Printhive

A self-hosted web app for organizing your 3D-printing files (STL, 3MF, OBJ, STEP, GCODE, ZIP) into a searchable library — with in-browser 3D previews, collections, license/commercial-use tracking, and one-paste import from popular model sites.

Features

• Library of models, each owning one or more files; tags, collections, descriptions, print settings.
• Import from URL:
  • Thingiverse — downloads files automatically via the official API (needs a free app token).
  • Printables — downloads files automatically via its public GraphQL API (no auth needed for free models).
  • MakerWorld — downloads files via FlareSolverr (solves Cloudflare) + your account token.
  • cubee3d (Hive) and any other URL — imports title/description/preview image; you add the files manually.
• In-browser 3D viewer (Three.js) for STL/OBJ, and for 3MF via a server-side trimesh GLB conversion (handles Bambu/MakerWorld production-extension files the JS loader can't).
• Auto thumbnails rendered from the model; embedded 3MF thumbnails used when present.
• License & commercial-use tracking — captured per source, with a "sellable / non-commercial" indicator (a guide; verify before selling).
• Collections — group models (a model can be in many); rename/delete without losing models.
• Editing — rename/retag, edit print settings, override commercial-use, refresh metadata from source, re-download files, download all files as a zip.
• Notes — free-form notes per model, saved as you type.
• Search, filters & sorting — search across names, descriptions, notes, tags, file names and designers; filter by format, source and license; include or exclude tags (match any/all); sort and group by source or format. Press / to search.
• Duplicate finder — every file gets a SHA-256 content hash plus (for STL/OBJ/3MF) a geometry fingerprint, computed in the background. Models sharing files are grouped as exact copies or same shape (renamed, re-exported, converted — or mirrored, so check those), with a recommended copy to keep. Keeping one merges the others' tags, collections and notes into it and moves them to the trash; groups can be dismissed as "not duplicates".
• Trash — deleting moves a model to the trash; restore it, delete it forever, or empty the trash (only then are files removed from disk).
• Settings — API tokens / FlareSolverr URL stored in the database (with .env fallback), secrets masked.

Tech stack

• Node.js + Express, vanilla-JS frontend (no build step), PostgreSQL.
• Three.js (viewer) via CDN import map.
• Python + trimesh sidecar for 3MF→GLB conversion, volume, and geometry fingerprints.
• Optional FlareSolverr for Cloudflare-protected sources.

Setup

1. Postgres — create a database and point DATABASE_URL at it. The schema is applied automatically on startup.
2. Python sidecar (for 3MF previews/volume and shape-based duplicate detection — without it, duplicates are still found by content hash):

   python3 -m venv tools/venv
   tools/venv/bin/pip install trimesh numpy networkx lxml
   

3. Install deps and run:

   npm install
   cp .env.example .env   # set DATABASE_URL (+ optional tokens)
   npm start
   

4. Open http://localhost:3000

Run the unit tests with npm test.

Configuration

Settings live in the database (editable in the app's Settings menu) and fall back to environment variables:

Setting	Env var	Purpose
Thingiverse API token	THINGIVERSE_TOKEN	Thingiverse auto-download
FlareSolverr URL	FLARESOLVERR_URL	Read Cloudflare-protected sites (MakerWorld)
MakerWorld auth token	MAKERWORLD_TOKEN	MakerWorld downloads (bearer token from your session)
Printables auth token	PRINTABLES_TOKEN	Optional; account-gated Printables files

Notes

• Auto-download from MakerWorld/Printables relies on their private/session APIs and can break if they change; failed/partial imports can be recovered with "Download files from source".
• The commercial-use badge is a best-effort read of the license — always confirm on the source page before selling.