Plain files on your disk

Thingport stores models as ordinary files in its storage folder, not locked inside a database. Back them up with any tool you already use, and browse them like any other folder.

Choose the folder layout

Under Administration → Storage, admins build the folder structure from blocks:

Category or folder, with parent ones as parent folders
Collection
Tags
Creator
Model name and model ID
File name, optionally with the plate number first
A folder with a fixed name of your own, such as Library

Every user’s files sit in a folder of their own first, so a file ends up at, for example, <user>/Props/Workshop/Cable clip/Cable clip.3mf. The layout can also be typed as text, such as {category-or-folder}/{model}/{filename}.

Everything else that belongs to a model sits beside its files: supporting files and prepared prints next to the model files, and its pictures (gallery and description images, thumbnails and renders) in an Images folder next to them:

<user>/Props/Workshop/Cable clip/
  Cable clip.3mf
  Assembly.pdf
  Images/
    <image>.jpg
    Description/
    Thumbnails/
    Renders/

With a layout that keeps several models in one folder, such as {category-or-folder}/{model} - {filename}, the pictures folder takes the model’s name too: Cable clip - Images. Installations from before this layout have their pictures and supporting files moved in beside the model files in the background the first time they start.

Change the layout later and existing files are moved to match in the background, with progress shown as they go. Renaming a model renames its files too, so the folders stay readable. Browse files shows where each model’s files are now.

How much space it takes

Administration → Overview shows the disk space Thingport uses, split into model files, pictures and previews, and other generated files. System Health warns when the storage folder runs low on space or can’t be written to.

The storage folder is the thingport_storage volume, mounted at /app/storage in the backend container.