Show HN: Modelist – A desktop app to organize 3D printing files

Hi HN,

I bought my first 3d printer early last year. By the end of the year I already had 1000+ 3d files scattered across folders. Many of those were actually duplicates. Mostly because the search in Mac is just horrible (though there is a prebuilt preview for STLs, I give them credit for that).

So I built Modelist, a cross-platform desktop app for managing 3D printing files. Think of the gallery app meets 3d files. First, I quickly hacked something for me, then I built the second version that's actually shareable. It solves the main challenges that people I spoke with had (funny, how similar those were to mine!): * Watches selected folders and automatically indexes files (including subfolders) * Generates thumbnails for STL and extracts embedded images from 3MF * Lets you search by filename, description, or notes you add * Groups related files automatically (with some magic) * Opens models directly in the selected slicer (e.g. Bambu Studio, Prusa Slicer) * Works on macOS, Windows, and Linux (SQLite under the hood, local-only, no cloud) * Opt-in cloud functionality - share file with friend (shares file, images, metadata, ...)

You can check it out here: https://modelist.app I decided to charge a small one-time fee (20 EUR) for my efforts, with a free version to test it out first.

I’d love feedback from fellow 3d printing hobbyists - especially on: * What other features do you want in a tool like this * Whether the UX feels right (gallery vs file-explorer style) * Technical critiques - I’m aware Electron is heavy, but it gave me fast cross-platform support

Best, Pete