Top Free AI Model Generators Tested for 3D Printing

Looking over a range of the AI tools currently available to use for free that can be used to generate 3D models for 3D printing.
THE AI TOOLS
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- ChatGPT: chat.openai.com
- Claude: claude.ai
- CoPilot: copilot.microsoft.com
- OpenSCAD: openscad.org
- Meshy: www.meshy.ai
- Tripo: www.tripo3d.ai/app
- LumaLabs: lumalabs.ai
- MakerLab AI Scanner: makerworld.com/en/makerlab/ai...
- InstantMesh: huggingface.co/spaces/Tencent...
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CHAPTERS
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0:00 - Intro
1:15 - LLMs & OpenSCAD
7:23 - Meshy
13:50 - Tripo
16:35 - LumaLabs
19:50 - MakerLab AI Scanner
20:48 - InstantMesh
24:22 - Summary

[@dondec]

What an Eye Opener!! I have basically designed everything I've printed using a 3D modeler... not a CAD system, simply because I know the modeling software well, and I find "fiddling with the design" far easier. For someone like myself, having AI design things I can't or find difficult, would be a huge help. Thinks like screw threads of different dimensions. Hinges for a desktop box. Interlocking parts & buckles. While we're at it, can it help with tolerance evaluation... ie, create a test print that measures screw thread print tolerances (both screw and screw hole) for my printer (a test setup). I like what' you're doing. Subscribed.

[@FilamentStories]

I loved the entire video! How you presented each different tool had me sitting on the edge of my seat, both hoping for an elegant success or a total disaster. So well organized, presented and edited. Looking forward to your next video on this rapidly developing topic! -Courtney

[@3DRevolution]

Hey Coutney, thanks very much. Really glad you enjoyed it, always nice to hear from a fellow creator! Get in touch if you're ever interested in telling a Filament Story together, Happy Printing!

[@Fastlan3]

I would definitely be interested in follow up videos with the newer models. This would a be a serious space of innovation as the LLM's are more properly trained on such to perform better.

[@rj7855]

With llm's you should have used follow up prompts, for example "the elements are there but not in the correct position" or "the script generates an error because there is no cone object"

[@3DRevolution]

Yeah I actually spent a couple of days trying this with several LLMs and was absolutely trying feedback questions to iteratively improve the code. However, I found this had very little impact on the positioning and orientation of the models. So little in fact it wasn't even worth showing in the video when I did the final test between each of the LLMs.

[@bwzimm4972]

Thank you for all your experimentation and explanations - what an exciting time to be involved with 3D Printing, scanning and AI assistance. Keep up the great work!

[@3DRevolution]

Thanks very much! Yes it's definitely an exciting time with the rate of development and innovation in this field!

[@andrewlongfellow8745]

Awesome dude! Thank you so much for this. Instant mesh is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

[@3DRevolution]

You're most welcome. This space is going to be evolving so much, looking forward to seeing what's next.

[@AppaTalks]

Thank you for sharing, quite impressive!

[@xx0124xx]

interesting! Can’t wait to see how it improves!

[@remcoder6]

Very well done overview of what's currently possible with AI & 3D printing! This is gold!

[@3DRevolution]

Thanks very much, glad you liked it! There's definitely some exciting stuff on the horrizon!

[@jtjames79]

​@@3DRevolution Almost everything you said has been made obsolete over the last 2 days. Someone figured out a new prompting technique to give LLMs spatial awareness. And someone else figured out a way to use knowledge graphs to give LLMs much more intuition, and vastly more robust prompt interpretation.

[@beej5]

@@jtjames79based on this information you’re sharing, what is the best tool for generating an stl using AI?

[@juri5483]

@@jtjames79 Hey, can you explain a little further what has changed or whats the best to use/watch for now?

[@JeremyJanzen]

Video was interesting, production good too. I learnt about some new tools I plan to play with. Thanks and keep it up!

[@3DRevolution]

Glad you liked it and hope it leads to some fun projects. As always, plenty more to come! Thanks, and happy printing!

[@oljobo]

Thank You for a GREAT overview 👍😃. It saved me from doing hours of research.

[@3DRevolution]

Really glad it helped :)

[@pb5216]

Well done! Thank you for making this video. It was a huge time saver for me.

[@3DRevolution]

Really glad to hear it. Thanks for commenting!

[@yolo6741]

This is a great overview of the actual state of AI generated 3D modeling. Thank you for this video.

[@3DRevolution]

You're really welcome, thanks, and happy printing!

[@BrainSlugs83]

I've found that with ChatGPT you can usually tell it what it's done wrong, and it will correct the issue. Rarely is one single prompt enough for a working solution. For a new shape like a chair, you will want to start a new conversation, so that the context doesn't confuse it. Also copilot is the same backend as chatgpt, it's just a little bit worse. So I wouldn't expect much from there.

