Printables won. I will upload my files and link them here. ~~I shouldn't create another post since nobody likes spam.~~ (sigh... What am I doing with my life?)
I'll leave the original body here. Thanks for your help. /-- Hello.
I have a handfull of 3D parts designed when I was in high school. These range from a custom computer anchor K-Lock (Shown here) to a plant monitor.
Unfortunetly, I graduated and don't have a 3D printer anymore, as I use and test on my old school's printer.
Fortunetly, I still have all of my work and I want to share it in a way that anyone can use, under a CC-BY-SA license.
What is a good way to share my work? Github, Drive, Gitlab, here?
I still like 3D printing, so I plan on getting one soon (albeit, it will take years..).
Thanks!
I personally think that the simplest solution would be to put the STEP files (don't share STLs, as converting to them is lossy) in a git repo (You could, of course, also format the repo with pictures, a descriptive README, etc.). You would then have a myriad of ways to host that repo i.e. Gitea/Forgejo, Gtihub, Gitlab, etc.
As a side note, it is also very helpful if you include the CAD project files. For example, you could add a FreeCAD project file to the same repo; however, if you do share the project files, do note that it's also very helpful to include the CAD software's version information for future compatibilty reasons.
I'll include the software (FreeCAD 0.20.2) for compatibility.
Although, my files work fine on 0.21, I'll add that just in case.
Sorry. What is the diffrence between STEP and STL? I thought STL was preffered.
Since you're using FreeCAD I'll assume you're interested in Free Software. If so, Liberapay and OpenCollective could be alright alternatives to Patreon. They take a lower platform cut of your donations, but they don't offer 'tiers' and automatic awards for donors.
Lots of people post STLs because you can feed them directly to the slicer for printing. But it only represents the surface mesh of an object, and only as polygons. A STEP file basically captures how the part is designed in CAD, so it's much better if you need to modify the part. It also gives you the original form of things like curves, where the STL would be quantized into a fixed number of polygons.
I'll go with STEP.
Thanks.
Sure. You can always include both as well. Folks who don't have CAD software may not be able to use the STEP files.
Ok
I'm not an expert but I looked it up. STL is just a simple mesh for the exterior surface of a CAD model. While STEP saves the entire geometry in its pure form, so you can edit it later. STL is fine for printing but you want to make the actual models available too in case someone wants to edit them.
It's like the difference between a PDF and a Microsoft Word document.
Alright, STEP it is.