New feature: Test Sharing 3d Printer Models at @ MakeWithTech

What is Make With Tech and Insider Notes
1

[SIZE=20px]Very Exciting Announcement[/SIZE]

In addition to providing an enhanced capability for searching Thingiverse with a working customizer Models @ MakeWithTech is very close to releasing the ability to upload and share 3d printer models right in the application.

You can participate in the testing of this exciting new capability by trying out the special test build of Models @ MakeWithTech hosted at:

[SIZE=20px]https://test.makewithtech.com[/SIZE]

The features alpha tested here for the next few days will go live shortly at models.makewithtech.com. Today, tomorrow, and a few more days if bugs are found, these features are only available at test.makewithtech.com.

While some companies select a limited number of “early testers,” I will take a page from Microsoft, even though I am a Mac/Apple fanboy. This and all future builds will have the ability for users (people that have created FREE accounts) to opt into using “experimental features.”

[B]Just head over to the Account page, and after creating an account, check the experimental feature tab.

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Once you do this and refresh your browser, you will see the following new features:

  • The home page has been redesigned to support selecting to search Thingiverse or MakeWithTech

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  • There are two new top navigation menu options (they look like clouds).
  • One is used to upload and share a model stored at MakeWithTech

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  • The second is use to search for, view, customize or delete models from MakeWithTech

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  • Only the creator of a model can delete their models
  • The search capability returns up to 100 models and searches the title, description, model ID, and tags fields
  • Right now, tags are all single words.
  • Every shared model must have an OpenSCAD and image file and optionally can have a single STL file
  • Every model creator must select a “Creative Commons” or “Public Domain” license for their models.

Some background. I am not trying to compete with Thingiverse, Creality Cloud, or Printables (the new name for the Prusa model collection). Instead, I am trying to emphasize the power of printing customized models on 3d printers. That is why the local repository is only for OpenSCAD models as of now and perhaps other customizable formats in the future.

So, if you know of any OpenSCAD designers interested in sharing models on a platform with a working customizer that is actively under development, please point them toward this site.

Please note that models uploaded to this site WILL NOT be available on the production site (models.makewithtech.com) once this code goes into general “experimental feature” release in about a week.

Feel free to share ALL of your thoughts. I am very thick-skinned, having worked in the SW industry for over 40 years, and I want all of your observations.

At the same time, please note that we are still early in the process and expect this site to evolve over the next year or more rapidly.

Irv

2

Irv I did a generic. search and the list came up on the left with the title and a thumbnail. When clicking on the item most of them had not pictures but a couple did. I think a picture of the item would be very useful.

3

I finally decided to try out your site. I uploaded and shared a model, but one thing is not clear to me… Let’s say I want to add an image later, or fix an error, is it possible to do that to an existing shared model? Or do I need to upload an entirely new model?

One other question… let’s say that there are some parameters that ought to be hidden (unless the user cares to download the .scad file and modify it themselves). Is there a way to hide them, perhaps by some variable naming convention, like “_internal_foo = 7;” ?

4

Great! Thanks for the information!

5

Shared Model Editing is coming soon. In the next few days.

In the software’s initial release, you were limited to models stored on Thingiverse. In a release last week, I introduced model storage at MakeWithTech but you could only share or delete models. In the next couple of days – it is in test now – I will add the ability to edit your models, change files, descriptions, etc.

You can often see the next release in test at https://test.makewithtech.com. Please note that I will often wipe out the databases on the test site so do not store anything there that you can not lose.

I am interested in everyone’s feedback and this application will evolve quickly. So please share the site with everyone you know interested in 3d printing. This will help me collect additional feedback.

The live production site is at https://models.makewithtech.com

6

Thanks for the info about the next updates! Being able to edit a model seems essential to being able to make ongoing improvements.

I will share a link to your site when it’s appropriate. There have been a couple of reviews of printables on YouTube recently, and I tried to add a link in a comment, but it seems to have been deleted by someone.

7

Ah, interesting! So I’m apparently a spam bot :smiley:

I can share the link on discord. There are a couple of small 3d printing communities I’m signed up to.

8

By the way, this forum software doesn’t seem to work right. The “like” button doesn’t appear on your posts, HexDriver. It so far only appears on Irv’s and my own posts. I thought maybe the like button I saw near my post was actually for yours, so when I clicked it, it said I couldn’t Like my own posts. Makes sense, but why don’t your posts have that button?

9

The comment button isn’t showing up on my phone. Maybe I need to use a desktop browser to see it.

10

I logged in using my computer, and I can confirm seeing the “Comment” button on comments with an integer number, but not on replies. I guess they don’t allow replies to replies, which is a bit disappointing, but I can understand how it could easily get out of hand with a huge tree of conversation threads.

11

One other thing… it occurred to me that I wasn’t seeing the “Comment” button on my phone because the screen width is too narrow, so I rotated my phone into landscape mode, and Voila! … the Comment button appears on “integer” posts, just like you said.

12

Great to hear that editing capability has been added!

I have a model that I want to dress up a bit before uploading it again, and should be able to get to it within a week. It definitely won’t be a popular model, but maybe it’s a good starter project.