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How-To Printables.Com Software Tech

Printables.Com Download to PrusaSlicer Integration Instructions

Today Prusa made their latest alpha release of PrusaSlicer available on github: 2.6.0-alpha2. (Make sure you understand what alpha testing is before downloading/using this software. An alpha or release of a software package intends to do something particular, and mostly does so, yet isn’t guaranteed to do so fully. You are testing out an early version of this software, if you find a bug, report it.)

There are many game-changing features in this release, but in particular, this post provides step-by-step instructions on how to get the “auto downloading from printables.com directly into PrusaSlicer software”.

  • Enable “Show PrusaSlicer button” in your profile while logged into printables.com.
    Click the avatar icon (upper right corner), then chose the first line item (your user name), then scroll down next to the bold title “Info“, and click on “Edit your profile link”. When the modal window appears, scroll down to the checkboxes section and enable the checkbox for “Show PrusaSlicer button”, then click “Save” at the top of the window.
  • Enable download option in PrusaSlicer software.
    In the menu, select Configuration -> Preferences (or Ctrl-P), then select the Other tab. Click the checkbox to “Allow downloads from Printables.com”, then choose “OK”.

These changes should make it so you see the the PrusaSlicer icon next to the download button while viewing a model’s “Files” list.

Select the PrusaSlicer icon next to the file you want to test, confirm (twice) that you want to allow the download integration, and everything should be working.

I’ve tested this on a Windows 10 PC using Chrome, Firefox, and Edge successfully with PrusaSlicer 2.6.0-alpha2.

Feel free to try out the integration on some of my models on printables.com.

Categories
Printables.Com

Printables.com statistics

This post is to consolidate my separate posts about various categories of statistics gathered from the printables.com 3-D printing database website.

Hopefully this will help you find excellent resources, models, and connections on printables.com.
Please comment if you have any suggestions or corrections.

Categories
Printables.Com

Who are the Prusa Approved Designers?

The title of “Prusa Approved Designer” was awarded at by the Printables Team at its discretion to recognize and reward long-term, consistent, and high-quality work.  As of September 2022, there were 15 “Prusa Approved Designers” on Printables.com. I’ve compiled them here for easy reference and one-page access in case you’d like to explore their profiles. Consider checking out, following, and supporting these successful and hard working designers if they interest you.
(It appears Printables.com got rid of this award, so I’m archiving this here for posterity.)

(in chronological order)

(All values are a snapshot only. Follow the profile links if you want to know a user’s current accomplishments.)

See all the other Printables.com statistics pages on this blog.

Categories
Printables.Com

Prusa Staff on Printables.com

This is just a quick post indexing the identified Prusa Staff members on Printables.com as of February 2023:

(Yes, there are currently only ~13 identified.)

Honorable Mention:

(Level values are a snapshot, these values change constantly over time. Follow the profile links if you want to know their current accomplishments.)

Categories
Printables.Com

Top Model Publishers on Printables.com

As of February 2023, these are the most prolific model designers on printables.com:

9 – Grand Master (1000 models published) 1 user (<0.1%)

8 – Master (500 models published) 2 users (<0.1%)

7 – Expert (200 models) 38 users (<0.1%)
6 – Professional (100 models) 134 users (<0.1%)
5 – Seasoned (50 models) 486 users (0.2%)
4 – Advanced (25 models) 1,604 users (0.7%)
3 – Proficient (10 models) 6,768 users (2.8%)
2 – Beginner (5 models) 8,574 users (3.6%)
1 – Newcomer (1 model) 37,124 users (15.6%)

By inference ~77% of printables.com users haven’t published at least 1 model yet.

(Level values are a snapshot, these values change constantly over time. Follow the profile links if you want to know their current accomplishments.)

See all the other Printables.com statistics pages on this blog.

Categories
Printables.Com

Top Downloaders on Printables.com

As of February 2023, on printables.com, these are the top “Download Maniacs”:

8 – Platinum (10k downloads) (<0.1%)

7 – Gold (5k downloads) 8 users (<0.1%)
6 – Silver (1k downloads) 111 users (<0.1%)
5 – Bronze (300 downloads) 1,060 users (0.4%)
4 – Copper (150 downloads) 4,139 users (1.7%)
3 – Brass (50 downloads) 27,633 users (11.6%)
2 – Tin (20 downloads) 57,654 users (24.2%)
1 – Iron (5 downloads) 129,993 users (54.7%)

By inference ~7.3% of printables.com users haven’t downloaded 5 models yet.

(Level values are a snapshot, these values change constantly over time. Follow the profile links if you want to know their current accomplishments.)

See all the other Printables.com statistics pages on this blog.

