How are your experiences with selling 3D printable designs/files?

3D Printing
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1

How are your experiences with selling 3D printable designs/files? Which of the platforms that offer selling your designs or even prints of designs are well frequented and do work well in selling?

I’d love to hear any input on this topic.

2

I’ve used makexyz and 3dhubs. I found both to be frustrating to the point that I don’t do either anymore. with makexyz, I had to do pricing myself, where 3dhubs would do all the math based on a submitted model for me, which was nice, although some people scammed it by hollowing out the model beforehand. Then the hollow model is in the system as a shape with fewer cubic cm of volume, and gets charged less, while the slicer does more perimeters for the internal cavities, costing me more filament than the same model as a complete solid would have with just external perimeters and 20% infill or whatever. With makexyz I could slice and price based on filament and time required. with both systems I had customers complain due to the striations on FDM parts. or customers who wanted things so small they require a resin printer, or customers who wanted me to design things that are physically impossible. the money wasn’t good enough for all the idiots I had to put up with. And of course the systems will report your earnings to the IRS if you earn over a certain amount. The money definitely wasn’t good enough to pay taxes on.

3

I just had an order the other day that I am now having to redo because the hole is too small people don’t realize that you need to size things up for fdm or else it won’t fit. It’s turning into a pain just for $30…

4

A printed part of my printer broke, meaning I was a bit stranded. I used 3dhubs to get a new part printed in a couple of days. I paid roughly $30 for a 4 hour print.

5

I use 3D Hubs all the time and usually pick someone near me to work with so that I can pick up the part. I have never had reason to complain. Even though I have my own printer farm, sometimes I would rather have someone else print something just because they might be able to get to it faster or sooner or have/offer materials I don’t have at the time. I also have a hub of my own. I’ve also used Shapeways whenever I wanted something sintered, but they are usually slower than 3D Hubs.

6

I think myminifactory has the ability to sell models.

7

Thanks for your feedback guys. My primary goal is to sell models indeed - maybe also printed but that’s not my main focus. I just wanted to know if you guys already did this and collected some experiences.