Printables won. I will upload my files and link them here. I shouldn’t create another post since nobody likes spam. (sigh… What am I doing with my life?)
I’ll leave the original body here. Thanks for your help. /– Hello.
I have a handfull of 3D parts designed when I was in high school. These range from a custom computer anchor K-Lock (Shown here) to a plant monitor.
Unfortunetly, I graduated and don’t have a 3D printer anymore, as I use and test on my old school’s printer.
Fortunetly, I still have all of my work and I want to share it in a way that anyone can use, under a CC-BY-SA license.
What is a good way to share my work? Github, Drive, Gitlab, here?
I still like 3D printing, so I plan on getting one soon (albeit, it will take years…).
Thanks!
I’m seconding Printables - you can upload both stl and step files there, they have a nice UI that’s easy to navigate.
As a side note, have your considered starting a Patreon or something with your 3D models? If you make some good models (and you seem to know what you’re doing), it might help towards your goal of getting 3D printer sooner. Though it’s probably hard without a printer to test it on, I guess.
No, I have thought about that. I though patreon was for more “Famous” people that have YT, Twitch, Etc…
I have some design knowledge from school (Computer Aided Manufactring, Design Princibles, and Robotics) with reading 3D printing practices and limatations. (Fabrication too…). But I’m not a very smart person.
While I can’t test them now, most of my parts were tested under FEM and in the read world (To check accuracy).
I am considering Printables (It’s obvious why) and hopefully I don’t end up with just spools.
Thanks.
you can upload them to thangs, thingiverse and/or printables. you can even choose what license you want to use for every part.
Best way if you want to get it out there to the 3D printing community is Printables or Thangs.
For whole, supported projects GitHub/GitLab is best with a page with pictures and a description and a link to the got repo on printables or thangs will make sure it is discoverable.
Do you think it would ve best to upload to thingiverse and git[hub/lab]? As I want the source parts avalible for modification and a stl/gtbl export for printing.
Dont use thingiverse. it is a dying unmaintained platform.
Then what platform is better?
Printables?
yes
Yes.
It even has an award system that gives “meters”. Meaning if your models are very popular you could get printer for free… or at least few spools/merch.
Edit: forgot the contest as well. Prizes are always good and on some big ones you could win a printer as well.
Thinking you might get a good change for both given you are clearly making good models, even if you cannot test them yet.
Thingiverse has a better (maybe just bigger) library but Printables has a better interface. I use both and think it always nice to host source files on GitHub.
I see after ultimaker acquired MakerBot, it’s slowly improving
Once it gets better, I may try it.
It’s being heavily worked on since ultimaker bought it.
I prefer it to printables now, since prusa sold out and started allowing proprietary designs.
If you, yourself are going to make modifications and want changed tracked and reversable, use github.
If you just want to upload old projects that you have for other people to use and modify, use Printables.
On Printables you can still upload the source files, photos, stl’s, STEP files, everything needed. It just isn’t a change-tracking and release managing system.
I personally think that the simplest solution would be to put the STEP files (don’t share STLs, as converting to them is lossy) in a git repo (You could, of course, also format the repo with pictures, a descriptive README, etc.). You would then have a myriad of ways to host that repo i.e. Gitea/Forgejo, Gtihub, Gitlab, etc.
As a side note, it is also very helpful if you include the CAD project files. For example, you could add a FreeCAD project file to the same repo; however, if you do share the project files, do note that it’s also very helpful to include the CAD software’s version information for future compatibilty reasons.
I’ll include the software (FreeCAD 0.20.2) for compatibility.
Although, my files work fine on 0.21, I’ll add that just in case.
Sorry. What is the diffrence between STEP and STL? I thought STL was preffered.
Since you’re using FreeCAD I’ll assume you’re interested in Free Software. If so, Liberapay and OpenCollective could be alright alternatives to Patreon. They take a lower platform cut of your donations, but they don’t offer ‘tiers’ and automatic awards for donors.
I’m not an expert but I looked it up. STL is just a simple mesh for the exterior surface of a CAD model. While STEP saves the entire geometry in its pure form, so you can edit it later. STL is fine for printing but you want to make the actual models available too in case someone wants to edit them.
It’s like the difference between a PDF and a Microsoft Word document.
Alright, STEP it is.
Lots of people post STLs because you can feed them directly to the slicer for printing. But it only represents the surface mesh of an object, and only as polygons. A STEP file basically captures how the part is designed in CAD, so it’s much better if you need to modify the part. It also gives you the original form of things like curves, where the STL would be quantized into a fixed number of polygons.
I’ll go with STEP.
Thanks.
Sure. You can always include both as well. Folks who don’t have CAD software may not be able to use the STEP files.
Ok
Thingiverse is takerbot and GitHub is Microsoft. That’s two worst evils to avoid.
Is it MakerBot or TakerBot?
![Host 3D parts? [Printables won]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/30a9f834-b4c1-4dab-a654-8689adfedfc7.jpeg){kind=link}