3D Repository - Access & Information - Update: 06/01

3D Repository - 1st Post

2nd post....great job Dennis!

No worries Dennis, just growing pains that we will need to go through but in the end those of us who persist will be rewarded.

I can't believe how you kept this running with very little down time through a "Hurricane", thanks again great job.

Stay safe

Just a quick thank you for doing this, and a question.  I am relatively new to 3D printing, and thus far have relied on the kindness of others providing files to print.  The design aspect of 3D printing is beyond me at the moment, which brings me to my question... has there been any discussion or thought to a "request" section where those who are proficient at the designing of 3D objects might be able to help out those looking for items that they cannot find.

Bill

Bill,

Yes, and, oddly enough that discussion is taking place at this very moment.   So, hear is one of the questions (there are many) that we are discussing...

Are you (the, Requester) able to provide *good* information/description/measurements/plans/drawings/photos etc. of the item you would like… to me, via email?

If you would like to try a test... please post the best *set* of descriptors that you can (normally, you would email them to me).  This would certainly go a long way in establishing the type of assistance that you and we are considering.  We want to be helpful... but, we do not want it to become a laborious task.

So, if you would like let's practice here... post your information here and, don't be shy ...we are here to help.

dennis

I will do my best to provide as much detail as possible. Give me a day or two and I’ll post it here.

Bill

Great!!!  This will help us develop some sort of protocol and folks will be able to see how its done and what the best practices are.   We (especially me) will make some mistakes along the way but that's OK!  Thank You!

Funny you should choose to do this now. I started looking at 3D printers on the 9th. Great minds and all that?

I noticed the catalog is in Word (docx) format. So for those that don't have Microsoft office, there are 2 open source office suites you can download that WILL let you access those documents- LibreOffice and OpenOffice.

LibreOffice is now updated way more often than OpenOffice, so I'd recommend that one. It's available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX v10.10 or later. There is a help file you can download and install too. Lot's of public support for the program. Will also print any document in pdf directly from the program. Does an incredible job of both importing and exporting Word and Excel documents. Power Point occassionaly will have a problem, as will Visio.
Download page:
https://www.libreoffice.org/do...p;pk_campaign=update

Checked and the catalog displays w/o a hitch in LibreOffice.

I have 2 comments on some items in the catalog.
First OMG How long would it take and how many spools of filament would you go through to print the Cincinnati Terminal in O scale?

Second- Ray must have worked in a brewery. I do instrumentation and control work and pages 36 and 37 are very much representative of some microbreweries I've worked at.

@Quietman posted:

Checked and the catalog displays w/o a hitch in LibreOffice.

Second- Ray must have worked in a brewery. I do instrumentation and control work and pages 36 and 37 are very much representative of some microbreweries I've worked at.

No never even been in a brewery, instead did research and still wasn't sure I  got it right.

Unfortunately I only know how to design for Shapeways laser sintering process. I would like to learn how to design for home printers, and when I do I would love to add to your library.

Tom,  If it will fit on a Glowforge Plus (Joanne's), Shapeways... or the like, I would think you could put it up (we can note printing facilitation).  It certainly does not have to be printed/cut/engraved at home.  Let me show my ignorance, can they be saved as .svg(s)?  I know very little about this (or any) process.  If anyone would like start a Topic on Cutting/Engraving that would be great... I have a lot to learn (and, maybe a few other folks do as well).

We are a very small group at the moment... the more we can teach and reach out is a tremendous benefit to all in our hobby.

dennis

Have a Anycubic Mega S coming. Got me to thinking. A number of years ago I did 3D modeling for video as a hobby. Is there a utility to take such models and convert them directly into a format the printer can use?

Which brings up another thread that would be useful. One on free 3D CAD / modeling software and converters. Would be interesting if you could take, for example, a Blender 3D object (most used open source 3D modeling and animation package) or a Sculptris model (great for organic modeling), and then convert them into some thing Cura or other slicer software could use if they don't output in a format directly importable in the slicer..

Quietman

If you have a computer model it should already be in a file like stp or iges etc.

You can open that in a CAD type program then export it as an STL, OBJ ,AMF etc. and these should be importable to almost any slicer program.

If you want to know about CAD software you certainly could bring up a specific question.

I also have another printer coming, the Prusa Mini. I have the MK3 already and it is great, the Mini is supposed to be as good if not better, now that they have the production problems straightened out, we will see it about the middle of January.

i will be very interested in ur experience with the mini especially with regard to mk3. i got my mini end of october and haven’t really experienced lots of the issues others had early on but still not happy with the amount of stringing it produces. it will be great to have someone to compare with especially as i am new to the 3d printer world and not sure what to expect. maybe my expectations were too high lol.  i am sure there r some prusaslicer parameters that can help i have found a few but still not happy. at least it cleans up fairly easily.

