Shapr3D doesn't integrate into Windows very well

Hi, no, we will not implement a traditional file based storage for Shapr3D, as the underlying architecture would make it impossible for us to do so. Shapr3D is using a database under the hood that is stored locally on your computer, and the concept of “files” is alien to this system. This has many advantages, eg. you never have to save your designs manually, and data corruption is virtually impossible, you’ll never lose any data, and this solution makes it possible to add collaboration and collaborative editing features to Shapr3D in the future. By implementing an old school files based architecture, all of this would not be possible, and this is why legacy CAD systems can’t implement these features either. While in the 1990s, when these systems were designed, a file based solution made a lot of sense, a modern software can provide tremendously more value to its customers by not using files as the underlying data abstraction model. Regarding organizing files, what if we provided “shortcuts” or “links” to your desings, that you could simply drag out to your file system, and open your designs from there? This way the data would be still stored in the Shapr3D database, but you could still have a reference to the design on your file system’s folder structure.

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