Printables - filter out "AI" models?  

RE:

On Printables site cick on your profile in top right corner, Settings > Display & Privacy > AI Content -  select Hide content.

RE: Printables - filter out "AI" models?

On the models page, there's "exclude AI generated" as one of the filter options. Because, who wants to see this crap. 

RE: Printables - filter out "AI" models?

> Because, who wants to see this crap.
The creators that uploaded those 😀

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...and I can literally feel my IQ points leaking out of my head every time I get an "AI" suggestion from any source.)

OT, just a friendly hint among humans: Don't underestimate AI as such. There's a lot more to it than click bait generation.

For a real-life experiment, try Python programming in FreeCAD. Open ChatGPT and ask for advice.

For example, ask it how to check whether an edge is on a plane (e.g. to manage chamfering). It'll tell you there is no ready-made function but you can take the dot product with the plane's normal vector and compare its magnitude against a threshold. 

This is elementary stuff and I could in principle implement this myself if I'd dig through the documentation for data structures etc. Or I just copy-and-paste the code snippet and it (usually, but with significant exceptions) works. 

I don't feel I'm losing brain cells over this, but am putting mine to work on more productive (higher-level) problems.

So far a real success story, but "my" AI hasn't gotten any ideas yet about exterminating humanity. If it does one day, we'll have a hard time finding places to hide...

RE: Printables - filter out "AI" models?

It's so obvious now. Sigh. Thanks everyone.

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AI is not art. Nor creative. Its soulless slop.

I'd prefer it to be hidden by default. If you can't be bothered to create something yourself, why should you be advertised front and center? Put it in an "AI category" and let it rot.  Don't give me the "it's just a tool" excuse, if your tool is doing most of the work for you. Fusion 360 is a tool. And it takes me WEEKS to get a design done.

Just my two cents.

RE: Printables - filter out "AI" models?

Well I am really sorry to hear that about AI. In my case just for example, I am 64 years old with blood cancer, I never do anything before with any 3D modeling software and now I am doing things that people like and love with AI. Unfortunately I do not have time in my life any more to learn and produce models through 3D modeling software I wish I have, but why spit on me when I am using AI ? AI become everyday thing/tool as cell phones, and now even 3D printers, so nobody can do anything against that, that is only life and circumstances in which all of us live at this time. And to be honest, making something valuable with AI is not easy at all, at the end you must use some 3D modeling software to make model good and I am killing myself with Blender, MeshMixer and MeshLab, so stories about doing nothing is not true at all.

I am killing myself with Blender, MeshMixer and MeshLab

OK, in one sense these are among the best free applications but all of them have steep learning curves, I'm not surprised a new user has difficulties.

For beginners: Start with Tinkercad and FreeCAD - if you have any programming experience try OpenSCAD.

With all of these I can take a beginner through to making their first, simple, practical, printed parts in a couple of hours.  There are loads of tutorials on youtube ...

The underlying trick is to envisage a part as a collection of simple primitive shapes:

A shirt button is a short cylinder with an even shorter, smaller cylinder cut from its face and two (or more) much smaller cylinders cut through off-centre for the sewing thread.

A simple coat hook is a cuboid (just called a cube in most software as you usually squash the primitive in some way), a cuboid about three times as long as it is wide but short in Z with a second cuboid, same width, rather thin, relatively tall, on top of it's end rising to another cuboid square but also thin in Z - cut two cylindrical holes in the first cuboid for screws and the shape is complete 'though if printed like that it will fail so you flip it onto its side (in the slicer) for printing allowing continuous extrusions for strength and it becomes a practical print.

Like this:

Below is the OpenSCAD code that represents the text description above; even if you never use OpenSCAD it should be useful to follow the process.

// Examples - button and hook

ButtonDiameter=12;
ButtonThick=2;
ThreadHole=2;
 
 HookWidth=20;
 HookPlateLength=60;
 HookThick=4;
 HookThroat=20;
 ScrewHole=4.5;  // A little extra space to help 4mm screws fit neatly;    
 
 //Smooth curves
 $fn=100;
 
 // button
 difference(){
     // basic shape
     cylinder(d=ButtonDiameter, h=ButtonThick);
     // now subtract differences, the the holes
     translate([0,0,ButtonThick*2/3]){
       cylinder(d=ButtonDiameter-2, h=ButtonThick/3);
     }
     translate([-2,0,0]){
         cylinder(d=ThreadHole,h=ButtonThick);
     }
     translate([2,0,0]){
         cylinder(d=ThreadHole,h=ButtonThick);
     }
 }
 
 // Now let's move aside so it doesn't overlay
 translate([0,10,0]){
     
     // Hook
     difference(){  // We're going to be cutting holes again
         union(){  // But this time the basic shape is compound
             cube([ HookPlateLength,HookWidth,HookThick]);
             translate([HookPlateLength-HookThick,0,HookThick]){
                 cube([HookThick,HookWidth,HookThroat]);
             }
             translate([HookPlateLength-HookWidth,0,HookThick+HookThroat]){
                 cube([HookWidth,HookWidth,HookThick]);
             }
         } // end of union, from here we are cutting holes
         translate([HookPlateLength/10,HookWidth/2,0]){
             cylinder(d=ScrewHole, h=HookThick);
         }
         translate([HookPlateLength-HookWidth-HookPlateLength/10,HookWidth/2,0]){
             cylinder(d=ScrewHole, h=HookThick);
         }    
     } // End of hole cutting
 
 } // End of move aside

These are crude and could be greatly improved; I leave that to you.   Remember to flip the hook if you try it.

