Tired of searching the usual repositories for great 3D models? 3D Shook has an offer we think you might like.
repository
MyMiniFactory’s Offering a Gift to Participate
Need another spool of 3D printer filament? You might want to check out MyMiniFactory’s latest offer.
Voovo’s 3D Print and Model Service
Canadian operation Voovo hopes to provide a different method of accessing 3D print services.
Get More 3D Models at Wamungo
Tired of Thingiverse? Unfulfilled at YouMagine? Perhaps you’d like to try Wamungo, another 3D model repository.
3D Share Offers Free and Paid Models for Printing
A new 3D model service hopes to offer something for both designers and consumers of 3D models.
Download 3D Models from McMaster-Carr – For Free!
It’s been discovered how to obtain 3D models of items within McMaster-Carr’s massive parts catalog.
MyStemKits Launches
Today MyStemKits launched on Kickstarter, with the goal of providing effective 3D prints for educators.
The Destiny Object STL Generator
A “hobby project” provides downloads of items based on Bungie’s Destiny game.
Incredible 3D Scans from The Lincoln For 3D Printing
A museum in Lincolnshire, UK, has made available highly detailed 3D scans of many of their works.
Extinct Avian Restored by 3D Scanning
The Dodo Bird is definitely extinct, but only in reality. It’s alive and well in the 3D world.
SketchFab Now Permits 3D Model Download
3D modeling service SketchFab has changed their policy on public STL model downloads.
Stratasys Grabs GrabCAD
In an unexpected corporate move, 3D printing industry giant announced its acquisition of GrabCAD.
A New Way to Search for 3D Models?
We’ve been testing out a new 3D model search service, 3DShap.es, which hopes to search by geometry instead of by text.
NASA Releases Many Printable 3D Models
The US space agency NASA has released two dozen printable 3D models of spacecraft and alien worlds.
Redpah’s 3D Models
We’re checking out another 3D model repository that’s specifically designed for printable 3D models: Redpah.
Magicube’s 3D Model Repository
Several readers suggested we check out Magicube, a new repository for free 3D models. So we did.
NIH’s 3D Print Exchange
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institutes of Health (NIH) has opened its own public repository of printable 3D models.
Threeding’s 3D App Venture
3D model repository Threeding has done something interesting: they’ve created an app.
Alternatives to Thingiverse, For Upset Designers
With controversy brewing around the most popular 3D model repository, Thingiverse, some ask what alternative repos may exist. We found more than a few.
The Redpah 3D Model Repository
We’re checking out a new 3D model repository that recently launched: Redpah.
uformit’s Adaptive 3D Print Service
We had a peek at format’s new technology in NYC earlier this year, but now everyone can make use of it as they’ve just launched their new 3D print site.
3D Model Marketplaces
With the huge number of personal 3D printers being sold, one wonders where 3D models will be found to print on them.
Bhold’s Boutique 3D Prints
3D printers may permit the creation of almost any object, but what object? The key to success is now good design, such as we found in Bhold’s collection.
Digital Playspace Goes to 3D Systems
At CES this year we were quite impressed with a gigantic dollhouse filled with 3D prints. Little did we know there was more to the story.
