Who’d like to participate in 5 quick questions with me about 3D designing, 3D content with free and paid models? My name is Andrew and I am a Hub from Adelaide, Australia and I have just started a 3D printing content website (I won’t name it because I am not here to spam) and I would like your thoughts about this because we all have 3D printers and use them regularly and try to earn some money on the side to feed our habit!
Any response to any questions would be greatly appreciated even if it is just a short answer about one of the questions.
1.Do you print designs that are not your own? (eg from content providers)
2. Do you pay money for any designs? What do you think is reasonable to pay for one great design?
3. Do you upload your own models for others to print?
4. Do you expect or want to make money from this or do you just want to add to the community?
5. What do you think would be reasonable to earn if you uploaded your own design that you put many hours into?
Thanks for any responses guys!
Andrew
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MB3D
2
1. Yes, but I mostly design my prints, as they are custom replicas (at least currently)
2. No, unless I don’t want to take the effort of modeling, then I would consider buying 3d models
3. Yes, but not all. For example spool holders or handy workshop tools are uploaded, but modeling requests from 3d hubs aren’t
4. If possible I would love to make a living out of 3d printing, not only as a 3d printing serivce, but also building my own printer etc. (we’ll see what the future brings, but I wouldn’t say no)
5. Depending on the qualification of the designer and requests of the 3d model I’d say 5-15€ per invested hour. If the model isn’t made after a customers request it would be a bit less, because nobody was asking for it. Smaller models (like most small stuff from youmagine, thingiverse should be free)
Cheers,
Marius
2 Likes
Ok thanks heaps for the response Marius, very interesting and informative.
Cheers
Andrew
1. Yes but I model my own as well.
2. I do pay money but only if they have been proven to be printable on my kind of machine (like myminifactory).
3. Some of them but many are very specific items for specific use cases that many people would not need.
4. Started just for the community but have been making a bit of money on the side.
5. Really depends on the complexity, how easy it is top print and lots of other factors.
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Thanks very much for your responses georgeh1ll, great feedback, cheers.
Andrew
1. Yes, but I also create my own in various packages 2. No, but I haven’t needed to. I’m happy to pay for models that meet a need for me. 3. No, I haven’t done so yet. 4. Making some money from them would be good but community contribution is also important, particularly until I feel I have reached a standard that I would feel comfortabe to call ‘professional’. 5. It depends on the nature of the design, its scope and whether or not it was commissioned. Mike
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Hi Mike thanks heaps for the responses, very helpful. I just have a quick question if you don’t mind. You said you haven’t uploaded any models yet but you feel that community contribution is important, have you not uploaded any models because you don’t think they are at a ‘professional standard’ or you just haven’t gotten round to it/isn’t a high priority?
Cheers
Andrew
Hi Andrew, That’s easy - I haven’t yet modelled anything that is of any practical use to anybody! When I have done something I think is good enough or useful enough, I’ll upload it somewhere… Cheers, Mike
Sounds fair enough to me Mike, thanks for you contribution.
Cheers
Andrew
1. Mostly not my own, If i do my own , I usually start by modifying some existing model
2. I did not encounter a situation to pay for them yet. I think it’s reasonable to pay as long as it is unique and ready to be 3D printed
3.Very likely - yes 
4. Since I am very far from a professional designer This thought didn’t even cross my mind
5. Since the design is over there for ever I think the designers should earn quite a significant amount.
Sorry, I don’t really have a perception on how expensive the designs can be or how much you can earn with it, Nevertheless, keep in mind that i really don’t have almost any 3D modeling experience.
2 Likes
Thanks for the feedback Arnoldas, that’s ok I don’t really know how much people expect to earn or what they think they can earn for their designs either.
Cheers
Andrew
Nikki
12
Hey @domenus!
1: Yes and create my own (very basic ones)
2: Sometimes yes. What I pay depends on how much I want it. I did pay $13 for a lampshade design, but was then free to reuse it multiple times (which I have done) so design cost/print was low
3: Nope - they aren’t very good
4: Haven’t considered it
5: Not sure.
