Websites for 3D Models

SketchFab

About

SketchFab is a website for selling and sharing 3D models, with more than 5 million total models on the site. There is an incredible variety of professional-level user-made models as well as models offered by the store. However, not all the models are free or downloadable due to licensing conflicts.

Usage

At the top of the SketchFab feed is a search bar, where you can search for specific titles or keywords. Once you enter what you are looking for, the website will take you to the search screen.

At the right edge of the screen is a button for "Filters & Sort".

Pressing on this button will open up more options to filter your search results. To start with, unless you are a paying customer of SketchFab, click the "Downloadable" option in the filtering bar. This will restrict your searches to models with licenses that allow you to use them.

The results will be divided into two sections: "Store Models" and community models below them. The Store models are all paid. If you scroll to the community models, you will see small icons in the top righthand corners of each model's item box.

A dollar icon means that the model must be bought through SketchFab's store, but a download icon means that the model can be downloaded free of charge. If we open the model on the left, we get:

We just need to click the blue, highlighted "Download 3D Model" to get a ZIP file with the components of the model inside.

Free3D

About

Similar to SketchFab, Free3D is a marketplace for 3D models, including both paid commercial models and free models. While you can make an account, you don't need to download the free, community-made models.

Usage

At the top left of the screen is a text button, "Free 3D Models," that will take you to the marketplace for models. Note that, despite the title, not all of the models are free, though you can see the price tags in the item boxes before clicking on them.

Free3D offers more filters than SketchFab over the kinds of models to search for, including Blender, FBX, and OBJ files. For more information on the different file types, read this Wiki's breakdown.

Clicking on an object will take you to the object's page, where you can either purchase or download the item.