The 3D Prints and Models of Maker6
We’re looking at a new service for 3D printer owners and users, Maker6. The site operates primarily as a source of 3D models, prints and printers for anyone seeking a print. There are three ways to use Maker6: Purchase a 3D print by selecting a design. It will be printed and sent to you… Continue reading The 3D Prints and Models of Maker6
The 3DAGOGO Model Repository
Another 3D model repository focused on printable 3D models has surfaced: 3DAGOGO. This service is new and has a very limited set of models to choose from, but is well-organized and easy to use. One of the most interesting features we noted was the display of useful 3D print information about the model itself.… Continue reading The 3DAGOGO Model Repository
The Bld3r Repository
We bumped into another printable 3D model repository: Bld3r. The site operates as a kind of meta-layer over top of other repositories, but brings it all together in a single interface. The idea is to reduce or even eliminate any difficulties typically caused by a repository’s terms of use. You can store your models in… Continue reading The Bld3r Repository
bhold Launches bhold Labs
New York-based 3D printing design specialists bhold launched a new program: bhold labs. The new venture is intended to gather feedback on their 3D printed designs before they are offered to the public. bhold provides a catalog of unique 3D printed items for sale, including household items such as organizers, hooks and more, all… Continue reading bhold Launches bhold Labs
Fabulonia to Protect 3D Designs
Startup Fabulonia has a new concept that could provide significant protection to designers fearful of losing control of their works. As we understand it, Fabulonia will operate as a repository of 3D models submitted by (hopefully famous and notable) 3D designers. Consumers will be able to search, select and purchase a “print” from the… Continue reading Fabulonia to Protect 3D Designs
GitHub Offers Visual 3D Model Diffs
If you’ve not heard of GitHub, it is a very popular online software repository service. You can store and share the code for a project and track changes that occur by creating versions and “branches” for production and test use. One of the most important features is “diffs”: the ability to “see” changes in the… Continue reading GitHub Offers Visual 3D Model Diffs
Thing-a-ma-Print, A 3D Model Repository
We’ve noticed another 3D model repository dedicated to printable models: Thing-a-ma-Print. Currently the site holds only 50 or so 3D models, but each model is indeed 3D printable. The content of the site appears to be focused on 3D printer parts, such as the M5 Nut Thumb Wheel or the Hot-End Exit Duct for… Continue reading Thing-a-ma-Print, A 3D Model Repository
DEFCAD Morphs into a Search Engine
You might remember DEFCAD? It was a site dedicated to hosting “controversial” 3D models that underwent some difficulties when the US Government seized their inventory of 3D printable weapon models. We thought that might be the end for DEFCAD. Apparently not. A visit to DEFCAD shows they’ve changed the site into a meta-search engine… Continue reading DEFCAD Morphs into a Search Engine
Need to 3D Print a Striped Hyena Skull?
To be truthful, we haven’t had the impulse to 3D print a Striped Hyena Skull. At least so far this week. But in case you do, we’ve found a repository that holds detailed 3D models of numerous biological items, mainly 3D scanned skulls. Digimorph, part of the National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative, is… Continue reading Need to 3D Print a Striped Hyena Skull?
FabMe.it Launches
Another 3D model sharing site has launched, FabMe.it. The site operates in what is now becoming a standard business model: 3D designers upload their designs to the service for sale to the public. Presumably FabMe.it takes a portion of the sales, which for the models we inspected, seem to be priced around €0.99 (USD$1.30). … Continue reading FabMe.it Launches
MyMiniFactory’s Free 3D Printable Objects
While Thingiverse has long been the go-to place for free printable 3D models, there’s another option as of last month: MyMiniFactory. A branch of iMakr, the site offers a number of interesting 3D models – all specifically designed for 3D printing on typical personal 3D printers. During our check, MyMiniFactory offered well over 100… Continue reading MyMiniFactory’s Free 3D Printable Objects
3D Modeling with Leopoly
A new browser-based 3D modeling tool has emerged: Leopoly. The new service presents simple-to-use methods of creating 3D objects. Leopoly focuses on the community dimension: created objects are shared among the community, who can build new objects based on yours. Tweeting, posting and tagging ensure wide visibility of Leopoly creations. Creating objects is… Continue reading 3D Modeling with Leopoly
Cuboyo’s 3D Model Shop
With all the new printable 3D model shops opening online, you’d wonder how they can possibly distinguish one from another. We’ve been examining Cuboyo and found they offer a convenient online experience for 3D model shopping. The site contains only printable 3D models, greatly simplifying the shopping experience from typical and numerous 3D model… Continue reading Cuboyo’s 3D Model Shop
3D Hacker’s Many Services
We were contacted by Andrew Mazzotta, who, with Adam Pirie, have created “3D Hacker”, a multipurpose website serving the needs of the 3D printing community. The website acts much like a “3D Printing Kijiji”, where members can add listings in several categories, such as: parts, kits, printers, software, tools, tutorials, jobs, events, clubs and… Continue reading 3D Hacker’s Many Services
FabFabbers Opens
