<p>When I design parts in CAD software I pick a starting plane and go from there. And that starting plane doesn't correspond to how the part is designed to be printed. That usually comes later.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-17T02:25:34.060Z
2020-08-17T02:25:34.060Z
henradrie
<p>Thingieverse does respect the orientation an item was designed in, just like most slicers will. Designers will often choose any one of the three planes (XY, YZ, ZX) as their first by preference, then work out the other parts in relation to the first. This does often not take into account the actual print orientation it should be printed in.</p>
<p>In the case of this box, you'd have to turn all items around the Y-axis (the front-left to back-right one) by 90°, first to the <em>front</em>, then the <em>back</em> then to the <em>front</em> again, getting almost 0 overhangs.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-15T20:31:30.280Z
2020-08-15T20:38:28.007Z
2020-08-15T20:38:28.007Z
Trish
<p>first time here.</p>
<p>I recently bought an Anycubic Mega S and I'm venturing in the 3D world. Lots to learn for sure. I have printed a few items so far and all went pretty well.</p>
<p>My question is about something that caught my attention while browsing on Thingiverse. I was looking for an organizer for a board game that I have and every option I found there shows the piece in a vertical position rather than horizontal which seems like the natural position of the piece.</p>
<p>I would like to know why most of this types of pieces are set to be printed in a vertical position rather than horizontal.</p>
<p>Here is the original piece <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2949421" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Betrayal at Baldur's Gate Organizer</a> by <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/playfutbol2/designs" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Jason Patch</a>. As you can see in the image below the piece is naturally horizontal but the actual files to print (blue ones) are all vertical.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Vik4M.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Vik4M.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>PS.: I didn't really know which tags to use so I just added 3D, feel free to suggest any other I will happily edit it. :)</p>

<3d-models><3d-design><print-orientation>
Vertical vs Horizontal shapes printing
Jorge Campos
# Vertical vs Horizontal shapes printing

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-08-15)

first time here.

I recently bought an Anycubic Mega S and I'm venturing in the 3D world. Lots to learn for sure. I have printed a few items so far and all went pretty well.

My question is about something that caught my attention while browsing on Thingiverse. I was looking for an organizer for a board game that I have and every option I found there shows the piece in a vertical position rather than horizontal which seems like the natural position of the piece.

I would like to know why most of this types of pieces are set to be printed in a vertical position rather than horizontal.

Here is the original piece [Betrayal at Baldur's Gate Organizer](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2949421) by [Jason Patch](https://www.thingiverse.com/playfutbol2/designs). As you can see in the image below the piece is naturally horizontal but the actual files to print (blue ones) are all vertical.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/Vik4M.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Vik4M.png)

PS.: I didn't really know which tags to use so I just added 3D, feel free to suggest any other I will happily edit it. :)

**Tags:** 3d-models, 3d-design, print-orientation

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-08-15. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Thingieverse does respect the orientation an item was designed in, just like most slicers will. Designers will often choose any one of the three planes (XY, YZ, ZX) as their first by preference, then work out the other parts in relation to the first. This does often not take into account the actual print orientation it should be printed in.

In the case of this box, you'd have to turn all items around the Y-axis (the front-left to back-right one) by 90°, first to the *front*, then the *back* then to the *front* again, getting almost 0 overhangs.


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### Answer by username_1 on 2020-08-17. Score: 1

When I design parts in CAD software I pick a starting plane and go from there. And that starting plane doesn't correspond to how the part is designed to be printed. That usually comes later.


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