The forum is a place for our users to share ideas and collaborate, and we want to continue fostering creativity. We are always looking to expand the capabilities of our products, and this discussion platform is no exception. We have thought about the idea of implementing a dedicated category to share, browse, and download 3D models directly through these forums, but we want your feedback!
Are you interested in seeing this feature?
What functionality would you like included?
To get started, we have provided some chess set models designed by Formlabs own @Brian_Allan. These are simply .form files hosted for download, and weâll continue building the file sharing option with your feedback. Let us know your thoughts!
As long as you donât make the shared files be â.formâ type files, it sounds like a great idea. Either use a common interchange format or donât do it at all. Creating a â.formâ only kind of sharing space would not be a good thing for many, many reasons.
What I meant to convey was that whatever files get shared, they should also be able to be modified in other 3D creation software, not just be printed from Preform. My fear was that a proprietary format, print only library was going to be created. So yes, multiple file types / interchange formats should definitely be allowed.
Hello Garret,
I like that idea. And I like the idea to share only the .form file. Your forum shouldnât be something like others 3D sharing sevices for 3D files, but just focused and dedicated to print them with FormLabs machines. Sharing the native PreForm file, will allow the users to print it in diferent scales and orientations, but will âprotectâ the file from editing.
I think that a Sharing category will be great.
Mattia
I like the Idea very much. We are all experimenting with differing views. Sharing these views would help us all. As for the file format, I donât really have a preference and if someone wants to retain the rights to the design .form will work great. If someone wants to share a workable file it too should be allowed as I have shared files with others on the forum to help them out. A jewelers section would be great too.
Dave
If Preform was an editor this idea would work better. But Preform does not edit, so STL are the best format. But if you are just sharing STL, why not use Thingiverse? Itâs still a nice idea, but might be hard to get traction.
Thatâs one idea we had, allowing our users to collaborate and use files that work great with Formlabs printers. There are drawbacks and benefits to limiting the files to .form vs. allowing multiple file types. Some users may prefer to download a .form file and print, others may want to edit the file with their favorite CAD software.
I can see it both ways here. The nice thing about form files is that there is a better chance that the part has actually been printed. For advanced users an STL or native CAD file is preferred.
Why not mix these and require a form file and make the STL/CAD file optional? Then add a check box to the search so people can select the file types they want.
The reason that this makes sense as an alternative to Thingiverse is that Thingiverse is a community primarily for people with FDM printers, and thereâs a value in having a community for people with SLA printers as the âdesign for printabilityâ issues are very different between the two.
Itâs also great for new owners of FormLabs printers to have a place to go for a selection of âready to printâ designs for their new printer. This doesnât need to be thousands of designs, but a collection of validated designs to get started.
Having a repository for files that are helpful for FormLabs printer users would be helpful.
The idea of having .form and .stl file types available benefits users as well for several reasons already mentioned.
There could be some benefit to organizing the repository into areas. These could be for testing, trouble shooting, tools, etc.
The idea of âanyoneâ uploading files to such a repository should probably be thought about for a while. This has the potential to create problems.
I am not sure if it should be open to any one outside of registered FormLabs printer users. It seems like there could be a lot of chatter and imaginary problems that would distract from solving FormLabs userâs real problems. I say this because it has happened on other product forums.
Maybe having a process in place where either the registered users have a vote to accept or deny availability of uploaded parts, or some one at FormLabs filtering out content that does not follow guidelines would be helpful? I think there should be some discussion within that repository for registered users to suggest improvements to submitted parts, or to constructively explain why a part is inappropriate for the repository.
I agree that .form files are very useful, especially if someone had already spent the time to make custom manual adjustments to the supports and orientations. But we also will need the original stl files to make changes to the model.
It would be cool if there was integration to thingiverse. To have posts in our forum that can point to the source of the model in thingiverse would be nice. It would give credit back to the source if that was the source. Thingiverse posts can point to our forum posts as well.
In case you havenât heard the news, Formlabs has acquired Pinshape, one of the fastest growing online 3D printing communities! You can learn more about the acquisition here.