Yet another 3D model sharing site has opened: FabFabbers. Like many such repositories, FabFabbers permits members to upload models, showcase them in listings for download by visitors. But what differentiates this repository from the rest? There are two features we found particularly interesting: uploaded models can actually be stored on GitHub, which is a… Continue reading FabFabbers Opens
Why 3D Print Model Repositories Won’t Work
Another Day, Another 3D Model Repository opens for business. We can’t tell you how many people we’ve run into lately that hope to launch a type of 3D model repository. The story goes something like this: There’s gonna be so many 3D printers, there will be a huge demand for 3D models to print.… Continue reading Why 3D Print Model Repositories Won’t Work
Forme Offers Fantastic Scanned 3D Models
Another new source for 3D models has launched: Forme, focused on high-resolution scans of a wide variety of object categories. This model repository offers something quite different from the numerous other 3D model repositories that have popped up lately. Forme offers 3D scans, not modeled objects. They’re not provided in STL form, but instead… Continue reading Forme Offers Fantastic Scanned 3D Models
3D Burrito Sells 3D Models
Another commercial 3D model repository has launched: 3D Burrito. The service offers something for both makers and designers: makers can browse the selection of 3D models, choose and buy. A download later, you’ll be able to 3D print on your own 3D printer or upload to a 3D print service. For designers, 3D… Continue reading 3D Burrito Sells 3D Models
Michigan Tech’s Open Source Optics
Doing science can be an expensive affair, but a new project from Michigan Technological University is trying to make science more affordable and more accessible. In a recently published paper, professors and researchers at the university outlined their plans for creating an online, open-source library of 3D printable optics hardware. According to one of… Continue reading Michigan Tech’s Open Source Optics
grain’s Unusual Approach
We’re checking out a new online repository for printable 3D models: grain. There are many such repositories sprouting up recently, so what makes grain different? grain’s current inventory of models is a little thin, but that’s totally understandable given that it launched only recently. But there’s another twist we haven’t seen before: they don’t… Continue reading grain’s Unusual Approach
3D Industri.es Launches 3DPartSource
New UK startup company 3D Industri.es has launched its first product: 3D Partsource. It’s a repository specifically designed for 3D models of industrial components. Anyone who searches for 3D models knows the problem these guys are trying to solve immediately: it’s pretty much impossible to find appropriate 3D models using conventional text-based searches. You… Continue reading 3D Industri.es Launches 3DPartSource
The Mystery of Modelyst
In recent days we’ve observed several printable 3D model repository startups. Some are existing non-printable 3D model repositories hoping to get in on the 3D printing craze, but some are brand new and dedicated to 3D printable models. Which brings us to Modelyst. What is it? Well, we’re not exactly certain. They have… Continue reading The Mystery of Modelyst
CubeHero Manages Your 3D Models
If you’ve made many 3D models you’ll soon encounter the problem of managing them. Which one is the correct one? Which copies are old and which are new? What changed between this version and that one? The software world has long solved these issues through the use of “change management software”, such as the… Continue reading CubeHero Manages Your 3D Models
TeamPlatform’s API Released
You might recall TeamPlatform, the new service that enables secure sharing of 3D models? They’ve released a software API that enables much wider use of their service. But first let’s back up a bit: TeamPlatform is a web service specifically designed around handling 3D model development. You can create a secure, private “workspace” in… Continue reading TeamPlatform’s API Released
MediaGoblin Shares 3D Models
MediaGoblin, the open source project that enables easy sharing of media, has added the ability to share 3D models. Not familiar with MediaGoblin? Here’s their own explanation: MediaGoblin is a free software media publishing platform that anyone can run. You can think of it as a decentralized alternative to Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud,… Continue reading MediaGoblin Shares 3D Models
Pondering Highly Detailed 3D Models
Today’s personal 3D printers can produce many types of objects, but the fine details are often obscured due to resolution limitations on the printers. A typical home 3D printer today slices models into 0.2-0.5 mm layers, meaning you’ll not only see layering, but also not see any fine details. Eventually we’ll see the capabilities of… Continue reading Pondering Highly Detailed 3D Models
GrabCAD’s Tool Challenge
GrabCAD is one of the world’s largest repositories of (mostly CAD) 3D models and one of the largest groups of designers, too (250,000+). This means that when they run a contest you can be sure you’ll see some very interesting entries. This month they announced the winner of their “Useful 3D Printed Tool Challenge”, in… Continue reading GrabCAD’s Tool Challenge
Introducing TeamPlatform
Things are advancing from the days of local storage of 3D models and traditional online 3D repositories. Consider TeamPlatform, an online service dedicated to not only storage of 3D models but also the entire development process for producing 3D models. The service operates on a subscription basis, where you are provided with an allocation… Continue reading Introducing TeamPlatform
Want Your Shapeshot?