[@3DRevolution]

Oh absolutely, you often need to go back and feedback. I actually spent around 2 days trying to make it work by doing that on each of these, but the issues were never corrected. Because the results after multiple rounds of back and forth were pretty much identical to the results from the first prompt, I didn't think it was worth including them in the video, but in hindsight, perhaps I should have mentioned that I had given them that opportunity. As for the new shape, I do get what you mean, and I know that with the example I included of ChatGPT I did request the chair code in the same conversation as the rocket, but I didn't with the other to LLM's, and as I'd mentioned before, through my extensive tests with these, regardless of new conversations or not, it didn't really improve this. You are correct, Microsoft CoPilot does run a ChatGPT model, but as you say, it's Microsoft's own flavour of it. I was originally going to use Gemini as the third candidate here but in my preliminary tests (of which there were many), it refused to even once give me a code that OpenSCAD would even run with errors, it just refused to run it all together.

[@kurtv9375]

OMG A channel that i need i needed so bad to learn everything OMG unreal

[@OmniSoundAI]

I've used Luma for making models in a game but always wondered how good they would work for 3d printing might have to try it out.

[@3DRevolution]

Definitely let us know how you find printing some of your Luma generated models. This field is always developing, and with the nature of AI, people often get wildly different experiences so great to get a broader range of how people find it.

[@babbagebrassworks4278]

Been trying this too, Apps that understand "real world" STL output like OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, Blender are going to be very interesting once AI get integrated properly. I suspect the AI/LLMs are going to be more specialized and perhaps simpler than current LMMs that try to do everything. Makehuman understands the kinematics of body shapes, the AI only needs to modify the variables that are used by Makehuman to deign the body and pose. The Makehuman plugin to Blender does the same. AI with OpenSCAD for robot design will be interesting, I use it for model trains, wheels, motors and gears but robots also use motors n gears....

[@3DRevolution]

When it gets to the point you can prompt an AI to design a 3D printable fully functional mechanical design, that'll be truly game changing!

[@babbagebrassworks4278]

@@3DRevolution Breaking Taps did vid on emulated biology joints for tiny robots. Add some AI procedural geodesic bones and humanoid bots are much stronger and lighter. Most bots today are over engineered subtractive machined and ugly.

[@googleyoutubechannel8554]

someday researchers will be forced to tackle the much much harder and more interesting problem of producing usable meshes...

[@klave8511]

Thanks for this review of AI 3d model generation, I imagine some designers that sell models are becoming worried. Does the phone fit the stand whilst charging? The space for the charging cable looks a bit small.

[@3DRevolution]

Glad you liked it! I feel we are still a long way off being able to get exactly what you're picturing in your mind using AI. Whilst as I show in this video, you can get it to produce something that loosely fits what you're after, if you had a very specific design in mind, I feel we're still a while off it matching that. Especially taking into account dimesional accuracy etc. And that's not to mention multi-part designs that fit together or have mechanical functionality. But with all these things the rate the technolohy evolves is accelerating. Compare an image from Dalle2, to a MidJourney picture from 9 months later, or an AI video of Will Smith eathing Spaghtetti to anything by Sora, and it's night and day. I'd imagine we'll see the same rate of development here and soon we'll start seeing some real breakthroughs. As for the phone stand, that's a good question and not something I'd thought about. I have a few wireless charginig stands dotted around so usually don't charge using a cable. However, I just went and checked and yes, it actually fits and works fine. Obviously that may vary a bit depending on your phone and the cable but it worked fine for me. It was right on the edge though, if the rigid part of the cable had been any longer or thicker than I don't think it would have fitted, but yes, certainly can work! Were you interested in the phone stand? If people like the look of it and would actually like it I can possibly pop it on MakerWorld and Printables?

[@bumperxx1]

I am new here.... how did you 3d print the colors? Did you change the pla ffilament

[@Spessforce]

The exponential growth of AI is cool to watch. In 18 months it is going to be an awesome usable tool for 3D printing. Imagine describing the parameters for a bracket or repair part in plaintext and the AI spitting out a usable printable file.

[@3DRevolution]

And 12 months later we'll all have chips implanted in our brain meaning we need but think of something and it'll be printed for us, haha

[@JimmyJohnson-ub4rt]

Can you go over tools to modify existing models? like if i have a model that was created from an existing part but has defects on surface that was carried over from damage that was on the model part. Thanks

[@3DRevolution]

Hey Jimmy, just so I understand you, do you mean how to modify models you've generated by scanning (like I did with the horses head here). So you could scan something that's damaged, repair it on the computer, then print a new one?

[@frozenwalkway]

intro monologue is top tier today lmao

[@3DRevolution]

Haha, I did get a bit carried away with this one.

[@DaveEtchells]

I’d been thinking about trying OpenSCAD, so this was disappointing :-/ I wonder how it would do if you gave it a complex model already created and just asked it to set the appropriate variables? (There’s a crazy-robust box generator I’ve need thinking about using to build a power supply box with a bunch of switches jack outlets, studs for mounting the PS itself, etc. It has so many variables, I’m wondering if CharGPT could make it simpler for me to just tell it what I want and then get all the right variables set.)

