Manyfold integration#855

I just discovered Manyfold as a manager for 3D files specifically. Its a self hosted server that allows you to visit a localhost website to view many STLs and 3MFs at once with interacting thumbnails. Im very new to how it works, but I think that might be a great partnership or integration for the file manger in simplyprint! Reach out to Sineater on discord for more questions or info

What would the benefit of storing the file in Manyfold be vs. simply storing it in SimplyPrint? At least it doesn’t look like another vibe-coded slop-ware project - there are a million of those “file managers” now 🫠 Manyfold looks cool and can sure do some things we can’t, but for integrations we need;

1. Substance: what does this being to the table, and if it’s SimplyPrint-adjecent we always try and ask “why not just do it in SimplyPrint?”, as we’ll always be able to do a better “integration” if the user and files stay in SimplyPrint
2. Demand: how many wants this

So, if the suggestion comes from wanting one or more features that the Manyfold file storage offers that our file system does not, we like to turn it around and rather ask: what would you like to see added to SimplyPrint so that you wouldn’t need Manyfold?

1.) What I find it brings to the table (aside from the AI vibecoding) Is the ability to see your entire file library be itt from a NAS or your PC all on a localhost page, that you can expose to the internet.

I like it because it lets me scroll through my 5000+ files organized on my ipad and see thumbnails of each item. If its possible to integrate this in anyway, I feel like it could solve an issue of 5gb limited storage, and just be one of the easier ways to connect to a NAS directly without having to Upload > find file> upload one file at a time.

Having a library of files conencted to simplyprint would be amaizing but Manyfold doesnt have to be THE one, its just what I found and IM trying to use

2.) Me lol

Gotcha. Generally we try to not devalue our own product (you can buy more storage), so the whole “so I don’t have to pay SimplyPrint for storage”-part (though not at all what we try to make money on) is not the best way to get us onboard heh. But hey, we’re still planning on cloud storage integrations (GDrive, Dropbox etc.), however that will come at an added cost too - so it’s not conpletely off the table, but it’d need some serious features that ours doesn’t have, and some more upvotes; but, will let y’all do the voting from here on out! Thanks for the extra details, and for taking the time to leave and discuss suggestions - we try to let our thoughts process be known as to shine some light on our decision process and what we generally see as feasible and wanted integrations and features, so there’s no false hope or the whole more PR-friendly “Great idea!” that just gets “left on read” after that point.

Back to the original reply, if you are looking for features that are not in Simplyprint that make me think of the ManyFold integration is simply: A lot of us have our own NAS, SAMBA, or FTP file storage systems, so while I understand the need to profit on your application, A LOT of us probably wont be spending anything on buying more storage because of this. For example, I have a NAS server with 80tb of storage for media, backups, and most importantly all 13,000 of my 3D files. Thats just a bit too much to commit to importing and paying for in simplyprint.

So as of right now I upload from “Phone storage” which I have my NAS connected to, but its a pain and so many extra steps. I say manyfold would be cool simply cuz they already have it existing, but I dont doubt making your own NAS integration would be difficult…. Just let me know what you think!

As you can probably tell from the screenshot attached its not the BEST UI its just all I could find at the time. The reason I installed it was to be able to view STL 3MF and OBJ thumbnails from any device so I dont have to open each item to see what it is for other people watching,

I was also firmly in the “i will store these myself” category until I saw all the new features coming in the projects + shop update and learned that for all of them (tagging, processing, routing) they are going to have to have at least 1 copy (sometimes 2 or 3 copies) on their servers to have any of this work. The convenience of having orders auto routed far outweighs the storage costs (and we have 4 tb of production files).

We have used simplyprint for 5 years now and have been uploading each order into the print queue from our nas for 5 years, not utilizing any online storage but we are making the transition next week when the new features come out. If you didn’t join the video call last week, I think you will see what I mean in a few days.