There’s another meta-search engine for printable 3D models you should try: 3Drop.
There are several major 3D model repositories online these days, including Thingiverse, MakerWorld, Printables, etc., but they are all designed to keep you within the ecosystem of the particular 3D printer manufacturer.
However, a 3D model is a 3D model and it should print on your machine regardless of where it comes from. This means that quite often we find ourselves searching several repos to find the required 3D model.
3Drop solves that problem by integrating the search into a single function, and it’s very easy to use.
For content, 3Drop searches up to six different major repos:
- Cults 3D (Independent)
- Thingiverse (UltiMaker)
- Printables (Prusa)
- MakerWorld (Bambu Lab)
- Thangs (Shapeways)
- MakerOnline (Anycubic)
You can flip these on or off during search operations to focus on specific repos. You can also select the sort order: “relevant”, “popular” or “newest”, and also you can choose to sort on the number of downloads or the number of likes.
I found 3Drop to be extremely responsive, providing almost instant results. This is way faster than going to all of these sites in sequence.
Entries appear in an infinite scroll, and there are no ads appearing in the list — unlike Thingiverse.
Entry details show the statistics and description, but strangely not the source repo. You have to click on the “visit” link to go to the actual entry on the original website. Note that 3Drop does not hold copies of the downloadable content; you must go to the original site.
3Drop is solely for searching, and it works very well. I am quite impressed with the simplicity of the interface, as it is far less cluttered than any of the repos and even some other meta search engines, like Yeggi.
If you’re searching for 3D models, 3Drop is a very good service for finding them quickly.
Via 3Drop
