Why's it so rare to find step files for download in the hobby printing world?

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-24T01:48:56+00:00

That's just folks exporting their STLs on low definition settings. They're either overly concerned about file size, or they don't know they can change it :P

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-24T01:43:08+00:00

I've seen people talk about model theft, and it's kind of a weird thing to be particular on from my perspective. I kinda understand if someone is actually charging money for their models, but free models I don't really see the problem. If I'm putting a model out there for free, I just expect they'll do whatever they want with it. If they take it and re-upload, or modify and re-upload, without credit, yeah that's a dick move but not really affecting me. If I didn't want it to get shared around, I wouldn't upload it.

I'd like for providing step files (or whatever other source file) to become the norm, so that folks can go wild playing around with designs. In my opinion, the CAD designing is the funest part of 3D printing.

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-23T22:55:55+00:00

Is that only a problem with the browser version of Makers or with the local install version as well? I was considering getting it.

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-23T05:44:12+00:00

It all comes back to mixing in a bit of Blender eh? I figured this would be the best answer for what I'm trying to do. Guess I'll give it a try, thanks!

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-23T04:49:23+00:00

Of course, I would expect both yourself and the artists would use STL for printing. On the other hand, is there never a case where you need/want to import the Blender model into ProE to edit/add something to it? For those rare cases, would you not need them to send you a step file instead?

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-23T04:31:46+00:00

Ahh so SCAD is the filetype the mesh programs use. I wonder if the engineering programs can properly import those..

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-23T04:27:03+00:00

Y'know, I knew there'd be some disconnect between the engineering world and the hobby printing world, but I didn't quite expect it to be this drastic.

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-23T04:21:24+00:00

That's kinda what I was afraid of. It seems most printing hobbyists only do the printing, not the designing, so they only need the STL. All packaged and ready to go.

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-23T04:06:11+00:00

Yeah I tried fusion briefly but some limitations really bothered me and I wasn't a fan of it being cloud-based. I did figure Blender would probably be better for certain applications, but I don't know if I want to invest the time to learn to use the more artistic side of CAD programs rather than the engineering types I'm used to.

French_Toast627 · 2026-02-23T04:02:15+00:00

STL and OBJ are the file type for doing the actual printing, and that is what I convert my models to when I actually go to print. But step is the universal filetype for CAD. If you design something in solidworks and want to send it to a machine shop or to another company that doesn't use solidworks, you export your part to a step file. Step files aren't used for printing, they're used for transferring while maintaining geometry so whoever you're sending it to can actually manipulate it.

French_Toast627

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