Where to find 3D printable files?

You don’t have to be a 3D design guru to print some brilliant objects using a 3D printer. Here’s a quick list of some great 3D file sharing websites…

• Thingiverse.com – This is probably the biggest 3D design sharing website of them all and everything is completely free. It was founded by the 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot but you can use the designs with any 3D printer you like. There are literally hundreds of thousands of ‘things’ on Thingiverse, they reached 100,000 back in 2013 so they’re likely to be well on their way to a million files by now. Not everything on Thingiverse is easy to print though so its worth checking the Made section which shows you what the 3D print actually turned out like so you don’t waste your time and money on filament.
• Cults3D.com – There are some really nice files on Cults but not all of them are free. We found a decent range of free files though and we’re printing these sandals on our Ultimaker 2 as we speak!
• YouMagine.com – This is Ultimaker’s file sharing website which is still fairly new so there aren’t the same number of files as some of the other websites but with the success of the Ultimaker 3D printers we expect it to grow rapidly.
• MyMiniFactory.com – What sets MyMiniFactory apart from other 3D file sharing platforms is that each an every object is created and test printed by its community from all around the world, mean that every object is guaranteed to be 3D printable.
• Pinshape.com – Another great site with a wide variety of designs available for free. We recently featured on their blog with our Christmas Nutcracker design, check it out here.

If you know of any other good 3D file sharing websites please let us know in the comments below.