Why do you need a 3D Printing Forum?
Forums are long been used as an online discussion platform where like-minded people can connect to raise questions, post answers, discuss, and have a meaningful conversation about technology.
The concept is now spread far and wide and used by a majority of individuals to stay in touch with the online community. 3D printing is not averse to it. For a long time now, 3D printing forums, groups, or communities have flourished as a means to resolve user queries, post simple glitches in 3D printers or finding simple tricks to design a CAD model or get views on various aspects of the technology.
Today, 3D printing forums are actively joined by beginners as well as experts and industry leaders on various platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Quora, and many other independent forums. We see some of the popular forums which you can join and be in the thick of the technology discussions.
LinkedIn is a highly professional social media platform, with the vast majority of users being businesses, employees, or job seekers. LinkedIn groups instill a sense of professionalism, and as a result, many people join these forums to share company news, professional or relevant personal projects. This is an excellent platform for hearing from experts and networking with industry leaders. LinkedIn connects you to a very niche expert audience that you want to contact, and so LinkedIn 3D printing forums are a great place to learn about industry leaders, what they are doing, and what their companies are doing, and even message them to start a conversation.
Popular LinkedIn 3D Printing Groups to Join
3D Printing Today: 3D Printing Today is LinkedIn's largest 3D printing group. It has nearly 68000 members.
Additive Manufacturing (AM) - Rapid Prototyping (RP), Tooling and Direct Manufacturing -3D Printing: Some of the most prominent names in the 3D printing industry are a part of this group. It currently has a massive 23,262 members and is very active, with members sharing their latest work, news, or interesting new developments in the industry.
3D Printing Guild: Another group that focuses on the 3D printing industry and has a large following is the 3D Printing Guild. It now has around 20,522 members.
3D Printing (From Materials to Electronics), 4D Printing & Meta Materials, powered by Jakajima: This group is also very active, with nearly 9000 members.
International Society for Additive Manufacturing Engineers (iSAME): It is a group formed in 2016 by a group of engineers. It has members from 14 different countries, and its goal is to create an Education, Training, Qualification, and Certification system that meets the needs of industry and iSame members.
Women in 3D Printing: Women associated with the 3D printing industry should explore this group. Though this is a global organization and is not merely a LinkedIn group they are present and active on the platform and so women should explore this group.
Reddit is a great place to have conversations and discussions on topics of interest. It is a network of communities to learn and share your knowledge to help the community. Reddit attracts a lot of genuine people with strict guidelines to flag spammers and so the platform is great for someone interested in 3D printing to join a community to learn.
Reddit's 3DPrinting community is very active, with over 127K members. Members post their most recent work, receive validation, and learn how to work on 3D printers, materials, and software. To assist beginners, experienced engineers and designers freely share their knowledge and solutions to problems posted on the forum.
A lot of members also initiate discussions on topics of interest and the thread can be interesting and informative to read.
Facebook is a fantastic place to have casual conversations and discussions about topics that interest you. It lacks the professionalism of LinkedIn and has slightly lenient spam protection than Reddit, but it is still a great source for genuine enthusiasts and experts in the field. There are numerous Facebook groups where one can participate in discussions.
3D Printing Club: This is one of the largest 3D printing groups on Facebook and has around 30,000 members.
3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing: The goal of this group is to gather resources to create a new localized printing solution revolution. Individuals or companies trying to sell their products are immediately removed to keep the group genuine.
3D Printing Ideas: The 3D Printing Ideas is a group created to share and exchange 3D printing-related ideas. Companies can even share their latest wares only if it is bringing something new to the market and it helps the community. Otherwise, it is prohibited.
Independent Forums
Aside from social media platforms, there are numerous independent forums that focus on 3D printing. These are also popular and active, and serve a similar purpose. The following are two of the most well-known forums:
3D Print Forum: This forum is run independently and has forums to discuss various 3D printing-related topics. It also has an article resource for anyone willing to read the latest activities in the industry.
3D Printing Forum: Though this forum is not as active as the first forum it still is used by a lot of beginners and students to check and search for tips or troubleshooting of their printer issues.
User 3D printing Groups
Finally, in addition to generic groups, communities, and forums, users can form niche groups on social media platforms such as Facebook and Quora to target specific users. There are loads of groups, and communities dedicated to specific 3D printers and software applications. This provides a dedicated forum for experts and learners working on those printers and applications to discuss, help others, and resolve their queries.
Flashforge FDM Family Group: This is a public group for Flashforge FDM 3D printer users. This group is ideal for new users as veterans will try to help out the community for free and share their experiences and tips to solve simple or complex queries. Every new user should always try to be a part of such a 3D printer-specific group. This group is around 7000 strong.
Wanhao, Monoprice, and Cocoon Create (Di3/Plus) 3D Printer Support Group: This group is created for owners of the Wanhao Duplicator i3 and i3 plus, Cocoon Create, Monoprice, and Maker Select printer owners to discuss and share tips, tricks, issues, and overall provide input on bettering the i3 3D Printer. It is 16K strong and collectively focuses on offering support to the community as a whole.
Formlabs Support Group: Formlabs is a leading Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer manufacturing company. This 4K member strong public 3D printing group also offers support to Formlabs printer owners for their troubleshooting and offers tips and tricks to avoid pitfalls.
Fusion 360 Users: This private group having more than 51K members is made for Autodesk Fusion 360 users who want to exchange information, share projects, or ask questions. Fusion360 users can benefit a lot by joining this group and can surely improve their understanding of the software and also better their designing skills.
Autodesk Maya: Autodesk Maya is a popular award-winning software application used by users all over the world. This public group has more than 35K members and is created to help out fellow Maya users and grow collectively as a community. The users mostly post about the troubles they are facing in their projects or share their recent accomplishments and even support new learners with tips.
