Thingiverse alternative sites hosting 3D print ideas for all

As 3D printing application contexts grow, a Thingiverse alternative site can offer different categories, backend features, model quality & nos., and licensing policies. Five Thingiverse alternative sites are introduced below for quick understanding of what to expect in them. Search engines such as Yeegi.com and STLbase.com are not included. While the list of ideas for 3D printed shoes is undisturbed at the time of writing, the ongoing Ultimaker and Makerbot merger is causing uncertainty. All numbers are as in May 2022. Thingiverse – the earliest base of 3D print ideas! Started in 2008, MakerBot’s Thingiverse is a design community for discovering, making and sharing 3D print ideas. MakerBot is the creator of Method and Sketch series of 3D printers. Thingiverse reports over 2.3 mn files categorized into Gadgets, Tools, Household, Fashion, Art, Hobby, Toys & Games, Learning and Models (for games, architecture projects, etc.). It allows thirteen types of licenses from ‘Public Domain’ to seven ‘Creative Commons’ types to ‘All Rights Reserved’. What happened to Thingiverse Since some time now several forums are abuzz with user issues (failed login attempts, aberrations in saved collections, file upload/ download restrictions, commenting restrictions, 404 errors, and more). It also suffered a data breach affecting 228000 users in October 2021. Hoping that better functioning is restored and the designers intellectual property is not disturbed post the announced merger with Ultimaker (manufacturer of Cura 3D printers). In the meantime, some Thingiverse alternative sites are evaluated below.

Thingiverse alternative sites for 3D print ideas Thangs Thingiverse alternative site aspiring to be Google of the physical world Physna owned Thangs was launched in August 2020 as a geometric search engine and collaboration platform. It carries out 3d geometric search and indexing of uploads. It supports 29 file type (.stl, .dwg, .dxf, .obj, etc.) uploads as single file or assemblies of multi-part models. Uploader can also attach a license file to the model in txt, pdf or markdown file format and 2- Factor authentication. It also supports direct import from a Thingiverse account. Physna’s founder Philips Powers is a serial entrepreneur and operated in IP law when he hit upon a big problem. “We were always able to find 2D intellectual property theft,” Powers said, “but catching IP theft in three dimensions was elusive.” It was harder to identify when actual products or parts were being stolen as trade secrets. Sequoia and others are leading a $20 million bet into the company as the Google of the physical world. There is an in built AR viewer which has been upgraded significantly. In November 2021, they have introduced Thangs Workspace Beta – a collaboration tool for visual version control, how they call it internally “a Github for 3D models”! Subsequent file uploads can be viewed with version comparisons in side by side (below) or overlay view. Change map view displays surface level changes between versions. X-ray view displays the internal geometric changes. File owner can authorize model pulls (like code forks!) if collaborators want to modify different versions.

They publish a Weekly Model round up featuring favorite designs uploaded every week. In Jul 2021 it raised $56 million in venture capital financing from Tiger Global. It regularly holds various Contests and Design Challenges regularly. As a Thingiverse alternative, Thangs is much ahead in search volume with over 13.49 million models available in the categories Animals, Arts & Entertainment, Autos & Vehicles, Business & Industrial, Home & Garden, Hobbies & Games, Devices, and People. Printables Prusa owned community hub PrusaPrinters.org began as blogs & guides in 2015 and rebranded to Printables in March 2022. Their goal is to make Printables the go-to site for high-quality and useful 3D print ideas. They work with individual designers, especially to curate the uploaded objects and avoid duplication. They plan contests and prizes that motivate creators to come up with something new, fun, and useful. It is a database with 166,000+ models published, user groups, events, rewards and many other activities and tools. The model categories are Art & Design, Costumes & Accessories, Fashion, Gadgets, Healthcare, Hobby & Makers, Household, Learning, Sports & Outdoor, Toys & Games, World & Scans. User can create private and public collections of models, upload “Makes” (photos of finished prints) and use the built-in 3D model viewer for STL, 3MF files and G-Codes as well. The viewer features several different view modes, to inspect the model before downloading. Comments and ratings also help to decide whether the model is relevant. Active community members – both designers and makers – earn badges and points that they can redeem for digital and physical

