Sometimes we won’t have the STL link when people share a post, but the print is so good, and we want it badly. The author may not tell you or they just hide the link for some purpose, so you need some tricks and tools to find out the link.
Next, I will show you some tips that helps, and an example of how I find the Spiderman Mask.
Tip 1 Check the Description
It is a basic rule to share the author’s information, usually using the format of “credit to xxx”, “@xxx”, or “by xxx”. At KINGROON, we usually use the last format then put the original link under it, so that viewers can find it easier. You can find the information in the description.
But some people prefer to keep everything in their bio. If you see anything like “links in the bio”, just go check their bio.
Tip 2 Check the Comments
If you don’t see anything in the description, go check the comments. Someone else might have already asked the same questions. If the poster or other viewers have replied to it, you can try find the STL by the information they provided.
Tip 3 Check across videos
Then you can check other posts by the same poster, searching for the same prints, and do tip 2 again. If no results, then search the same keywords to find the similar posts. When the post been found, just do another round.
Tip 4 Search by photos
Searching by photos is also a good way to find something you want. In this case, you can download the photos or take some screenshots for the post, then use them to search for the STL.
There 3 sites I use mostly, Makerworld, Thangs, and Google. For Bambu Lab users, you can even take photos of the real objects via Bambu Handy to search, uploading an image to search is also OK. It is connected to the makerworld site with your account.
If the STL is from MakerWorld, the correct result should be found.
If not, the Thangs also support searching by photo, just do another search and matching.
Finally, it comes to Google. It will show you everything similar and related. Sometimes you can find the correct result in just a few pages.
Tips 5 Search by Keywords
Keyword searching is a very basic way we find things.
1 Search the title in Google, and check among the results.
2 Search the keywords mentioned in the following sites:
a https://makerworld.com/en
b https://thangs.com/
c https://www.printables.com/
d https://cults3d.com/en
e https://www.thingiverse.com/
f https://www.myminifactory.com/
e https://www.patreon.com/home
In this step, you might need to search with synonyms and some keywords that you found in the above tips.
Tip 6 Search by AI
According to my own experiences, the AI is still not very helpful in finding 3D prints. But it can help to accelerate the process on search and matching. We used to do the data processing manually, it takes hours and even days, but AI takes only a few seconds.
Just provide all the information you have to AI, and it will help you to find at least the nearest results.
Tip 7 Comment or PM the Poster
Since the poster doesn’t leave any information at first, this way is highly likely to be another dead end. But you might get lucky, he just forgets adding it.
Tip 8 Posting for help
When things come to this stage, you must be quite upset, the poster must be hiding it on purpose. You can still try posting on Facebook or Reddit to find the STL. Someone in the community may know it.
But I must remind you, the above tips are not a fixed sequence, make changes according to the information will help you find the wanted information faster. As for me, searching for an STL that other people are hiding is like a game or solve a case.
The Spiderman Helmet
So, it is a recent case. I realized that I want to print a beautiful Spiderman Mask on my Snapmaker U1. I saw that mask on YouTube Shorts.
I thought it must be a Makerworld thing, but unfortunately, it is not. And there is nothing about this model I can find in the Channel, no link in the description, no link in the comments, no links in the bio, no links in his Snapmaker U1 review.
After that, I go search for “Spiderman Mask” in all the daily websites that I use to look for 3D models:
https://www.thingiverse.com/
https://www.myminifactory.com/
https://cults3d.com/en
https://thangs.com/
https://www.printables.com/
But there are no results, either. So, I sent the video link to the Grok AI, told it to find the model link. It does give some suggestions, but none of them are correct. Most of them are similar models, but it did remind me that this model may belong to some Patreon projects.
By searching “Spiderman Helmet”, the correct answer did appear with the render photos, but I skipped it because I need the identical results. So, I search for “The Next Layer” instead and see if the poster also posts in Patreon.
Luckily, I got a match and found one more photo, he wears the finished Spiderman Helmet. So, another round of image searching.
Then I found “WildWolf_3D” has the same helmet in his model. But he did not release it or leave any information about this helmet.
Then I noticed that he shows 3 channels in his bio, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. When I click to his Instagram, I found the match.
Thanks to God, he leaves STL information for every post. So, I finally got the answer.
So, I purchased the file, printed it out with my H2C(Base) and Snapmaker U1(Helmet).