CGTrader

A marketplace of over three million 3D models at cgtrader.com, founded in Vilnius in 2011: game and film assets, renders, and a large 3D printing catalogue, sold by their designers and many of them free. Its model pages are anyone’s to read; its files, free ones included, go only to a signed-in user, and your liked models and wishlist are yours alone to see.

At a glance
Sign-in	Your own CGTrader sign-in, per user, for the files, your likes and your wishlist
Thingport Grab	Recommended — it sends your sign-in as you visit cgtrader.com, with your browser’s token for its bot check
FlareSolverr	Recommended — it gets Thingport a token for the bot check of its own
Imports	Models, free or bought; your liked models and wishlist, synced too; categories

How it works

CGTrader has no public API, so Thingport reads what its own pages read: the JSON its listings answer with, the data a model’s page hands its components, and the small script a model’s page loads to learn who’s looking at it.

Models. Paste a model link (https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-print-models/<category>/<subcategory>/<name>, or the same under /3d-models/, /free-3d-print-models/ or /free-3d-models/) in Thingport, or import it from the model page with Grab. A model is kept by the name its links end in. Its page carries the description, the tags, the whole gallery, the designer and the details that matter for printing — whether it’s print-ready, its parts, units and formats — and its licence: Royalty Free, Editorial or a custom one, with or without AI use. Models imported before Thingport kept licences list it in their description, which is where it’s read from.
Files. CGTrader lists a model’s files one by one, often the same mesh in several formats. Thingport takes the ones a plate takes (STL, 3MF, STEP) and the zips that may hold some, skipping zips named for a format nothing prints from (a Blender scene, textures). OBJs come only when nothing else brought a model, as a CG model’s OBJ can run to gigabytes. A model whose files are only in .rar or .7z archives can’t be imported.
Free models. They still need your sign-in. Each import counts as a download on CGTrader, as it would if you pressed Download yourself, and CGTrader limits free downloads: past the limit an import says when it resets.
Paid models. Thingport imports one you have already bought. One you haven’t is refused before anything is downloaded, and Grab’s panel says so on its page. Thingport never buys anything.
Likes and wishlist. Your liked models and your wishlist are CGTrader’s lists, and only you can see them, so Thingport reads them with your sign-in. Import them in one go, or sync them so new ones follow.
Categories. A model’s address names its category and subcategory (jewelry/ring), which is what Thingport maps, from both CGTrader’s 3D printing catalogue and its CG one.
Trending. The dashboard’s trending panel shows CGTrader’s trending 3D print models.
Browse tab. With your sign-in, the sync dialog lists your liked models and your wishlist.

The bot check

AWS’s bot check (its WAF) stands in front of CGTrader’s downloads and of the pages of its CG catalogue (/3d-models/…). A browser passes it by running a short challenge, which leaves a token in its aws-waf-token cookie; Thingport sends such a token with its requests. It isn’t tied to the browser or the address that got it, so there are two ways to get one, and either is enough:

Thingport Grab sends your browser’s along with your sign-in. Your browser gets one the first time it downloads something on CGTrader, or opens a page of its CG catalogue.
FlareSolverr gets Thingport one of its own whenever the last one is turned down, by running the challenge in its browser. Set it up in Administration → Connections.

A token lasts a good while, but the check asks for a fresh one when it has been asked for a lot in a short time — a large list import, say. FlareSolverr answers that by itself; with Grab alone, such an import stops until your browser has a new token.

Per-user (Configuration → Providers → CGTrader). CGTrader signs you in with its _cgtrader_session_id cookie, which lasts two weeks from its last use; Thingport’s own use renews it.

Easiest: Thingport Grab

With Thingport Grab allowed on CGTrader, opening cgtrader.com while you’re signed in connects your account, and sends a new sign-in, or a new bot-check token, whenever either changes.

Manual: copy it from your browser

Sign in at cgtrader.com.
Open DevTools (F12, or Cmd+Option+I on macOS) and go to the Network tab.
Reload the page, click any request to www.cgtrader.com and find its Cookie request header.
Copy the whole header value. It carries the aws-waf-token too, if your browser has one.
Right-click CGTrader in Configuration → Providers, choose Connect and paste it.

Compare with other providers

Provider	Sign-in	Thingport Grab	FlareSolverr	Collections	Likes	Sync	Print profiles
CGTraderThis page	Yours, for the files	Recommended⁶	Recommended	Wishlist	Yes⁶	Yes	No
MakerWorld	Your cookie	Recommended	Optional	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Printables	None	Optional¹	Recommended	Yes	Yes¹	Yes	No
Thingiverse	Admin’s App Token	Optional	Recommended	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MyMiniFactory	Admin’s API key, yours for paid	Optional	Recommended	Yes	No	Yes	No
Snapmaker Space	Yours, for a day	Recommended²	Not needed	Bookmarks	Yes	Yes	Yes
MakerOnline	Yours, for likes only	Required	Not needed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Creality Cloud	Yours, for a week	Recommended	Not needed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NexPrint	Yours	Recommended	Not needed	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Thangs	Yours, renewed for a year	Recommended	Optional	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Cults3D	Your API key + browser sign-in	Recommended³	Not needed	Printlists	Yes	Yes	No
eufyMake	Yours, for likes only	Recommended	Not needed	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pinshape	Yours, for the files	Recommended	Not needed	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
OwlCAD	None	Recommended⁴	Not needed	No	No	No	No
Toymakr3D	Yours, for the files	Recommended	Not needed	No	Yes⁵	Yes	No
Makerables	Yours, for saved projects only	Recommended	Not needed	Saved	No	Yes	No
GrabCAD	Yours, for the files	Recommended	Not needed	No	Yes	Yes	No
Meshy	Yours; Pro for community models	Recommended	Not needed	Yes	No	Yes	No
PIXUP	Yours, for the files	Recommended	Not needed	Collections, wishlists	Yes	Yes	No
Fab365	Yours, for the files	Recommended	Not needed	No	Yes⁷	Yes	No
3DExport	Yours, for the files	Recommended	Not needed	Bookmark collections	No	Yes	No
QIDI Maker	Yours, for your collections and likes	Recommended	Not needed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VoxelShare	Yours, for your collections and likes	Recommended	Not needed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Your private Printables collections and your likes are read by Grab, while you’re on Printables.
Snapmaker’s sign-in lasts a day and only Grab renews it; without Grab you paste a new one every day.
Cults3D’s files need your browser’s Cloudflare clearance, and Thingport on the same IP address as that browser.
A gallery item that is a CAD project, rather than a library part, has no stored mesh: OwlCAD’s editor builds its file, so Thingport Grab exports it on owlcad.com.
Toymakr3D hands a model’s files to signed-in users only, the free ones included, and shows your likes to you alone.
CGTrader shows your likes and wishlist to you alone, and its downloads sit behind AWS’s bot check, which Thingport passes with Grab’s token from your browser or FlareSolverr’s own.
Fab365 hands a model’s files to signed-in members only, the free ones included, and shows your favourites to you alone.

Known problems

Open bug reports about CGTrader in Thingport, on GitHub.

No known problems with CGTrader.

Report a problem with CGTrader

Notes from users

Tips, workarounds and news about CGTrader from people who use it. Something broken in Thingport? See Known problems.