The first thing you notice when you visit the Shapeways Factory of the Future in Long Island City is the dust. It's the white nylon material that is used in laser sintering. It gets everywhere.

The second thing is the sheer number of people involved. When we talk about 3-D printing, we emphasize its seamlessness and ease of use. "Your ideas made real with Shapeways 3-D printing," says Shapeways' front page. It's easy to overlook the number of steps between sending in a CAD file and getting the result delivered to your home. All of those steps involve a human.

We'd like to show you how Shapeways makes ideas real.