3D-printing - do you mostly design or download?

[Dr.Al]

Just a straw poll as I'm curious. Those of you who have/use a 3D-printer: what sort of percentage (at a wild guess) of things you print are downloaded (e.g. from printables/makerworld etc) vs designed by you? Also how long have you had the printer (as I expect newer users will download more).

I've had mine for four years and have (according to the printer statistics screen) printed 6.5 km of filament over 221 days (5303 hours) of printing time.

For the last year at least, I think 100% of my prints have been self-designed: I can't remember the last time I downloaded a model and I'm pretty sure whenever I last did I only used it for reference to design my own tweaked version.

 

[BrokenBiker]

everythig ive had printed by a mate is something ive drawn up/designed to meet a specific need...mostly stuff for the crane like radio clips to keep my daio out of the way but still easy to grab, a cup holder because liebherr insist on not providing any for the chassis side of it, a few shed bits and a grease tube holder for my vast amounts of EP2 and boom grease on the crane.

 

[My Old Landy]

Mine are 99% self designed. I do get asked by the grandkids to print various bits.
My printers are used for prototyping and small batch work.
I work from home so it's easier for me to own my own printers and charge work for the filament etc.

 

[cheb]

Mostly downloaded but the occasional design done especially for me by someone who's really really good at it.

 

[daedalusminos]

Printer : Prusa MK3s
Filament: 5.036Km
Duration: 67d 2h 48m
Owned: 5 years 4months

I've only down loaded and printed one item (a Raspberry PI case) because I needed it in a hurry and didn't mind what it looked like. Most things for download just aren't quite what I want or not happy with the design so end up designing from scratch.

 

[Pete.]

Design. I have not printed many downloaded things and mostly it's stuff others have downloaded.

 

[Dr.Al]

Filament: 5.036Km
Duration: 67d 2h 48m

Out of interest, do you have octopi attached to your prusa? The reason I ask is that I've read that the Prusa MK3S statistics page underquotes the usage if you have octopi. I've got octopi and (according to the statistics page) have printed 1.5 km more than you but taken more than 3 times as long. I suspect that means I've probably printed a lot more than 6.5 km.

 

[daedalusminos]

Out of interest, do you have octopi attached to your prusa? The reason I ask is that I've read that the Prusa MK3S statistics page underquotes the usage if you have octopi. I've got octopi and (according to the statistics page) have printed 1.5 km more than you but taken more than 3 times as long. I suspect that means I've probably printed a lot more than 6.5 km.

I haven't got Octopi hooked up but the stats don't make sense - especially considering I print mostly TPU very slowly

 

[clift_d]

Most of what I print has been designed from scratch in Fusion360.

 

[carbon]

Mostly design my own parts. Last year has been some prototype parts for my bicycle before constructing the part in aluminium and archery related parts

 

[Dev]

80/20 design/download

My first step is always to see if someone has already done it before making something up from scratch. It’s also been a gateway drug for designing and making stuff with a DIY 8x4 CNC and laser.

 

[awemawson]

Most of what I print has been designed from scratch in Fusion360.

Yes me too. Latest is a set of adaptor blocks to allow me to use 'Vee Ditch Ruby Guides' scrounged from a scrap Wire EDM machine as oppossed to the original ones that are holes in diamond. EDM wire is 0.25 mm brass, guide hole is 0.255 mm and it's impossible to see upside down and with a mirror. Don't have to thread Vee Ditches

 

[sako243]

Mostly designed

 

[Agroshield]

You could almost predict the results before you ask, just by looking at other content of the forum on which you ask.

Other places (maybe role playing games or scale modelling of all types) would likely have a different balance.

 

[ajlelectronics]

My prints are mostly bespoke, so designed in house. The odd item, normally ornamental might be dowloaded around Christmas.

 

[MattF]

Downloaded. Still trying to get to grips with design software, currently.

 

[Kram]

Odd I assumed there would be a lot more downloads on here.

I'm new to it, I've attempted to use 3d modeling apps, years ago, but never got anywhere from lack of practise. Bought a new laptop for the purpose but not found much time yet. Onshape account is set up, but being a website thing, got buried in the hundreds of tabs I had open. Perhaps need to use a dedicated broswer just for that..

I have discovered that looking through makerworld can easily eat up vast quantities of time and possibly best avoided, its mostly rubbish. Appears you get points and possibly redemable for filament for each creation?

 

[MattF]

Also how long have you had the printer (as I expect newer users will download more).

I'm ashamed to admit, around 6 year since I got my first printer, & I've only recently decided I ought learn to design. I've always found a file online for anything I needed, so designing myself was never imperative. Now though, I want to be able to design too. Not necessarily because I need to, but it does make sense to have the ability.

 

[Onoff]

Mainly designed by my lad or I. I have been known to download and print something just to run a Vernier over it to get a proper model I can then tweak.

 

[iNf]

Probably about 50/50. Lots of things are specific for what I need but there's no point reinventing the wheel, so if a quick search brings up something that looks like it will do the job then I'll just use it. It's worth noting for those new to 3d printing that it's worth downloading OpenSCAD. I have no idea how to design with it but there are models on the 3d print sites that are customisable using it. For example I was going to design a small box a specific size and I found this https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/stuff-your-3d-printer-has-made-today.118593/post-2635066 so I could just put the size/strength/ No of compartments etc into OpenSCAD and get a usable printable model without any design work.