Top 10 3D Model Databases: The Best Sites to Download 3D Models for 3D Printing

If you intend to 3D print a model, that doesn’t mean you always have to start designing from scratch. There are tons of websites out there that offer (both free and premium) 3D models to download. We took a look at 10 of the best and most popular 3D model databases and compared them for price, quality, selection, and printability.

1. Cults 3D

Cults offers its users the perfect range of 3D models – from maker-inspired 3D files all the way to professional high quality designs. Cults checks each 3D design for printability and organizes them into different groups such as fashion, art, jewelry, home, architecture, or gadgets. The mix of a modern visual interface, a well-arranged database, and a focus on smart, useful & beautiful designs makes browsing through their website a lot of fun. While many models come for free, others come at very affordable prices.

Cults is a great place to find & download 3D models for 3D printing.

Cults facts:Focus on 3D printing: Yes
Price: Free and Payable
Target: Hobbyists & Designers
Size: 5,000 Models

2. Pinshape

Pinshape offers its visitors the opportunity to browse through a great selection of more than 13,000 (free and payable) STL files. Finding great 3D printable models on the website is child’s play: both the visual representation and logical organization of the website are top-notch.

Pinshape is a popular database for 3D printables files.

Pinshape facts:
Focus on 3D printing: Yes
Price: Free and Payable
Target: Hobbyists & Designers
Size: 13,000 Models

3. 3DShook

The 3DShook website is somewhat similar to Pinshape and Cults but the designs tend to be more focused on ‘fun’ 3D prints for hobbyists. Some models are free but most require a fee. However, 3DShook does offer designs at a very competitive price.

3D Shook offers fun 3D models to download.

3DShook facts:
Focus on 3D printing: Yes
Price: Free and Payable
Target: Hobbyists – fun designs
Size: 1,500 Models

4. Thingiverse

Thingiverse is probably one of the biggest and most popular databases. It has a very active maker community behind it and offers free-to-use STL files only. You don’t even need to open an account in order to download a 3D model from their site. Sometimes the database can seem slightly less organized than the cleaner and simpler design of sites like Pinshape and Cults.

One of the most popular places to get 3D models: Thingiverse.

Thingiverse facts:
Focus on 3D printing: Yes
Price: Free
Target: Makers
Size: 9,000 Models

5. GrabCAD

GrabCAD is different than the databases we have looked at so far. Firstly, Gradcad provides you with technical, engineering, and scale models only. Secondly, it lets you filter its database based on the 3D modeling software that the designs were created in. It’s the place to be for anyone looking for more than 27,000 technical 3D files. However, take into account that this website is not intended for 3D printing.

GrabCAD is all about downloading technical 3D models.

GrabCAD facts:
Focus on 3D printing: No
Price: Free
Target: Professionals interested in technical/engineering parts
Size: 27,000 Models

6. 3D Warehouse

The 3D Warehouse simply screams ‘geometrical’. Whether you are looking for architecture, product design or scale models, 3D Warehouse offers anything that was created with the popular 3D modeling software SketchUp. Luckily they also let you filter their database for 3D printable models by selecting ‘Only Show Printable Models’ in their advanced search function. All other models can be made printable thanks to a connection with the 3DPrintCloud.

Geometric 3D models can be downloaded at SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse.

3D Warehouse facts:
Focus on 3D printing: No, but 3D printing filter available
Price: Free
Target: Professionals interested in geometrical/architectural models
Size: 38,000 3D printable models

7. CGTrader

CGTrader offers a dedicated database for 3D printable objects. So far there are more than 13,000 models to choose from. We noticed that there are many printable jewelry designs in particular on this website. While many models are downloadable for free, others come at affordable prices.

CGTrader offers a website section that focuses on 3D printable models only.

CGTrader facts:
Focus on 3D printing: No, but 3D printing database available
Price: Free and Payable
Target: Hobbyists & Designers
Size: 13,000 3D printable models

8. Sketchfab

Sketchfab is the perfect 3D database for people with an interest in character design and focuses on organic structures (such as animals, sculptures, etc.). It seems to be a website that is especially popular with people working in the field of game design. Unfortunately they don’t focus too much on 3D printing yet, but they do offer a sub-category containing around 1,000 3D printable models.

SketchFab offers many organic 3D models, but doesn’t focus enough on 3D printing yet.

Sketchfab facts:
Focus on 3D printing: No, but 3D printing category available
Price: Free
Target: Professional character/organic and game designs
Size: 1,000 3D printable models

9. TurboSquid

TurboSquid is the place to be for downloading the most stunning 3D designs. It doesn’t get any more high-end and professional than this. The problems: the designs are great visually but are not optimized for 3D printing. There is also no filtering option for finding 3D printable models. Furthermore all models on TurboSquid are premium (payable) files. Quality comes at a price.

Premium, high-end 3D designs can be downloaded on TurboSquid.

TurboSquid facts:
Focus on 3D printing: No
Price: Premium
Target: Professional Designers & 3D Artists
Size: no models optimized for 3D printing

10. 3DExport

3DExport is somewhat similar to TurboSquid: This is also a database that focuses on the visual aspects and offers amazing premium 3D models. In addition to this, 3DExport offers its users a filter for finding 3D printable models only.

3D Export is a 3D model database for premium designs.

3DExport facts:
Focus on 3D printing: No, but 3D printing category available
Price: Premium
Target: Professional Designers & 3D Artists
Size: 1,000 3D printable models

Bonus: Yeggi

Last but not least we want to mention Yeggi, a search engine for 3D printable models. Yeggi scans all the databases mentioned above (and many more) for 3D printable files. So if you want to search the ‘Google’ of 3D models, this might be the right website for you.

Yeggi, the search engine for 3D models.

Of course we cannot mention each and every 3D model database out there, but we think that these 11 sites are great places to get your first stunning 3D models.

And by the way: After downloading (and maybe editing) a file, feel free to upload the 3D model to our website and let us print it in 100+ materials and finishes on industrial 3D printers. It’s the easiest way to get a high quality 3D print.

Resource https://i.materialise.com/blog/3d-model-databases/