28 Most Frequently Asked Questions - Answered

Hi, it's Ed. I've answered the most frequently asked questions here. Not BS ones, like "why is this SO under-priced, can I pay more??" but real, concerning questions around whether the Institute of 3D Printing is right for you.

I'm being honest with you, so I'll tell you if this course is right for you or not.

Click on the question below to jump to the answer.

28 Most Frequently Asked Questions - Answered

Hi, it's Ed. I've answered the most frequently asked questions here. Not BS ones, like "why is this SO under-priced, can I pay more??" but real, concerning questions around whether the Institute of 3D Printing is right for you.

I'm being honest with you, so I'll tell you if this course is right for you or not.

Click on the question below to jump to the answer.

Will this work?

Mental barriers and doubts

Is The Institute of 3D Printing right for me?

How The Institute of 3D Printing works:

What if?

Will this work?

Mental barriers and doubts

Is The Institute of 3D Printing right for me?

How The Institute of 3D Printing works:

What if?

Will this work?

“What if I don’t even have a 3D Printer yet?” 

We designed the course to provide all the information we wish we’d known from the moment we first unboxed our 3D printers. The explanations of concepts start at the beginning, assuming nothing. Among many things, our methods cover the full process to setup your machine optimally. 

If you’re not sure on if you even want a 3D printer, or won’t have access to one for some time - please don’t join The Institute yet. But if you’ve only just got your printer, or it’s on the way, now is a great time to start discovering our method, so you can get started on the right track without wasting time learning the wrong things, or worse, making seemingly innocent mistakes now that will cause hidden problems later on.

“How is The Complete Confusion-Free Guide To 3D Printing Mastery different to other 3D printing courses?”

This is the only combined course & support program of this magnitude available. Cumulative decades of real life 3D printing experience have been utilised to create this course, drawn from our team of experts personally coaching customers to 3D printing success for the last 5 years at rigid.ink. 

The information is presented in an extraordinary level of detail, with a structure of providing you with what you need to know, when you need to know it - to prevent overwhelm. You don’t just get to access to the information in video and written format, you can fast track to the specific aspect of printing you’re stuck on, or most want to improve at this moment in time by asking an expert to guide you.

In summary, we can distil the differences down to: depth, clarity and support. This course covers everything you need to set-up, diagnose, troubleshoot and optimise your 3D prints. The information, while detailed, is presented clearly and in an easy to understand format. The support you’ll receive as a member along your journey to better 3D prints is unparalleled. 

“Is this just for 20-somethings?”

Age should be no barrier in 3D printing. We’ve tested the content and structure of the course on a range of different ages, locations and skill levels. Our current membership base is very diverse. 

The content in the course has been optimised to require minimal time commitment to benefit from the course has been. We’ve cut the waffle and distilled it right down to what you need to know. So you’ll be able to use your membership around your commitments like a busy job and kids.

“How much help am I going to get?” 

In short, an unlimited amount. We’re unable to do live calls though, as these wouldn’t be the best way to communicate problems and solutions. Our experts rely on photos to accurately diagnose and address issues, which just wouldn’t work as well on the phone. 

As a member you can get support at any time and at any stage in your 3D printing journey. Whether about your prints or a question with your membership, we’re always there for you.

While we don’t promise responses within 5 minutes at 3am on a Sunday, our experts are working across timezones, so you never need to wait too long for a response. Weekend response times may be slightly longer, naturally.

“How do I convince my wife/husband to let me join The Institute of 3D Printing?” 

This is an important question, since 3D printing may already take up a lot of your time and even spare cash. The Institute was created with this in mind, to actually reduce both of these commitments. 

The video lessons pack a tremendous amount of content into a short episodes, so there’s no fluff to wade through.

Let our experts think through the printing problems for you, instead of you spending hours agonising over a fault you can’t even name, let alone remedy. It’s perfectly natural to want to solve it yourself, but there’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time.

And because you’ll be getting significantly less print fails, you can look forward to saving money on filament. For many, their membership pays for itself in saved filament.

