[1] [3] Challenges Explore, enter and win with your own designs [4] Forum Learn, discuss and share with other makers [5] Events Browse or suggest open-source hardware and 3D printing events [7]All Categories[8]3D Printing[9]Art[10]Fashion[11]Gadgets[12]Hobby[13] Household[14]Learning[15]Models[16]Tools[17]Toys & Games[18]Other [20][ ] Log In Join the Community Small thing previews 2M+ Things across categories Small creator previews 70k+ Creators [22]Sign up to Thingiverse! Already have an account?[23]Log in Print-in-place - Beginners guide Print-in-place - Beginners guide Alexandru Pascovici [24]Alexandru Pascovici [25]Guides August 6th, 2025 4 minute read Did you see a fun articulated dragon on YouTube or at a craft fair that you want to print? Or maybe a model with complex-looking hinges? How about a brain-teasing puzzle with lots of moving parts? All of these can be printed and assembled using glue or fasteners. But they can also be printed already assembled with no extra work required! These are called print-in-place models, and this article explains exactly what they are and how you can print them! What is a print-in-place model? Simply put, any 3D printable design that has moving or interlocking parts that are built as one continuous print job falls under the print-in-place umbrella.  More precisely, in a print-in-place model, the moving or interlocking parts are designed with precise clearances that allow them to be printed as a single assembly without needing any post-printing assembly.  These parts are typically suspended within or connected to the main body of the model in such a way that they remain stationary during printing, either directly attached to the build plate or supported by small breakaway bridges, joints, or supports.  Once the print is complete, a simple flex or twist is often enough to free the moving parts, allowing hinges, sliders, gears or articulated segments to move freely without any additional post-processing. The main advantage of these kinds of models is that they save time, removing the hassle of screws, snap-fits, glue, or various other post-processing “fiddly bits” that can be especially frustrating for a beginner maker.  How do I find print-in-place designs? Ok, cool, by now you’re sold on the idea of print-in-place designs, but you don’t know what exactly to print, so here’s where we come in, if you don’t mind a suggestion or two. For everyday utility, we recommend trying out these Things (we even printed some of these ourselves since they were so useful).  [phone-stand-thing] [26]Phone/Tablet Stand - Flat fold - Print in place! By: [27]jonnig [large-display-printinplace-kaleidocycle] [28]Print-in-Place Kaleidocycle By: [29]ecoiras [fidget-cube-thing][30]Print In Place Ultimate Fidget Cube By: [31]mygadgetlife [nozzle-box-thing] [32] Print in Place Nozzle Box By: [33]John_Wet If none of these strike your fancy, try searching “print-in-place” on Thingiverse to find a plethora of Things to choose from. How do I print a print-in-place model?? Argh! You’ve tried printing a design, and it simply didn’t come out as advertised! Joints can’t be moved, bearings don’t rotate, hinges break rather than bend, and so on… To be fair, a lot of the print-in-place designs are difficult to print by nature, especially on older printers, because of their tight tolerances. Any overextrusion or dimensional inaccuracies will cause sections within the Thing to fuse and compromise its functionality.  In order to ensure you have the best possible chances, we recommend the following steps: 1. Calibrate your printer! If your printer doesn’t have an autocalibration feature, Matt the Printing Nerd has a [34]great guide on how to calibrate your printer, but if you want to go more in-depth, you can also check out Ellis’ [35]Print Tuning Guide.   2. Check the Thing details tab; many makers provide specific instructions and parameters that you should use for your print. These will probably be tailored to the specific model you're trying to print and might give you just the help you need! 3. Ensure first-layer adhesion. Especially for longer prints, keep an eye out while the first 1-2 layers extrude. Layer shifts will ruin print-in-place prints. If your prints have a tendency to unstick themselves from the build plate, a good old-fashioned glue stick might just do the trick 4. Slow down! If all else fails, slowing your print speeds way down should result in a more dimensionally accurate and functional print.  This might sound weird, but if you’re having issues and you already followed all of the above steps, there’s one more bonus technique you can try: scale up the design. Increasing the model size means that the tolerances between the moving parts become less of an issue (clearance grows with scale). While this isn’t exactly a fix, but more of a workaround, it should help, so why not give it a shot? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ That’s pretty much it. If you successfully printed a print-in-place Thing, don’t forget to share it by uploading an image of it on the Thing’s page! And if you want more 3D printing tips and tricks from us, [36]sign up for our newsletter! [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]« Back to Blog Related Articles Low-poly models - Beginners guide [42] Low-poly models - Beginners guide 6 minute read July 3rd, 2025 HueForge - Beginners guide [43] HueForge - Beginners guide 5 minute read September 16th, 2025 Articulated prints - Beginners guide [44] Articulated prints - Beginners guide 6 minute read October 9th, 2025 [45]About us[46]SoulCrafted[47]FAQ[48]Blog [49]Cura[50]For Developers [51][52][53][54][55] Subscribe for news, community spotlights, and more! [56][ ] Subscribe [58]Advertise with Us Cookies[60]Legal[61]Privacy Policy[62]Changelog iiq_pixel iiq_pixel References: [1] https://www.thingiverse.com/ [3] https://www.thingiverse.com/challenges [4] https://forum.thingiverse.com/ [5] https://labs.thingiverse.com/events [7] https://www.thingiverse.com/search? 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