Strolling around Rapid 2012 we encountered an unusual service named ShapeShot. What do they do? Well, they shoot your shape. ShapeShot is a project from Baltimore-based Direct Dimensions, a consultancy that specializes in 3D scanning projects. That’s what ShapeShot does: it scans your face and places it into an online repository. They feel it’s… Continue reading Want Your Shapeshot?
Fujitsu Invents 3D CAD Search
Fujitsu has discovered a very interesting technique that we think will be critical to the growth of 3D printing in the future: it’s a method of searching libraries of 3D models for similar shapes. Currently anyone who’s visited a current 3D model repository is faced with a difficult challenge: finding the right 3D model.… Continue reading Fujitsu Invents 3D CAD Search
3D Printing Movie Props At Home
We just finished reviewing a rather interesting Instructable detailing the steps you’d take to produce a complete, wearable Iron Man mask with your 3D printer (with some red and gold paint, of course). Maker samohtep takes you through the process of developing the model, printing the pieces, painting, finishing and assembly. The result is… Continue reading 3D Printing Movie Props At Home
Thingiverse Updated
MakerBot’s source for freely available 3D models has been updated. Thingiverse, the repository for thousands of 3D models had a makeover yesterday and now sports a much cleaner look. The site still focuses on the key categories of objects: Who’s Making What? Newest Derivatives, Most Popular Things and the Newest Things, making it pretty… Continue reading Thingiverse Updated
Bodyworks Human Models
Want to 3D print a person? Need a 3D body model to put your head on? Go no further than Bodyworks – an online store specializing in sales of 3D models of people. All of their products are SolidWorks models, suitable for modification for your own purposes. Prices range from USD$99-149 for body models… Continue reading Bodyworks Human Models
Cadyou: Where You Share Your CAD
Made by the same folks you brought us the amazing 3D model search tool 3DFilter, Cadyou is a new venture that should enable a lot more model sharing. According to Cadyou chief Tom: the idea is to create a wiki-like experience for 3d and 2d cad models where you can contribute, vote and edit… Continue reading Cadyou: Where You Share Your CAD
Autodesk 123D
Autodesk has released a free-for-use true 3D solid modeling software called 123D. The massive 521Mb download is not the only thing you get; there’s also a pretty comprehensive online repository of whole objects and basic components you can draw from to create awesome things. We think 123D is a big deal, as it’s relatively… Continue reading Autodesk 123D
See It Before You Download It
Content is king once you have a 3D printer. You need things to print, after all! But one of the main repositories for free printable 3D models, Thingiverse, has prepared a wonderful upgrade to their service: 3D viewing of models – before you print them! While there are a ton of models at Thingiverse,… Continue reading See It Before You Download It
More Great Printable Buildings
One of the easiest items to 3D print are models of buildings. Their shapes are often straightforward for successful printing and yet quite recognizable. It’s a great feeling when you print a building, give it to someone and they immediately recognize what it is without being told. But the question is, where do you… Continue reading More Great Printable Buildings
3D Print Spaceships From 2001: A Space Odyssey
It’s one of our all-time favourite motion pictures, perhaps yours too. The 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey still feels “real” and “plausible”, some 43 years after it was made and an even more astonishing ten years since the events in the film were to take place. But now you can relive your 2001… Continue reading 3D Print Spaceships From 2001: A Space Odyssey
Idea: What Can I Model For You?
