@Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)  

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

Sorry, but I disagree. You should have at least a good photo of the real printed parts before publishing (publishing a few ones is better). Users want to get a real name (not a filename), a full description, an explanation of usage and printing details. The more work there is to publish, the less junk there is in the catalog. For the licence, it's good to keep an "opt in" choice, to confirm each time we understand the licence terms.

Please publish slowly a few very good models, not quantity fast!

I do agree for the STEP file, but previewing (you can already add a STEP file in the files list) is probably not a small feature to add.

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

Another thing I forgot to mention is the size. I like a expansive modern web design, that is optimized for smartphones. But in this case its just confusing 'cause I need to scoll that much and I have so many drop down menus, I completely lose orientation. On makerworld its is more compact on desktop (its not good at all) but its at least a little clearer.

You should have at least a good photo of the real printed parts before publishing (publishing a few ones is better).

Sorry I can't agree with that I. I know it better for the user, but its not my work to maintain models on printables. I just do this 'cause I want to share what I've designed.

And I have a few models with just a CAD Screenshot and they have been downloaded and maked a few times.

I would also appreciate it if everyone could add information pics or even CAD files to a design. That's why I always use CC Public Domain licence, so anyone could upload a nicer version of my design.

less junk there is in the catalog.

I totally agree with this, but a complex user interface won't stop a bot from trashing the site...

@Prusa: please make it *MUCH HARDER* to upload new models on printables.com

I agree with @adesir, it's too easy to publish rubbish.

It can take a week to write and test the documentation for a complex project, a few minutes extra to upload pictures of an actual print make little difference.

From the start in 2019 it has been too easy to upload without useful documentation and there is no proper sorting/categorisation of designs.  Because it didn't really matter for the first few hundred entries the devs didn't even make provision to collect a full, searchable, verified, description.  In consequence the vast majority of genuinely useful designs cannot be found as the most detailed available search returns thousands of unrelated objects.  There are no quality metrics, there are not even checks to make sure the object is actually printable.  Since the end of 2021 and the gamification of the site the ratio of rubbish to useful prints has got considerably worse. 

The advice we give beginners to Printables and other print repositories is always to look for pictures of the finished project and preferably for makes *with pictures*; if there is no evidence that the object is genuinely printable then don't download it.

Tbh, I gave up posting to Printables a few years ago as the work involved to do the job properly is wasted.

Cheerio,

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

I totally agree with this, but a complex user interface won't stop a bot from trashing the site...

@diem @theOthersWhoLikedThat

Did you read this?

It's not clear if something is trash or not.

This is an individual decision of every user for him self and therefore a global decision of the community where it likes a upload or not. (And as I mentioned above this could be used to clear real trash out of the database)

For my point of view: more bot/junk control -> easier upload for user (also more flexibility to add info to foreign models to grow in community with forming the inventions inside every 3d model together 😉

RE: easier/improved upload new models on printables.com and more interactions features with 3d models meta

Updated title

(And the forum though ok, it just looks a bit weird ; )

(Although there is a bug when logging in I need to reload otherwise I've been constantly redirected to the login page)

Sorry I can't agree with that I. I know it better for the user, but its not my work to maintain models on printables. I just do this 'cause I want to share what I've designed. ...

I would also appreciate it if everyone could add information pics or even CAD files to a design. That's why I always use CC Public Domain licence, so anyone could upload a nicer version of my design.

so you want to dump it there and expect other people to figure out what you tried to do, build it, test it, and then write the documentation for you?

a complex user interface won't stop a bot from trashing the site.

Quite.  That's why we need a quality metric.

It's not clear if something is trash or not.

Safest to assume that anything without documentation or not including pictures of a printed part is a waste of filament and that anything purely 2D has been uploaded to the wrong site.

Cheerio,

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

I guess the major flaw in the printables now is that it provides Prusament points for model downloads and everyone is lured by it, the truth is that it's much harder now than it used to be.

