugly" there first priority should be making their information easily accessible.

Comatose -

Not sure of the exact process here, but https://www.makexyz.com/ will give you an instant quote if you upload the 3-D model file

https://www.shapeways.com/product/FYNETYEPR/star-wars-armada-command-tray?li=shop-results&optionId=57906974


Mine are in much the same boat... I'll be getting 1-2 prototyped and then probably running them as Resin castings from that point on.

Here's a model of the tweaked version. I'll have to wait to borrow an alternate art ship card as well as sleeves to arrive to confirm everything fits right. You can see that it uses a little less plastic and might print faster. It still specs at $32 on Shapeways so that's not desirable. I've started looking at a few plastic manufacturers, and I'm seeing why companies like Reaper have used Kickstarter to get molds made.

I'd also like to explain more of my thinking on upgrades and damage cards. First is that my design philosophy with this was to make it as compact as possible. That is partially why the tokens overlap the ship card (the other reason being that I like how it looks).

Second is that I'm trying to think how my opponent is going to be able to recognize my cards from across the table. If people have to start walking around the table to see which cards are on which ships, I see a time where the organized play rules will require that you keep your cards in full view of your opponent easily. I've looked at a few of the other upgrade and damage card trays that people are using, and I don't think they add anything except making it easier to transport them. With this design, you can still stack the cards on the tray and move everything. Small and medium ships will even fit on the tray pretty easily, too.

Take the cutout on the right corner and tweak it to fit damage or upgrade cards. Players can align upgrades on either side and damage goes down in the corner next to the ship.

You can plug your file into https://printathing.com/and see what they would charge, usually much cheaper than Shapeways

If you do an upgrade tray, you could set up a notching system to lock them together. Just an idea.

Or an upgrade tray could be connected if you put spaces in to glue magnets into both the ship and upgrade trays.

Or an upgrade tray could be connected if you put spaces in to glue magnets into both the ship and upgrade trays.

More work on people in a hobby where most dont even paint to begin with. It is easier to just make a product that is all inclusive.

Wow Shapeways really is a bit of a rip-off...you'd think if the material cost was so cheap, you'd be able to rattle off a bunch of these at near the same price point.

That's the thing with 3D printing: volume makes zero difference in cost to produce once you have your design done. Each one takes the exact same amount of time, materials, and other resources to print. There's still a cost gap between volume 3D printing and having your turned into a plastic mold for mass production.

I borrowed an alternate art Nebulon-B card, and the tray requires no adjustment. There are a couple elements that are part of either fleet building or setup that get covered like defense tokens and upgrade slots, but otherwise I'm happy with it. I'm just waiting for my FLGS to get in the tarot card sleeves I ordered so I can make sure everything fits.

Perhaps the best news is that I've been doing more tweaking and have managed to get the price down to $24.95 on Shapeways for their cheapest plastic. I might be able to trim off a little bit more, but I need to print one locally to be sure it hasn't become too trimmed.

The bad news is that I don't think I'll be able to get them manufactured. By the time you add in the cost of software to make the models and paying a manufacturer to create the molds and manufacture them, the cost/risk/benefit does not come out to something I'm comfortable doing.

After borrowing an alternate art card and getting some ship sleeves, I've done the final tweaking to the tray. I'm going to print one locally, and then I hope to make it available on Shapeways by the end of the week. I trimmed some more components to reduce materials and printing time. Here's the latest shot of the model.

Nice. I already have trays that accommodate Upgraded ships. Having a few extras for the ships that are stock will be nice...

Nice. I already have trays that accommodate Upgraded ships. Having a few extras for the ships that are stock will be nice...

I'd be keen to get a few of each to try them out

Nice. I already have trays that accommodate Upgraded ships. Having a few extras for the ships that are stock will be nice...

For the people that really want their cards attached to the tray, I'm going to create an add-on that fits with this, too.

I think such trays would be great for tournaments, where you frequently have to hustle from one table to the next. However, I do think that a place for upgrade cards really would be a must. The whole way in which this becomes useful is if you can quickly move everything by having all the things easily moved and put back in place in a playable way.

The new ship tray is complete and up for sale on Shapeways! I did a lot of tuning and tweaking to get the price to an acceptable level for where I think trays should be priced.

Buy on Shapeways: https://www.shapeways.com/product/RNDYP8M2Z/ship-tray-for-star-wars-armada

Read about my process and design thinking: http://protomaker.io/blog/2016/1/27/final-prototype-star-wars-armada-ship-tray

Prototype action shot:

(Even if I were to add a space for upgrades and damage cards, the price would be over $30 each, probably approaching $40.)

You. Are. A legend.