Background

I’ve seen a lot of comments in various places about the difficulty of distributing 3D models for our DD hobby (and other, adjacent firearms parts). I'm personally very familiar with the process of reaching out to various creators to request their models (and many thanks to the people who have shared with me!)

I’ve been thinking about putting together a small site to host files specifically related to DDs (and gradually open it up to other firearms and related parts). A topic specific, friendly place for sharing these kinds of files.

I’m putting this discussion up on a couple of places to gauge if there’s any interest from the creators working in this space (3D modeling is not a strong suit of mine, but building a website is), and what features would interest creators and makers for a 3D object repository. I’m starting this in the DD arena, because of the renaissance of 3D objects for DDs, but I imagine if this is successful it will expand to other spaces as well.

Goals

* Host 3D models (STLs, STEPs, etc)
* Basic text area (in Markdown) for instructions
* Ability to combine multiple individual models into projects (e.g. these 3 parts to make a particular item)
* Ability to post photos as well, along with instructions
* Fast downloads
* Ability to version files, and get notified when a model you’ve starred is updated
* Basic stats and sorting (downloads over time, stars over time, newest, recently updated, etc)
* Basic tags (37mm, 40mm, 60mm, tools, tooling, etc)
* (future goal) Ability to share information about material / printer combos that worked with the part
* (future goal) Ability to to display a pre-render of the modeling
* (future goal) Ability to host FullControl and OpenSCAD models with the ability to customize the model before download

Non-Goals

* No discussion area, creators can post a link to the forum of their choice for discussions. I’ve no desire to build or moderate a discussion forum.
* No monetization. Hosting these files is minimal cost, and this is passion project for me. I might put up a donate link to help the site, but don’t plan to do so right away (unless the site gets big enough that I need some help to defray the cost).
* No ability to host videos, use a video platform for that and put a link

Proposed Site Rules

* No posting of other people’s files. Only original creations, if a creator doesn’t want to participate then respect that. I might consider a “public archive” account for hosting files whose creators have disappeared.
* No autosears / MG conversion parts. While I realize that this mere knowledge is not illegal, it strikes me that hosting MG conversions parts and sears is likely to cause lots of drama and bad attention. If the Hughes amendment is ever repealed one way or another, I will reverse this rule as soon as I’m done celebrating, but for now it just seems the prudent thing to do.
* Site restricted to US IP addresses only. I’m on the fence about this, but the US enjoys by far the broadest protections for these sorts of objects While everyone should have access to these files, I’m not really interested in getting involved in what’s legal to download in other countries.
* Remixes are allowed, but you are strongly encouraged to provide a link to the original object that you remixed.
* All uploads have to pick a Creative Commons license type (or other options as well, as the community desires). In general, a distinct decision needs to be made

What does the community think?

So before I put a bunch of work into this, I’m asking the community, particularly the creators in the community: do you think this is wanted or needed? Would you participate in such a site? What features would you like as creators? What features would you like as makers?

@grog

Id consider shifting this to an aggregator of projects or a news interface for this space
Hosting was solved a while ago on all of this and the last thing everyone needs is another standard.

It could just be a large collection in a single file, like the Fosscad Megapack.

I have some basic 3D design skills, and am starting to experiment with 37mm stuff. I've also designed a 26.5mm shell that launches regular smoke balls using a 209 primer. It would be nice to be able to share these designs if they actually work.