marketplace and 3D print service, full of the world's best 3D designers.
Easily explore, buy or sell 3D printable designs.
Who are our, Pinshape, Designers?
Our designers are: hobbyists – looking
for ways to make some extra money (36%),
Full-Time Designers (44%),
Part-Time Designers (14%),
Hobbyists – who are in it for the fun of
it (5%).
They are 81% male and 19% female. The
largest age group (60%) of designers is between the ages of 23 and 34,
17% between 35 and 40, 12% between 41 and 51, 8% between 17 and 22 and
4% between 52 and 60.
The top 8 countries for 3D designers
are: 1. The United States (35%), 2. India (13%), 3. Netherlands (7%), 4.
Spain (6%), 5. Italy (5%), 6. Chile (5%), 7. Sweden (3%), 8. Romania
(3%).
What’s their background?
62% of Pinshape designers were
self-taught while 38% are a graduate of a 3D program. They have
backgrounds in: 3D Modeling (60%), 3D Sculpting (40%), Gaming (26%),
Industrial Design (26%), Engineering (22%) and Toy Design (13%).
They range from having less than a year
to over 10 years of experience in 3D Design and 3D printing, with over
half of the designers (62%) having 2 or fewer years of experience in 3D
printing only. A fourth of the designers have 10+ years of general,
3D-design experience.
What do they use to design?
Their favorite tools are: 3D Max (17%),
Maya (16%), ZBrush (14%), Rhino (12%), Solidworks (12%), Blender (9%),
Netfabb (5%), Meshlab (3%), Modo (3%) and Maya (3%).
A little over ¾ of designers (78%) use Windows and while the remaining ¼ (22%) use a Mac as their operating system.
51% find themselves pulling out a
tablet to design while the other 49% are just fine without one. In fact,
18% don’t plan on buying a 3D print any time soon.
So, how many designers use an actual 3D printer during their design process?
Our survey shows, only 32% actually
print their designs while the other 68% do not. Of those that did print
their designs, they use sites like Pinshape, Shapeways, Sculpteo, 3D
Hubs and Materialize. 25% of designers who plan to print just haven’t
gotten around to it yet.
The top 5 most owned 3D printers in our
design community are: 1. Form 1, 2. MakerBot Replicator 2, 3.
Ultimaker, 4. Leapfron Creatr and 5. MaekrBot Replicator 1.