Let your partner know what you’ll save in time and filament, show them the testimonials from other members who are already seeing success and assure them you can cancel at any time.

You even get a 30 day moneyback guarantee on signup, so there’s no risk.

“Can I get access to the course without joining The Institute of 3D Printing?”

No, is the short answer. Reason being, although this course alone would accelerate your results dramatically (and we could charge $500 upfront for the course, instead of just $27/month) - we created the entire Institute of 3D Printing Membership around the goal of you getting a ton of success with your printing.

And we’re not compromising on that.

That’s why it’s bundled with the Advanced Slicer course, the Unlimited Expert Tech Support, the on-the-go friendly info-packed podcasts and the deep dive masterclasses. There’s never been a more complete package, with everything all in one place to advance your 3D printing.

“How soon can I expect to see results?”

Easily within the first week or two. Reason being, even if you’re most interested in a certain topic that isn’t quite available just yet (although there’s a ton of practical content available immediately after you login) - the fact you can ask our experts questions (as many as you’d like) and get step by step answers, your results will be skyrocketing in no-time.

Even if you don’t even know what questions to ask, just take a photo of your print - screenshot the settings and fire it over to our experts. They’ll see what the issue is and give you clear, easily followed instructions (without gaps) to remedy it.

Even if you don’t think you have an issue, but just want to improve print quality, they’ll instruct on that, too.

Try it today, no risk. 30 Day Full Refund Guarantee.

After that you can cancel easily, any time by email, phone or from within the members area.

Mental barriers and doubts

“Ugh, I don’t want this to become yet another thing on my to-do list”

Fear not, we’ve designed the Institute of 3D Printing to be respectful to people's busy schedules. You can get a ton of value from it, just from spending an hour a week.

Though naturally you’ll get more out of it if you put in more, that’s the minimum time commitment we recommend.

The hours of frustration, failed prints and time spent clicking to re-order wasted filament though, it’s a no-brainer.

“Can I go through the course at my own speed? What if I fall behind?”

Yes and no. You’ll get a ton of content you can binge on as soon as you log in, if you like, but the core course is delivered in weekly, manageable chunks. So you can consume this at your own rate, and won’t matter if you fall behind - you’ll have access to everything for as long as you’re a member.

Want to jump in and learn everything straight away? There’s enough additional content to allow that - and anything specific you want to learn you can just ask the experts. So it caters for everyone in that respect.

“What if I live in Europe (or somewhere else)?”

We’re based in the UK - but that doesn't matter. The course is equally accessible wherever you are in the world. It’s all online, and you can access everything in your members portal at any time of the day, from any country.

Our experts are even in multiple time zones, so although we guarantee responses within 24 hours - usually you’ll get your answer much faster than this, regardless of your timezone.

“What if I’m just lazy and unmotivated?”

I don’t believe you! If you’ve got a 3D printer, you’re intrigued by the technology. But, we designed the course to let you think minimally, and enjoy it. When you take the stress away, 3D printing is just fun.

So sit back, grab some popcorn and take notes. Ask our experts when you’re stuck. Bask in the glory of your prints “just working, right”, with minimal effort. You’ve got enough to worry about in life, without ‘roadblocks’.

Is The Institute of 3D Printing right for me?

“Is the Institute just for FDM (or FFF, filament based) printers?”

That’s right, at this time that’s what we’re specialising in. If enough people want support for other machines, we’ll look into that in due course.

“I just print as a hobby, is this just for more serious users?”

The course was designed to be easily understandable by complete beginners, yet ascend people at virtually any 3D printing ability to a level of complete mastery.

We have members that are anything; from the occasional hobbyist, through to those who’ve been printing for a few years, own multiple printers or are business users and just want a reference portal to check they’re doing everything as well as they can be.

Or it may be that you’ve been entrusted with the 3D printer at work because you looked at it twice the other week, and now you need to start seriously impressing your bosses or customers.