I do think it’s great to be able to show designers you value their work & by paying for designs. Equally it would be great to distribute that cost across many purchasers.
So if a designer would charge one $300 to do create a commissioned 3D printable design, then a way to approach this for a distributed cost model might look something like this:
A designer posts a locked design (let’s say lampshade cause I’m a fan of those right now) on a platform. Once 30 people have ‘paid $10’ for the design it is ‘unlocked’ and those 30 receive the design.
From then on anyone who want to buy that design can do so for $10 and receive it immediately.
If the predetermined threshold isn’t reached then everyone gets their money back sans design.
The benefits for the buyers are that they receive use of a super cool design AND designers are incentivized to create really cool designs cause they have the reassurance they will be fairly paid.
Designers may also be more inclined to throw in one ‘free to the community’ design every 6 months as thanks for support they receive. In turn more awesome designs are more regularly available & we’re supporting creators.
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Hey @Nikki thanks for the feedback, that’s a really interesting idea you have regarding the commissioned design and it seems it might solve the problem of designers not receiving ‘adequate’ or fair reward for their efforts. That was one of the major problems I think there is in the current 3D content platforms in that there is a risk that a designer has put in heaps of effort but gets little reward for their work in the end (especially if it is an awesome design). I have tried to solve the problem a different way but I like your idea.
Thanks for your comments
Andrew
Nikki
14
Anytime! Look forward to seeing what you set up to get more great designs onto our printers, while still acknowledging the work of great designers!
btw. So what is the website actually. You have made me curious! 
Hi Arnoldas, it is called www.trinpy.com, my idea was similar to Nikki’s in that I wanted to download great designs but they were too expensive to pay for one offs. So I thought if everyone paid a small amount to subscribe and get unlimited downloads then the percentage of revenue goes to the designers so the most popular designs could earn a lot of money continuously for their designs. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the idea because to be honest I don’t know if people will use it or think it is a good system for both downloaders and designers?
Cheers
Andrew
Hi Nikki, another user wanted to know about the website so I thought I’d just put it here for you because you seemed interested. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the concept because the idea you submitted seems a little similar.
Hi Arnoldas, it is called www.trinpy.com, my idea was similar to Nikki’s in that I wanted to download great designs but they were too expensive to pay for one offs. So I thought if everyone paid a small amount to subscribe and get unlimited downloads then the percentage of revenue goes to the designers so the most popular designs could earn a lot of money continuously for their designs. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the idea because to be honest I don’t know if people will use it or think it is a good system for both downloaders and designers?
Cheers
Andrew
1. I print more designs that are not my own than those I made.
2. No, but if the design is very thought out and useful to me I would pay for it.
3. Yes I have uploaded my models to thingiverse.
4. Both, I do want to make money selling things I make and designs that I put a lot of time into. I also enjoy adding to the community and will add free models that were not time consuming for me to make.
5. It depends on what the other designs are going for and what people are willing to pay. For a completely unique design I would charge a few dollars more because of less competition. For something like a phone case where there are many designs I would try to stay competitive.
P.S. I have not put any of my 3D models for sale yet so I don’t know concrete numbers, these are just my general plans for the future when I eventually do start selling them.
Hi @yolandamui, thanks very much for your feedback, it is very helpful. Just a quick question, which option do you think you would prefer for selling your models?
1. Sell them for a fixed price everytime someone downloads them (for example $1)
2. Sell them for a fixed price and it doesn’t matter how many downloads you get (for example $100)
Thanks heaps
Andrew
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1. Sometimes
2. Not yet , a reasonable price lies in the uniqueness of the design, reasonable is a price wher a part of the design hours and full print fee is calculated. price calculation depends on the quatity you’r expect to sell!
3.Yes
4. Of course to make money
5. The problem is the ownership of your design, i tackle this by printing it on demand with my own printer, so they will be owner of the product but not the designownweship!
