In fact, the model you want to print may already exist, just waiting for you to discover it.
I just bought a 3D printer, but I don’t know how to model. Finding a suitable model is often a headache. If you often spend a lot of time on various major platforms but still can’t find the ideal model, you might as well try the following three excellent 3D printing search engines: Yeggi, STLFinder and Thangs. They allow you to access models from multiple sources through a single platform, eliminating the hassle of switching between different websites and helping you quickly find the STL or 3MF files you need.
1. Yeggi, founded in 2013
Yeggi is the first search engine focused on 3D printing models, rather than a single model platform. It brings together models from many different platforms around the world, including Thingiverse, MyMiniFactory, Cults, Pinshape, MakerWorld, and more. So far, the platform has collected over 6 million printable 3D models, with over 3,000 new models added every day.
Users can search by entering model names or keywords, and choose to filter by paid or free. On the search results page, the source of each template is listed and whether it is free or paid. Users click on the template thumbnail to navigate to the respective website for downloading. The entire website layout is simple and the most searched, most clicked, recently indexed and popular templates are displayed by default.
Comments:As an old 3D printing model search engine, although Yeggi’s function is not particularly powerful, its advantage lies in its huge search library, which includes various models. In most cases, users can find the printing resources they need through Yeggi, which is a very convenient tool.
2. STLFinder, founded in 2015
STLFinder is also a must-have search engine, designed to help users quickly find 3D printing models in STL format. Similar to Yeggi, it provides users with a centralized search experience by integrating multiple model sharing websites (such as Thingiverse, MyMiniFactory, etc.). STLFinder’s interface is simple and beautiful. Although the number of models included is not as high as Yeggi’s, testing has shown that its search results are more accurate.
When searching using STLFinder, users can also filter by paid or free. However, in the default search results page, it does not indicate whether the template is paid or free. Additionally, once the user clicks on the template, they cannot go directly to the original page where the template is located. Instead, it will first navigate to the template details page of STLFinder itself. The user must click again to access the original. model download link.
Comments:Before discovering STLFinder, I often used Yeggi. However, after comparison, it is obvious that STLFinder’s search results are more accurate strictly speaking, they have been improved to a crucial level for users. No one wants to look for a needle in a haystack of search results, which not only wastes time, but also loses patience.
3. Thangs was created in 2019
Thangs is so relatively new that we didn’t discover its existence until later. If Yeggi and STLFinder’s search functions are version 1.0, then Thangs can be considered version 2.0 which is way ahead. In addition to keyword searching, users can also directly upload images for searching. After testing, it was found that the accuracy is very high.
Thangs also provides a more comprehensive filtering function for search results. Users can filter based on the template’s upload time, printability, website source, and format. Additionally, the sorting feature is also very flexible, users can choose to sort search results by relevance, latest version, most downloads or most likes.
Comments:Strictly speaking, Thangs is not just a search engine, because it not only brings together a large number of models, but also has a unique business model and a complete ecosystem. To be specific, users can search, download and upload templates here. At the same time, Thangs has strong community functions, attracting a large number of designers to sell models on the platform and earn money through individual sales and membership models.
In general, the three 3D printing search engines Yeggi, STLFinder and Thangs have their own characteristics and help users quickly find the 3D models they need in different ways. If you want us to recommend the best choice, STLFinder is undoubtedly the best in terms of search accuracy in terms of the number of search results, Yeggi usually has the most and if you want to search by image, or download directly without skipping; Moving to other platforms, Thangs is currently the only option.