People that don’t get 3D printing don’t understand delays and print failures - so to avoid looking even slightly incompetent from issues that aren't even your fault, this membership can be your hidden superpower. Turning you from “erm, yes, I occasionally 3D print?” all the way to “step aside guys, I’m the 3D printing expert here...” in no time at all.

“I print for business, is the content relevant to me?”

Yes [see above answer], we have many who run their own 3D print businesses in the membership. They can’t afford any down time, so rather than being distracted & working out issues themselves, having unlimited tech support on hand to refer to is a life saver.

When you run your own business, there’s no shame in delegation. You just can’t take everything on yourself.

“My prints already look pretty good. Will this do anything for me?”

When learning anything, you eventually reach a point where you’re getting fairly good at something. This is a good place to be, but your efforts to improve have diminishing returns.

The gains seem so subtle in contrast to the learning and experiments you’re doing because all the big wins came earlier on.

It’s at this point the best way to achieve that next level is to find a mentor. Someone who IS at the level you want to be at. Asking these people, getting a second opinion, that for many is the only viable way to unlock that next level.

World-class athletes have trainers, even when they’re at the very top of their game, they have someone to lead them and give them supporting advice. And that’s exactly what our experts provide.

They care about your results, let them get you to your next level and so they can help you tackle bigger problems or just achieve perfection.

“Now isn’t a great time for me. Can I join The Institute at any time?”

Sometimes life can feel like a whirlwind and money can be tight - we get that. The good news is that the Institute of 3D Printing is designed to alleviate some of that for you, at least where your 3D printing is concerned. Spend less time tinkering & spend less money on wasted filament. 

Membership may well be open at the moment, but we don’t keep it open all the time. It’s important to us that the support we provide to our members isn’t spread too thin - sure we’d like to get more members in all the time, but that’s not our goal.

The goal is our members results. We can only do that if we have enough time and resources to properly serve them. It’s for that reason at times, with little warning we need to close the enrolment.

Once closed, we’re unable to say when we’ll re-open, but at a minimum it will be months later. How much more frustration and hassle do you want to go through between now and then?

“I’m a complete beginner & only had my printer a short while / it’s not even arrived yet. Does the course start from the beginning, at my level?”

Yes! We start at the very beginning, and we assume nothing. This course was designed to fill in ALL the blanks. If you’re currently waiting for your printer to arrive, now is the very best time to join.

You can discover how to get set up correctly, from the beginning, so you’ll experience far less issues later down the line.

This membership is the method, support and community we wish we’d all had when we first started printing. Do it right from the start.

Try it today, no risk. 30 Day Full Refund Guarantee.

After that you can cancel easily, any time by email, phone or from within the members area.

How The Institute of 3D Printing works:

“How does the course work?”

You log in and you get access to all the bonus content, the Advanced Slicer Course, the Podcast episodes, the masterclass all immediately.

You also get full access to module 1 of The Complete, Confusion-Free Guide to 3D Printing Mastery course by the end of the first week. You then receive lessons weekly in the course from that moment on. Including additional bonus content.

It’s extremely important that the course is followed in order, from the beginning. Often those who have been printing for a while don’t want to be taught stuff they feel they already know. And we understand that.

However it’s more important that everything is setup correctly, from the beginning. You can’t expect to get perfect results, reliably if you’ve missed anything out in the early stages.

And to those who are pretty confident that they already know the ‘early stuff’ - not one of our experts knew everything (not even close) in this course when we crafted this complete method.  

These are people who have been printing 5-6 days of the week for 5+ years, and even they learned when we pooled our knowledge to create this course.

That’s how comprehensive this is. That’s why everyone starts at module 1, so we know by module 5 when we’re troubleshooting, everyone is on the right page and has done all the foundation stuff correctly.

“Is the course live? What time zone are you in?”

No, all content is watchable at any time in your members portal.

“Do I get access to the entire course at once?”

No, please see “How does the course work?”

It’s worth knowing that even if there’s something you want to know immediately from a later module - you can ask us and we’ll give you tailored advice to your exact situation right now. So if you need to, you can get answers to your complex questions from day 1.

