Originally posted by: bunnyboy
Shapeways machines are far better than any makerbot too. Theirs are real industrial printers with much smaller features than the "toothpaste squeezers". Still doesn't come close to an injection mold or even a homemade silicone mold unless you want the texture tho. This is the kind of stair stepping you get on a curved surface with good machines of a few years ago:
http://sealiecomputing.com/images/snes3d1.jpg
Yes, there is a difference in step size between high and low grade machines.
But I have samples from Stratasys, and without post-processing, they would still be pretty awful.