@sidehack posted:

Quietman

I also have another printer coming, the Prusa Mini. I have the MK3 already and it is great, the Mini is supposed to be as good if not better, now that they have the production problems straightened out, we will see it about the middle of January.

I spent a little more money  than I intended to on train stuff the last couple of weeks, and told my wife I'd dial back my expectations on my Christmas present. When I found the Mega S for only$220 with a 1 kg spool, it kind of made up my mind for me.

Depending on how far I go with this, a Prusa may end up being in my future.

@Quietman posted:

Which brings up another thread that would be useful. One on free 3D CAD / modeling software and converters.

I could see a whole array of threads, one each to share experiences with each of the major tools.

I am a journeyman FreeCad user, and would love to have a place to share experiences and skills in that platform. FreeCad is kind of a nightmare--hugely complex, constantly changing, inconsistent interfaces, and buggy. However, it is incredibly powerful and genuinely free. By this I mean, there are no strings attached forbidding commercial use, etc. Very few of the "free" systems have this property. I wanted a system that supported fully-parametric models, has no recurring license fees, was truly free of usage limitations, and runs on a Mac. FreeCad was pretty much the only choice that met all those criteria, so I bit the bullet and dug into it. I am no expert, but I have managed to become reasonably productive.  Any other FreeCad fans out there?

@stubbygda posted:

i will be very interested in ur experience with the mini especially with regard to mk3. i got my mini end of october and haven’t really experienced lots of the issues others had early on but still not happy with the amount of stringing it produces. it will be great to have someone to compare with especially as i am new to the 3d printer world and not sure what to expect. maybe my expectations were too high lol.  i am sure there r some prusaslicer parameters that can help i have found a few but still not happy. at least it cleans up fairly easily.

I am using 3D Solutech PETG Real Grey, Started with Prusa PETG Parameters and only made a few changes, temperture is 220/215  and bed 85/80 C and using  .15mm or .20 both Quality.

I don't have any major stringing problems, this MK3 has been running 61 day 13 hrs that's 1477 hours with no problems so if the Mini is as good and dependable I'll be pretty happy.

Ray aptly described this as a hobby within a hobby.   I am at the point where I would like to start modeling... but, where to begin?  I'm a programmer... not a CAD guy.  I'm interested in mechanical and architecture (animation/morphing/sculpting is not my thing).  I did the tutorials with TinkerCAD which gave me a primer and then a couple of tutorials with Fusion 360.  Now, which CAD program?  I installed Rhino, AutoCAD, FreeCAD, Blender and others... there are so many!   I decided that I do not want a browser based CAD program.  I do not think it matters greatly which program you use initially... the key is to get started!!!  Blender is what I'm going with.

PLEASE, Create any Topic you would like!@!

@stubbygda posted:

i will be very interested in ur experience with the mini especially with regard to mk3. i got my mini end of october and haven’t really experienced lots of the issues others had early on but still not happy with the amount of stringing it produces. it will be great to have someone to compare with especially as i am new to the 3d printer world and not sure what to expect. maybe my expectations were too high lol.  i am sure there r some prusaslicer parameters that can help i have found a few but still not happy. at least it cleans up fairly easily.

I have a MK3S and get some stringing too. In my (somewhat limited) experience, it's more related to the print than the filament - lots of tall parts next to each other (individual pieces or parts of the same piece) will have stringing in between. There are some test prints and settings you can tweak to dial in your printer. However my advice is to purchase a heat gun and just hit the stringy prints with that after the print is complete. Total game changer!

Dennis, love the .PDF that's great

Hi, glad I ran across this. I have an Ender 3 and AnyCubic Photon. I've printed pieces as small as signal heads for N scale, to pieces to construct my 4'x8' CNC machine. I've done a lot of design work in Fusion 360, some for modeling, some for real-world items.  It's awesome to see an O scale repo being put together.  I don't want to step on anyones toes, but I see two things missing, or clarifications that need to be made with these models.

The submissions in the catalog have the person's name with the picture, however there are 2 Carl's who have contributed.  So, which Carl contributed the "Block and Dwarf Signals". Might be better to keep the member usernames there.  The other thing that is missing is a readme, or a text blurb that should go in the actual repo with each model.  Again, using the "Block and Dwarf Signals", there is no citing of what he used for the post. It would be useful to ask for such information since the model heavily depends on what piece was used there.

Other submissions such as the Bidirectional Signal by Alan, is a single STL. It probably should be broken up into separate components for printing, or a STEP file, rather than an STL should be provided so a user can perform more manipulation to split it apart themselves.  It was also seem that parts of that model could only be printed using a resin printer, based on how the parts and orientations are, using the arm with signal head attached as an example.