We re-read last week’s post on the new “What Can I Make For You?” service and had an idea. If you recall, the WCIMFY service was quite simple: type what you want (in natural language) into a box and hit submit. The service then figures out how to match your desired “thing” with someone who… Continue reading Idea: What Can I Model For You?
3D Marvels
We ran across an unusual 3D model service: 3D Marvels. The site operates as a clearinghouse for 3D artist works. In other words, you can shop there for STL and COLLADA format 3D models that you can print on your 3D printer. 3DMarvels is a companion site to the very successful Wood Marvels site, which currently… Continue reading 3D Marvels
Another Free 3D Model Repository
You might have read our previous post about 3D Model Repositories, and understand that there are, well, tons of them out there. We bumped into another one that was quite interesting, as it includes a large number of unique and free items, including many that are suitable for 3D printing. All3DModel is the site… Continue reading Another Free 3D Model Repository
A Whole Lot of Meshes
Looking for some 3D models? We stumbled into a rather large pile of them, located at the INRIA Gamma team research database. Researchers there evidently required a lot of models and collected many. Well, 90,000+ of them – that’s many! The models are mostly stored in .mesh format, but quite a few appear to be… Continue reading A Whole Lot of Meshes
The Tribulations of Printing 3D Models
You’ve read yesterday’s post about where you might find amazing 3D models for printing, but you’re wondering what to do next. Is it as simple as downloading the model and printing it? Not exactly. Here’s some considerations: Are you legally permitted to print this model? What license was it distributed under? Best to check… Continue reading The Tribulations of Printing 3D Models
Free 3D Repositories
Your personal 3D printer sits idle while you ponder what to print. Should you go back to Thingiverse and print out another coat hook? Perhaps some spare MakerBot parts? Maybe you should fire up SketchUp or Blender and create a new 3D model of your own design. Nope, not tonight. You’re feeling lazy and… Continue reading Free 3D Repositories
Printing the Disney Concert Hall – And Other Buildings
While watching a video of Sweet Onion Creations making a printout of the beautiful Disney Theater in Los Angeles, it became clear that one could find ready-made 3D models of many famous buildings. Sweet Onion Creations recommends using Google Earth to find such buildings, as it’s integrated with Google’s 3D Warehouse. We suspect there… Continue reading Printing the Disney Concert Hall – And Other Buildings
DeviceKnit Discovers Good Uses
We were approached by John Ganotis, developer of DeviceKnit, a unique way to think about gadgets. Here’s how it works, according to John: We’ve been describing it as a “cookbook for gadgets.” In its first, simplest form its all about sharing applications for different electronics and gadgets people have. Users submit “implementations” as responses… Continue reading DeviceKnit Discovers Good Uses
A 3D Idea: Printing The City
We’ve been fascinated by a video of Google’s new feature for their popular Google Earth product: 3D imagery. You might be surprised to realize that the image above is NOT a photograph of New York City, but was from a new version of Google Earth that incorporates street view images and superimposes them on 3D… Continue reading A 3D Idea: Printing The City
OpenStructures
As the world slowly fills with advanced personal and commercial manufacturing equipment, we’re starting to see the emergence of systems to make the resulting manufactured objects fit together in organized ways. Projects such as SKDB and MakerBeam hope to help us locate and assemble independently designed objects. Another project in this area is OpenStructures: … Continue reading OpenStructures
Inventables – The Material and Technology Marketplace
Tipster Zach points us at a new service: Inventables. Here’s the premise: Inventables exists to make it easy for vendors of materials and technologies to get an initial introduction to potential buyers. These buyers (engineers, designers, marketers) browse our online marketplace with the hope to find and work with vendors that manufacture materials and technologies… Continue reading Inventables – The Material and Technology Marketplace
Welcome to The Product Bay
The Pirate Bay may be fading away, eaten slowly by corporate legal teams, but their inspiration carries on – and not only for bigtime entertainment media. We’ve just bumped into “The Product Bay”, whose intention seems similar to the Pirates. They “want to take all of this to the next level … for real life… Continue reading Welcome to The Product Bay
The Blueprints
The Blueprints is: a website dedicated to collecting 3/4/5-view drawings, templates and blueprints for as many objects as possible. Ranging from humans to tanks and cars to mobile phones, the goal is to provide reference material for 3D modelers, scale modelers, replica builders etc. That’s right – a very large repository (37,000+) of… Continue reading The Blueprints
Let’s Download Some Hardware!