rewards, including spools of filament and other merchandise. Detailed statistics for models will also be added and it will give designers the option to monetize their models. MyMiniFactory Thingiverse alternative site with guarantee “We are here to help creators, designers, 3D scanners, makers, painters, illustrators and storytellers share their extraordinary creative content with like-minded extraordinary people.” It began in 2013 designing, testing prints, 3D printing, publishing and promoting every single STL file on the platform. It extends the MyMiniFactory Guarantee of 100% Printable Objects for all 3D print ideas through a software check and is test printed by the community before it’s published. In 2018 it launched the Store where Creators can monetize their digital content. 92% of the sales go to the creators (excluding payment processing fees). The release of the Store was the catalyst for many more extraordinary tools to follow. In 2021 it launched Tribes where Creators distribute exclusive content and rewards to Tribers through an innovative subscription system, and also launched FrontTiers to share innovative projects with the community and crowd fund a sustainable business. It also hosts open-source museum Scan The World for anyone to freely share digital, 3D scanned cultural artifacts for 3D printing. Further Gatherings, Competitions, Stories and the MMF+ subscription service add a social network layer to make a tightly knit community. It opens up the possibilities not just to digital sculptors who create printable files, but also to illustrators, writers and musicians looking to make some cash from their skills. With this community first approach, it now has over 25,000 creators and over 1 million files published.

It organizes models in Accessibility, Architecture, Education, Fashion & Accessories, Gadgets & Electronics, Home & Garden, Jewellery, Sports & Outdoor, Upcycling, Spare Parts, Scan The World and a section for Toys & Games, Board Games, Fan Art, Props & Cosplay. It even has a dedicated section with files of 3D printer parts, to build one for yourself! YouMagine YouMagine is primarily a vehicle for supporting open source creation and wants to be a force multiplier for the entire 3D printing community. It is focused on building the entire end to end open source software toolchain to make things malleable. YouMagine wants CAD & 3D files to be as easy to create, adapt, share and change as text is nowadays. YouMagine facilitates an online community of 3D printing enthusiasts who wish to work together to share, remix and make better 3D printed things, empowering and giving the tools needed in order to improve, invent & make. Developers can integrate with YouMagine and teacher, student or educator interested in 3D printing can start a project at school. Cults 3D In 2014, Cults began as the 1st independent platform in the 3D print ideas market. This Thingiverse alternative site operates as a marketplace connecting designers and people who want to make some real objects with 3D printing, CNC machining and laser cutting. A community layer also allows fans of 3D printing world

to interact with each other, and a Promotions section publishes coupon codes to buy 3D printers and related accessories. 58.3 thousand designers can upload in free, open-source or paid modes and receive 80% of net selling price (excluding VAT) in paid mode. It reports 587,000+ 3D print ideas in Art, Fashion, Jewelry, Home, Architecture, Gadget, Game, Tools, Naughties and Various categories and also maintains Blogs in all these categories featuring the Designers in interviews and How-to guides. CGTrader Thingiverse alternative site used by 100+ Fortune 500 CGTrader was founded in 2011 by Marius Kalytis an experienced 3D designer himself, to be the first designer friendly online marketplace for buying, selling and creating professional licensable stock and custom 3D content. It has 100+ Fortune 500 clients. Apart from 3D Print models, it also hosts Physically Based Rendering 3D Models (for engines like Unity, Unreal engine, etc.), Low-poly 3D models (for real time applications like VR, AR, MR, mobile games. The self-service CGTrader Marketplace showcases 1.38 million 3D models across industrial (Aircraft, Architectural, Space, Vehicle, Watercraft, Military), consumer (Home Exterior, Interior, Car, Furniture, Household, Plant) and entertainment (Animals, Character, Scanned, CG textures, Cinema 4D, etc.). Users can also start a Project here to which designers can apply. It also hosts CGTrader Enterprise 3D Modeling which allows enterprise customers and online retailers to transform their 2D product images into photorealistic 3D models for Augmented Reality and other 3D customer experiences.

The alternative 3D virtual photography is 6X the cost, so this is great value for money and touted as the future of advertising. In February 2021 CGTrader secured $ 9.5 million in Series B funding for the next growth stage. Conclusion So depending on your specific requirements a number of Thingiverse alternative sites can step up to the plate to serve 3D print ideas and if you are a professional looking for industry specific solutions then do check out the industry 3D sites list here. Lastly, Net Zero Cart is all about disseminating information. We cover sustainable production technologies and sustainable consumption lifestyles that collectively eliminate waste and enable local producers to meet local demand. Please share with a friend or colleague who could find this useful and make some noise on our social channels.