[@3DRevolution]

Don't let this video desuade you from trying OpenSCAD. OpenSCAD itself is fantastic for producing parametric models. This just shows that currently AI's aren't great at writing code for OpenSCAD so you'd still need to write it yourself. Which box generator have you been looking at? There's some great ones out there.

[@DaveEtchells]

@@3DRevolution I forget which one it was offhand, as I’ve been sidetracked by work stuff the last couple of months. It was just insanely complete though, with many, many options for just about anything you could possibly think of to do to a box 😂 I know OpenSCAD isn’t inherently very difficult, it’s just that my bandwidth fir learning new tools related to 3D printing these days is almost non-existent :-/

[@swamihuman9395]

- "Interesting". Thx for sharing. - A long way to go, still - but it's a start...

[@3DRevolution]

You're very welcome. Yes definitely I'd say this is roughly the 3D equivalent of DallE2, so when we start getting the 3D equivalent of MidJourney in 9-12 months, it'll be pretty game changing!

[@wolkaiserdrake9946]

instantmesh seams to have the most potential, I wish it was a bit betting at using drawing instead of photos for generating model bases

[@3DRevolution]

In time I'm sure we'll see this sort of thing improved

[@michaelthompson8251]

request. a tutorial on adding openscad to ollama. a tutorial on using topological optimization

[@K_Shea]

LOL knew you'd be all over AI

[@3DRevolution]

Haha, just as AI is all over literally everything these days.

[@bransonlariscy4660]

You should have chat GPT write a prompt for Tripo to see if it can get more detail based on the more detailed prompt that GPT could give

[@3DRevolution]

A nice idea actually, perhapse something I'll try in a future video. Good suggestion.

[@ZappyOh]

I would like an AI that clean messy meshes to perfection ... Retopography. Instead we get AIs, that generate monumental garbage meshes, and calls it a day :(

[@billytalentrocks345]

I tried this last december with gpt3 and it always failed. I tried to create a ring with a pair of lips on it 💍💋 . It never got it right after many tries. The ring was often oriented wrong. The lips never looked like lips, only a cylinder or some freak shape.

[@Voidroamer]

claude is terrifying!

[@3DRevolution]

More terrifying than a horse in a gas mask?

[@Voidroamer]

@@3DRevolutionyes!

[@Spancs]

3D Ai Studio is THE BEST for 3D Printing, have you tried that?

[@3DRevolution]

I absolutely have. There were several other tools I tried out in prep for this video but I gound the results from 3D AI Studio tended to be similar to ones I was covering already here so didn't feel it was adding anything new to the video. But yeah, it's definitely worth a play with, I enjoyed it.

[@Spancs]

@@3DRevolution Agreed, simelar to tripo etc. But they have Realtime Texture Generation, Upscale Texture, etc. I like that with that

[@3DRevolution]

@@Spancs That's true, but as texture isn't currently too useful for 3D printing that wasn't something I was factoring in. But it is definitely a cool feature.

[@Spancs]

@@3DRevolution True that! Excited to see how the space evolves. i think in the future we will be able to generate 3d models of whatever we can imagine in production quality, exciting times

[@mikepedersen2420]

How does one start investing in these AI models?

[@3DRevolution]

Well you start by putting a gas mask on a horse...

[@EssGeeSee]

“Let’s import it” into what?

[@3DRevolution]

By that I was referring into a slicer, which is software used to prepare a 3D model for 3D printing, effectively you feed in a 3d mkfel, the specifications of the machine you'll be printing with, and your desired print settings, and a slicer crates a file which is just a list of machine commands for the printer to follow. In this video I used both PrusaSlicer and Bambu Studio (two of the most popular slicers).

[@c9k]

I'm a fan of how you put this content together, but I can't fathom why you think running against 3.5 would result in content that provides any benefit for anyone. I am sure you are aware of the utter night and day different in reasoning between the two. Hopefully you are also aware that even GPT-4o does barely any better at reasoning within a 3D parametric space. That video would have at least been useful and insightful.

[@ogknowbody]

Moms Spagetti?

[@3DRevolution]

Knees weak, arms are heavy

[@3D_Printing]

But we need to see AI junk

[@3DRevolution]

I do appologise, did I not include enough AI junk here? I can always deliver more!

[@alex.elgringo]

Keep your spaghetti out of Will Smiths mouth!@!

[@tomsamaey1972]

Disappointing .I will wait till it makes more sense.

[@3DRevolution]

The AI generation is quite hit or miss. Absolutely not giving you an end-game product yet, but considering what it's doing, it's still pretty remarkable. Going from having nothing in the world like this, to being able to just write down a sentence of text and have a 3D model created for you, that is pretty game changing. Iterative steps, we'll get there eventually.

[@Kheossun]

ai for a phone stand??? cummon!!!!! it like using a hammer to open a peanut! use tools the right way plzzzzzz

[@3DRevolution]

Sorry I'm a little unsure what you mean. Are you saying you think a phone stand is too much of a precision item for something as bruit-force as AI?

[@TheOrijinalPajeet]

garbage.

[@3DRevolution]

One man's trash...

[@TheOrijinalPajeet]

@@3DRevolution is still trash.