The library

Every model you put on a plate is kept in the Library, once, with a picture of it. Open Library in the side rail to build a plate from models you already have instead of hunting for the files again.

Using a model from the library

What Library in the side rail opens depends on where you are:

• With a plate open, it slides out over the left side of the plate, on top of the print settings. Pick a model and it goes straight onto that workplate. Drag the dots on its right edge to make it wider, and use the button at the top to open the full library.
• Anywhere else, it opens the full library page.

On the full page:

• Click a model to see it up close. Its picture turns into a live view you can drag to turn, alongside its size, when you first added it, when you last used it and where its file is.
• Add to workplate asks which of your open workplates to put it on. New workplate starts a new one with it. Double-clicking a model, or pressing Enter on it, adds it to the workplate you last had open.
• Right-click a model (or press and hold on a touchscreen) for the same actions, plus rename, show the file in Finder or Explorer, and remove. The bin beside the close button removes the selected model; press it twice.
• Search by name. The sort button next to the search box orders models by recently used, recently added, most used or name.
• Click the name above the details to rename it. The file keeps its own name.
• With nothing selected, the panel on the right describes the library itself: how many models it has, how much space they take, and how files are kept.

Adding models

Models join the library by themselves when they reach a plate — however they got there. Each time a model goes on a plate counts as a use, whether you picked it from the library or opened the file again. To add some without opening a plate, use Add models or drop files on the library page.

The library never keeps the same model twice. Dropping in a file it already has, a renamed copy, or the same model saved again by another program just points the existing entry at it.

Where models are kept

Choose this under Keep models in the library's side panel, with no model selected.

Choice	What it does
Copy into the library (default)	Copies each model into the library, so it stays even if you move or delete the original.
Link to the original	Leaves models where they are and remembers where. Nothing is copied, but a moved or deleted file shows as missing.
Link, and keep a copy	Remembers where each model is and keeps a copy to fall back on.

The choice is on the desktop app only. The iPad and iPhone app, the browser version and a shared slicer server always copy.

Folders (desktop)

Add a folder under Folders in the library's side panel — your downloads, say — and every model in it, and in folders inside it, appears in the library on its own. Press the refresh button on the library page to look again.

iPad and iPhone

The library is a folder in the Files app: On My iPad › Cold Crabby › Models. Save a model there from Safari, Mail or AirDrop and it shows up in the library, with no file picker. Deleting it there removes it from the library.

Advanced — how duplicates are found

Two files are the same model if their bytes match, or if they describe the same shape: same number of parts and triangles, same size, same volume and surface area. That catches an STL saved as ASCII instead of binary, or exported again by another program. A model moved to a different position in its file still matches; a scaled or rotated one does not.

Advanced — removing a model

Removing a model (the bin, pressed twice) deletes the library's copy and its picture. A linked file in one of your folders is never deleted — the library only forgets it.