“How much time does it take to do this course per week?”

We recommend at least 1 hour of your time commitment per week. Of course, you could just spend 5 minutes asking the questions you want to know, get the answers and go back to your printing - and you’d still see your results improve.

Generally though, you get into something what you get out of it - so the more time you can devote to learning and doing, the faster the results you’ll get.

There's plenty of material to binge on as soon as you create your account. Likewise, if you're strapped for time for a few weeks, that's fine - you can log back in at your convenience to catch up later on. 

“Does The Complete, Confusion-Free Guide to 3D Printing Mastery teach me how to build my own 3D printer?”

No. We trust that the kit or plans your following should do that to a good enough degree. We created the course to be the manual you wish had been included with your printer that covers everything else after you've tightened the last bolt. Which actually is where the real learning begins.  

“Specifically which 3D printers is the course relevant to?”

All FDM (FFF) or filament based printers. Our instructors use a range of printers, but the content of the tutorials is universal between machines.

And our experts have had direct, hands-on experience between them on over 50 machines - so it’s likely one of them has experience with your printer.

“Does the course cover how to design 3D models?”

Not specifically, as design for 3D printing is an entirely different field in it's own right. Although some bonus content does address best practices for the design and starting points and our experts all design their own printable models using various CAD software.

Try it today, no risk. 30 Day Full Refund Guarantee.

After that you can cancel easily, any time by email, phone or from within the members area.

What if?

“Can I get a discount for being a student? In the military? Healthcare? Paying in cash? Non-Profit?”

Sorry, no discounts. We’ve put everything into this, it’s just too valuable to discount.

If you require multiple licenses for groups (for example a class of students or workplace) we can provide batch pricing for 10 or more subscriptions.

“Can I just buy a portion of the course?”

No. This is a system, not a series of unconnected tactics. We do have additional stand alone courses which from time to time maybe available to purchase independently. But the core course and the masterclasses can only be purchased with an Io3DP membership. 

“What if I try The Institute of 3D Printing and I decide it isn’t right for me?”

We stand by this course with a 100% 30 Day Money Back Guarantee. This is what makes it 100% risk free. On the monthly plan, you can cancel at any time. On both the monthly and annual plan, you have 30 days to try out the content and decide if this is right for you.

If you don’t feel you’ve received massive value from the Institute of 3D Printing then you can cancel at anytime within those 30 days and receive a full refund on the money you’ve paid.

We can’t say fairer than that.

“How is the course different to all the free info already out there? You have loads of great free guides, why should I pay for anything?”

There’s a ton of information out there. Some of it very good, but nearly all of it is unconnected snippets. Nowhere provides the full picture, in all the detail. It’s confusing, and generic. And no one else has developed the method we teach.

This wasn’t thrown together by someone whose been printing for a few months. This method has been honed and optimised from over 5 years of our team of experts guiding customers to getting perfect 3D prints.

It’s all in the correct information you need, without fluff, in the right order. Sure you can find a free video on bed levelling - but we didn’t devote a whole module, over 4 videos for no reason. It’s extremely important, even if your machine has automatic bed levelling.

That’s an example of the depth of this course. It’s extremely hard to achieve complete mastery without a complete roadmap to learn from.

And then there’s the support. Sure the forums out there are useful, people like to help. But out there you ask a few questions and get one answer. It doesn’t quite tell you the full story. Then you might feel bad having to ask more questions, and their answers get shorter as they’re running out of knowledge, or you feel they’re getting tired of your questions.

Within the Institute of 3D Printing, our experts act more like your mentors. They care about you moving forward, and they love to see you getting results. They work with you, patiently to guide you to the results you want. That’s the difference.

See for yourself. Try The Institute of 3D Printing risk-free for 30 days, and if you’re not 100% satisfied, get a full refund.

Ready to take The Institute of 3D Printing for a test drive?

Try it today, no risk. 30 Day Full Refund Guarantee.

After that you can cancel easily, any time by email, phone or from within the members area.