Categories
Printables.Com

Top Makers on Printables.com

As of February 2023, on printables.com, these are the top “Makers” (those who have uploaded a certain number of printed models (“makes”) to the site):

8 – Jo Prusa – 250 makes uploaded (<0.1%)

7 – Legendary – 100 makes uploaded (322 users, <0.1%)
6 – Professional – 50 makes uploaded (982 users, 0.4%)
5 – Expert – 25 makes uploaded (2,630 users, 1.1%)
4 – Skilled – 10 makes uploaded (5,860 users, 2.5%)
3 – Explorer – 5 makes uploaded (5,909 users, 2.5%)
2 – Beginner – 3 makes uploaded (5,370 users, 2.3%)
1 – Novice – 1 makes uploaded (37,111 users, 15.6%)

By inference, ~75.8% of printables.com users haven’t uploaded any makes.

(Level values are a snapshot, these values change constantly over time. Follow the profile links if you want to know their current accomplishments.)

See all the other Printables.com statistics pages on this blog.

Categories
Tech

Making…

Just some of the products we’ve made over the years:

  • Scale architectural models (entire building structure, furniture/cabinet installation visualization)
  • Large-scale art installations
  • 3-D models of topographical data (localized and regional)
  • Woodworking and machining alignment fixtures and jigs
  • Custom and hard-to-find automotive parts
  • Templates for painting
  • Guides for aligning and spacing assemblies
  • Angle calibration gauges
  • Custom enclosures for electronics projects
  • Decorative figurines, vases, desk organizers
  • Educational lessons for use in schools
Categories
How-To Printables.Com Website

How to Post a Model on Printables.com

Post a Model

Login to Printables with your username and password.
In the upper-right hand side of the screen, click the “+ Create” button (highlighted in yellow, below).

Select “Model” (in yellow, below) to upload a design that you have made or modified.

The minimum information that you will need to provide:

  • A 3-D model file of your design (.stl, .3mf, .step, sl1s, .stp, .amf, .obj)
  • A picture of your model (.jpg, .gif, .png). This should preferably be a photo of the model printed out if possible, but a screenshot of a preview or render also seems to be acceptable.
  • A name for your model
  • A short summary of your model
  • A category your model should be listed in (selected from a provided list
  • Which license you wish to publish your model under

Enter and upload the required information and you are ready to publish your model for all to see.

If you aren’t ready to publish yet, leave the slider on ‘Draft’ and press the “SAVE DRAFT” button to save your draft for later use. When you are ready to publish your design publicly, click the Draft/Publish slider over to ‘Publish’ and then press the “PUBLISH NOW”.

Keep in mind that publishing is not a final, permanent decision. You can continue to edit your model and all fields about your model. If you decide there was a mistake or you want to retract your publish, simply slide the slider back to ‘Draft’ and press the “SAVE DRAFT” button to make it private again.

Additional fields

Above we addressed the minimal, required fields to publish your design to printables.com. There are a number of other optional fields you should consider completing to help the site and other users find your model more easily, categorize your model, or use your model more effectively. These include:

  • Additional Tags
  • linking Remix files (reference the original files)
  • a detailed Description
  • any other supporting files (.txt, .pdf (instructions))
  • Print files (.gcode, .sl1)

You can also re-arrange your photographs that you uploaded and choose which one will be used as a cover photo (‘set as cover’) for your object in the 3-D Models index on printables.com.

Categories
About Us Tech

My 3-D Story

I have been doing 3-D modeling and 3-D printing since 2011.

I started out with a RepRapPro Mendel TriColour that I built from a parts kit and upgraded several times. This was a great printer, but was frankly borderline experimental. Everything had to be frequently adjusted by hand and successful prints were occasional (maybe 50% at its best.)

My second printer was a cousin to the first, a Prusa I3 MK3 (now an S) built from a kit that I got in November 2018. The improvements from the first to second printer include: auto bed levelling, filament run-out detection, magnetic spring steel flexible print plate, Bondtech dual gear extrusion system, custom E3D V6 all-metal hot end and resume on power failure. Basically, it has improved every area that could have been considered weak or unreliable through iterative engineering. The printer has been an absolute workhorse (currently at 29 kilometers of filament extruded) and my print success rate is more like 98%. Don’t call it fool-proof (they’ll invent a better fool) but it is a solid, consistent performer.

Over the last twelve years I tried a variety of (mostly open source) slicers with varying degrees of success. SkeinForge, Slic3r, Repetier, Cura, KISSlicer, IceSL. Prusa forked Slic3r into PrusaSlicer which is currently the best, most integrated, and extensively developed slicer option available.

I’ve made extensive use of Blender, OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, and a variety of other open source, free, and for-pay, commercial software over the years to do design, object repair, object modifications, customizations.