Bryan Bishop and Ben Lipkowitz talk about their new open source venture: SKDB. What is it? It’s a open source hardware distribution framework that takes cues from the highly successful software world. The software world was held back for decades by centrally controlled proprietary paradigms, but blossomed when open source principles took hold. Today we… Continue reading Let’s Download Some Hardware!
Contraptor!
Tips flowed in this week regarding “Contraptor”, the webchild of Vitaly Mankevich and Riley Porter. According to their About: Contraptor is a DIY open source construction set for experimental personal fabrication, desktop manufacturing, prototyping and bootstrapping. Various Cartesian robots can be quickly assembled from Contraptor and used as a platform for projects such as XY… Continue reading Contraptor!
MakerBeam Makes Beams!
And a lot more, it turns out. The MakerBeam project intends on providing a massive library of open source hardware connectors, all reusable and designed to interoperate. Their first big venture is Mini-T, which is a precisely downscaled model of larger T-slot building systems. It consists of extruded aluminum beams, 1 cm on a side,… Continue reading MakerBeam Makes Beams!
Wanna Git SKDBing?
Bryan Bishop tells us of some very interesting work taking place at the Automated Design Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. As is often the case, when two different worlds collide, interesting things happen. This time it’s software management and manufacturing. In the highly complex world of software management there are monstrously… Continue reading Wanna Git SKDBing?
Yet Another Kind of Repository?
With all the chatter about 3D model repositories lately, we thought we’d add another twist to the puzzle. Could a virtual world act as a 3D model repository? There are many virtual worlds available today, including Second Life and grids built on its open source cousin OpenSim, the upcoming BlueMars, There and others. Each of… Continue reading Yet Another Kind of Repository?
3DFilter: Just a Small Box
Many years ago you might recall the early days of web search, where there were several services competing to be the best search engine. At the time, the leaders might have been yahoo, altavista and others. But they were bested by upstart Google. Not only did Google provide excellent results, but they tried a… Continue reading 3DFilter: Just a Small Box
Human Brain!
Admit it: you did something wrong sometime in your life and someone told you: “Get a brain!” Well, now you can! A recent .STL upload to the Thingiverse model repository does just that. It’s a 3D model of an actual human brain! Now before you speculate on exactly *how* Jordan Miller obtained this anatomical… Continue reading Human Brain!
3D Parts On Demand
Shapeways has announced a great new feature for their 3D printing service that should benefit designers. It’s a 3D parts model database. The database currently has approximately thirty items in it, including a variety of nuts, sprockets, gears, bearings, coils and other fundamental parts. We suspect these components would be useful in many designs.… Continue reading 3D Parts On Demand
RepRapRepository?
The RepRap guys (who design and build homemade self-replicating replicators for hobbyist use) have an interesting discussion about online 3D model repositories. The big concern is the commanding lead that Google currently has over all other 3D source material. According to the post: The Google 3D Warehouse has reached 300,000 objects, while the RepRap object… Continue reading RepRapRepository?