You can get points by doing makes but seems people are way less eager to do so.

Yet there are contests and we were well know what happens there...

Hence more garbage visible as new models than anything else.

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

Can't hardly get people to publish makes even though they get points for it.

Yes, prusameters have largely contributed to the ruin of what was once a useful site.

Yet there are contests and we were well know what happens there...

One of the more frustrating features: there is a built-in filter to search for contest entries ... but there is no way to exclude contest entries from search results. 

By definition valid contest entries are hasty designs that are untested; there is not enough time to run exhaustive tests or iterate so even the winners are barely more than unfinished work in progress or proof of concept at best.  In other words, with a very few shining exceptions, garbage.

Cheerio,

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

I agree it's frustrating to see low-quality models in Printables.  I am guilty of this as I haven't been iterating my designs to make them higher quality, although they do print as uploaded.

I have a question about something I actually just added which probably fits the definition of a "poor model" - I added a CAD model for the Pimoroni Automation HAT, which obviously isn't for printing, it's for including in designs to ensure a good fit for the physical board in a printed design.  But there won't be a photo of a physical print.

There are other sites (GrabCAD for example) where these can be made available, but honestly that's a terrible site (and obviously uses your personal data to generate income).

I think these are a small but valuable resource and Printables could be a repository for them.  But it should really be uploaded as a separate category of "models created for integration with 3D prints" instead of adding to the mess of poor-quality models.

Anybody have a different suggestion?  

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

Posted by: @mike-b-3

I think these are a small but valuable resource and Printables could be a repository for them.  But it should really be uploaded as a separate category of "models created for integration with 3D prints" instead of adding to the mess of poor-quality models.

Anybody have a different suggestion?  

Have you looked into Github?

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

Posted by: @netpackrat

Have you looked into Github?

I have an account - never thought of putting anything but code there though.  Are there a lot of CAD models there?

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

Posted by: @mike-b-3

I have an account - never thought of putting anything but code there though.  Are there a lot of CAD models there?

A lot of open source printer stuff is there, including CAD.

I added a CAD model for the Pimoroni Automation HAT, which obviously isn't for printing, it's for including in designs to ensure a good fit for the physical board in a printed design.

OK, this *might* be an exception, you are designing a library shape for subtraction from a hull to aid placement of parts - sometimes these include shapes for screw holes and cable routing which makes them unprintable but there is nothing stopping you from showing a picture of the hull with and without the part in place to demonstrate utility.

For example, I did something similar with a motor housing in a mechanical toy published a few years ago:

https://www.printables.com/model/255791-basic-walker-walking-construction-toy   - scroll to  sections 7 & 9

Cheerio,

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

Safest to assume that anything without documentation or not including pictures of a printed part is a waste of filament and that anything purely 2D has been uploaded to the wrong site.

Wiser words have not been spoken.

RE: @Prusa: please make it easier to upload new models on printables.com (and please use an intuitive forum software like XenForo)

@Diem I see you didn't include the model you used to subtract from the motor housing as one of your design files (unless I'm not seeing it).  But most people don't post their CAD files like I did (e.g. STEP or f3d).  I'm on the fence whether I erred in posting this model in Printables.  I have found it useful to download someone else's Raspberry Pi 5 model file for modelling my enclosure, so I thought I'd contribute to the cause.  But searching for these models on the internet isn't finding a reliable source for them...

As I said, similar, it was the nearest illustration of the method to hand but not really the topic of that actual print.  I have a few similar negative shapes in a private library (motors, servos, batteries, microswitches etc.) that I regard as sufficient for my own use but not for publication.  Manufacturers sometimes provide blank STEP files of their products for just this purpose; search there.  Bringing my files up to a publishable standard and documenting them to a level at which they could actually be used by other designers would take a few days each.  Making them findable on Printables by those same designers would be virtually impossible.

Cheerio,