Current Issues

Even though it works properly virtually all the time, we still regard www.zapfab.com as alpha code. This page sets out the most important issues we have with the site at the moment.

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback: Use the feedback form to tell us what you think.

Java2D on Windows: JNLP Applet launcher

We launch the 3D Viewers using the JNLP applet launcher. As recommended by the JNLP applet launcher home page, we disable Java 2D's use of DirectDraw on the Windows platform to avoid 'robustness issues'.

We haven't yet heard of any problems as a result, but please let us know if you encounter any.

Errors in the designs

3D Printers are fairly picky about the files they will print. We have tried to make all the design files printable however much they're customized. But at the moment some of the designs can still be broken with extreme values.

If you order a design, and we find out that it can't be printed, we apologise. And naturally, we don't charge you (We can't make your object. How could we charge you for something we can't make?)

One tip: Watch out for black bits on your design as you experiment with extreme customisations. We render the 'inside' of the design in black, so if you see black bits, you may be seeing the design turning inside-out. We can't print inside-out objects.

If you make a design and you're not sure if we can print it, let us know about it. We'll check it out, and let you know whether it can be printed.

Display drivers

We have seen a problem in Internet Explorer 6.0 with some Intel on-board graphics adapters using out-of date drivers. It seems to be related to our use of OpenGL, so it only affects pages containing the 3D Viewer.

If you do experience problems with your browser closing unexpectedly, we apologise. Please let us know what you were doing when the crash happened. It would really help if you could tell us about your graphics hardware (make, model, driver version), your operating system (e.g. Windows XP SP 2) and your browser (e.g. Firefox version 2.0.0.12).

To work around the problem, please install the latest drivers for your graphics hardware.

Java OverlappingFileLockException

If you use two different browsers to view the site at the same time, you may experience a java.nio.channels.OverlappingFileLockException.

To work around the problem, please avoid viewing the site with two different browsers at the same time.

Java on Mac OS X

The 3D Viewer needs to use Java version 1.6. This is included in Java for Mac OS X 10.5, Update 1

Previous versions of Java for Mac have only included Java 1.5, which does not include the facilities we need.