I'd make sure as people submit models that they have to describe how it's printed (if it's not obvious), and what other components must be used if they aren't included in the STL packages themselves.

If you need any help, feel free to reach out, I do the 3d printing and design stuff in my spare time, but Linux admin on servers, and web design is my primary job function these days.

Alan Here: I did break up the signal into parts; never used .step files though perhaps I should?

@AlanRail posted:

Alan Here: I did break up the signal into parts; never used .step files though perhaps I should?

Hi Alan, I like the part, but the one on the server is a single STL with all the pieces floating in it.  The biggest difference between the STL and STEP is that the STL is basically defines the vertices and surfaces and doesn’t understand the actual geometry , not something that can be edited (easily). A STEP file will define the actual geometry, how it relates and allow it to be pulled apart, remixed, or whatever in programs like Fusion 360 or whatever. Easier than supplying the actual CAD file.

i use Rhino 6 that has export to .step option. so not hard to have that file type as part pf the repository,

However its up to Dennis.

We have encouraged folks to include .stp files with their .stl(s) both in posts in threads and in the *Best Practices* .doc which is in the Repository along side the Catalog.  There are 98 .stp files in the Repository with their associated .stl(s).  We certainly haven't deleted or discouraged anyone from providing STEP files.

Please!!!  By all means, provide STEP(s) with your .STL(s)... they are Welcomed and Encouraged!!!

The easier that we can make this for the end user... especially for the beginner ...the better.  We are all teachers.  The best we can do for our hobby is share our experiences and knowledge.

STEP/.stp:  STEP is a file extension for a 3-D graphic file used by CAD software. STP stands for Standard for the Exchange of Product model data. STP files are used to store 3D image data in an ASCII format, following the standards defined in ISO 10303-21 : Clear Text Encoding of the Exchange Structure.

Nice, thank you

Both links are working for me.

That's because you are AWESOME Bill!

I should have this moved out of my house next year... These Links are good until January 1, 2024.

It's probably been close to a year since I've touched the functionality other than to add files or fire up the generators.  It was still in a sort of test mode with a number of downloads expiration. When you get to be my age you might kind of forget to go back and correct things that you had intended to fix. 

My apologies.

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

My apologies.

No apology necessary Dennis, you're doing this as a free service!

When it's FREE, I TAKE TWO.

I have a question about contributing.

I’ve wanted a ballast spreader and found one on thingverse I believe and printed it. I quickly found that it didn’t fit my needs and wouldn’t do what I wanted.

I’ve modified it on tinkercad numerous times and am currently printing my 4th version of it. When I finally get it the way I want it and doing what I need it to do I would like to share it, but it’s technically not my base design and I wouldn’t want to basically plagiarize whoever the original designer is.

What would be the best and basically most morally correct way to share it? That is, if I’m ever truly happy with it. I know they are cheap to buy but it’s been fun messing with it and seeing it come to life.

there are two rights to consider 1) Patent and 2) Copyright.

If the original is patented, then your modification may violate the original owners patent rights; Can't help you without reading the patent. If it was patented the photos must say so and provide the patent number(s) or say "patent pending." To be patent-able the design must be unique and not violate any others' patent or is something that is NOT already existing in the art. (of ballast spreaders} If it is patented, within the patent life you may not make, use or sell.

As to a copyright, you don't need to say anything. A copyright is a unique interpretation of an idea fixed in a medium. So, the idea of a ballast spreader is not copyrightable.

The infringement question to ask is two-fold:

First, is the existing design unique meaning is it copyrightable or not? A lot of these spreaders I have seen are fairly similar.

Second question to ask is whether your modification to the existing interpretation was developed without seeing that interpretation. It sounds like you modified the existing design.

Thank you.

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

Update: 01/31 3:57pm... Catalog updated  (docx & .pdf)

*109 Print Ready Items* are now available.

Please, help guide other members to this thread for Access & Information about the Repository.  Thank You!

First I would like to think all the more talented people creating the items to print. I was wondering if there was any way to get boms for some the listed items in the catalog. Like the signals there is a tube 4x250mm I believe not listed in the catalog.  BOMS the for the different buildings would be great.

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

Update: 01/31 3:57pm... Catalog updated  (docx & .pdf)

*109 Print Ready Items* are now available.

Please, help guide other members to this thread for Access & Information about the Repository.  Thank You!

FYI: I have Ladle hooks available as well.  They're not exported to stl at this time but I'm sure I can spare some time to do so.

Not new to the forum, but new to 3D printing.  Just built a Prusa kit and got it working and am now a 3D printing maniac.

The repository is fantastic.  Some very good quality work by the forum members involved.  What a great resource.

Thank you to all involved.

Bill