5 of Our Favorite 3D Print File Libraries
A common question that comes up when people are learning to use 3d printers is “where do I find things to print?”.
The truth is there are tons of places, if only you knew where to look.
Some of them are completely free and some offer paid prints. Some are full of guaranteed high quality 3d prints and others have some bad eggs that you’ll need to try and fix before printing (we offer some help with that below too).
Luckily, they all have Christmas ornaments and holiday items you can print before the weekend!
Below are 5 libraries of 3d printable files to check out.
This is a library with tens of thousands of free and paid 3d prints. It is built as a way for talented 3d designers to offer their works, and the site does a good job of curating prints by vertical, so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for.
Most of the files you’ll come across on Pinshape have proven to print well by other users.
2. Thingiverse
One of the most well known file libraries for 3d printing, Thingiverse offers hundreds of thousands of 3d prints completely for free. It also has educational tools for schools that want to incorporate 3d printing into the classroom.
Unlike some other sites, Thingiverse does not filter out designs that haven’t been successfully printed before. However, it’s easy to find the files that people have reviewed well, so you can filter by quality.
You can drop files you’re not sure about into a program called MakePrintable and this will help make your file “3d printable”.
3. 3DShook
In-house designers have created a large library of designs specifically for 3d printing, so you know that everything you download will work with your 3d printer. A free trial is offered but most of 3D Shook’s library is paid.
The team here is very creative and the file library has some unique, practical items. They also continuously add files so you’re constantly getting new stuff to print.
4. Yeggi
The Google of 3d printing files. Yeggi aggregates files from multiple sites across the web, pulling up everything it can find. Sometimes you’ll come across amazing prints that are well designed and other times the files won’t work well at all.
If you’re not sure if the file you’re downloading is designed well for 3d printing, drop it into MakePrintable and this will help make your file “3d printable”.
5. Cults 3D
Cults 3D offers a curated library of 3d printable files that are well organized and have good depth. There are thousands of things to print on Cults and the files can be organized by print quality easily.
Cults is a little more well known in Europe than the US but it has a formidable library of 3d prints.