Cheerio,

RE: Printables - filter out "AI" models?

Thank you very much Diem, but that code, as easy is for you, it is like South African click language for me. Yes I can read it, but not a glimpse of understanding, sorry but I will stay on my way of work. 

Ok, you're not a programmer but at least checkout Tinkercad and FreeCAD - they really are easier than the stuff you are fighting.

— And don't be frightened to try Xhosa or one of the other San click languages - yes they are tough for English speakers but (clue) Chinese speakers find them much easier because, like several asian languages, they are tonal; don't let the clicks distract you.  It's not too hard to learn tourist level Xhosa but apparently it's really hard to get to fluidity.

Cheerio,

RE: Printables - filter out "AI" models?

On the opposite side, my favorite language is Pirahã with only 12 phonemes. But back on topic, I started with OpenSCAD, still like it but then I code for 8-9 hrs/day so on my free time, don’t feel like coding. FreeCAD is nice because you can sketch, code (Python or SCAD) or both. 

RE: Printables - filter out "AI" models?

I am sorry but that post from user sharp is bother me, so I want to replay to that disparagement and scorn from her/him - Clay: The earliest known 3D clay object is the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a clay figurine dating from 29,000–25,000 BC. So that is official known start and it was done BY HAND, as all other REAL artists who can make something with their own hands. Now, comparing all this digital "work of art" with that...is it possible ? So spitting on AI users is same just like if a real artist started spitting on 3D software users which use Fusion360 for weeks or anything else. Sorry sharp, you are completely confused. I apologize, but that post is so horribly rude and narcissistic that I had to respond.

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https://www.youtube.com/@StinnettSticks

THIS is a real 3d artist my dear sharp

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Posted by: @gnoyo

I am sorry but that post from user sharp is bother me, so I want to replay to that disparagement and scorn from her/him - Clay: The earliest known 3D clay object is the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a clay figurine dating from 29,000–25,000 BC. So that is official known start and it was done BY HAND, as all other REAL artists who can make something with their own hands. Now, comparing all this digital "work of art" with that...is it possible ? So spitting on AI users is same just like if a real artist started spitting on 3D software users which use Fusion360 for weeks or anything else. Sorry sharp, you are completely confused. I apologize, but that post is so horribly rude and narcissistic that I had to respond.

I didn't read his response that way and it definitely wasn't a personal attack. It's just an opinion and one that I happen to agree with but maybe less animated.  

AI is just a tool to improve workflow efficiency like everything else. Just like the printing press was a replacement for hand-written parchment or the Jacard loom was a replacement for weaving by hand. That said, it's a tool I prefer not to use nor do I have a problem with people using it. What bothers me is not the use of AI but the way that it is used. It does bother me that I see AI produced junk being sold on Etsy or questionable models on Printables who's sole purpose seems to be to get Prusa points. 

That said, 3D printing for me is a hobby and like all hobbies you can get enjoyment out of it in many ways. I like the fact that the design tools have a steep learning curve and are hard. It makes it more interesting to me. If I did all of my designs with AI.... well, once I learn something completely I generally get bored and move on to the next hobby. 

At the moment, I'm figuring out how to implement a hex grid on my FreeCAD model. For fun, just now, I asked an AI to do it and it immediately gave me a working answer. I threw it away because I want to "know" how to do this on my own. 

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Posted by: @hyiger

 

Posted by: @gnoyo

At the moment, I'm figuring out how to implement a hex grid on my FreeCAD model. For fun, just now, I asked an AI to do it and it immediately gave me a working answer. I threw it away because I want to "know" how to do this on my own. 

That is the perfect working mode IMHO, AI as the private teacher I never had. 

Example, I hit a wall multithreading "fuse" in FreeCAD as done step-by-step it is abysmally slow (I have already set up for fusing adjacent objects in a tree, but even that takes patience). 

It's not easy, took a few iterations but "we" figured out objects needs to be serialized into ASCII, fused then returned the same way. 

On my own I would have passed this off as misguided / crazy but it actually works now, and it is definitely faster.

Problem is, while I am learning, so does AI, and that is getting more and more scary. Topic for another day, though.

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I completely understand the frustration of people who actually use 3D modeling programs when they see the AI ​​label, but no AI model is, at least for now, ready to print directly. It sometimes takes me a couple of days to fix all the mistakes that the AI ​​made, and some models I can't (don't know how to) fix at all. So I'm also learning to use 3D programs, just the other way around. Since I have no talent for painting or making sculptures, I could never make anything, so with the help of AI I manage to make something that people love and that makes them happy. For me, this means a lot because happiness and satisfaction disappear at this time. But to say for AI and my efforts: "AI is not art. Nor creative. Its soulless slop...let it rot" is extremely rude and inconsiderate. I've been a member of Printables since August 9, 2025, I have 92 models published, 1413 downloads and 361 likes so far, and I can say that I'm really happy how many people like my work, and no one complains that all the models were made with the help of AI. And as for what AI learns, I don't think that's the problem, the problem is the people who (will) use that knowledge and for what purposes.