The Settlers of Catan, or simply Catan, is a beloved board game first published in 1995 in Germany. More than 25 years later, it now includes numerous expansions, a digital version, and has fans worldwide, with over 40 million copies in 40 different languages sold.
Catan 3D was a special 10th-anniversary edition released back in 2005 featuring awesome 3D resource tiles. This version was revived due to its popularity, but it appears to no longer be available.
So, why not 3D print your own Catan 3D? Or at the very least, spice up your old board with some cool new customized or themed parts?
We know that makers REALLY love Catan, so fire up your printer and prepare yourself: We’ve compiled a list of the best Catan models out there. And the best part is you don’t have to pay for the design files: They’re all free.
Now if you’re a fan but find these models to be too much of a commitment, don’t fret! Try Craftcloud! You can have the parts professionally printed and save all of your effort for establishing hegemony over Catan.
Let’s jump in!
Handy & Functional
These are the models that should enhance the gameplay by providing extra organization during the game or speeding up the board set up so you can focus solely on your strategy.
Puzzle Tile Adapter
Catan is traditionally either simply placed on a flat board or held with magnets. But there may be cleverer ways to secure your Catan board for intense gameplay. While magnets certainly ensure good attachment, they are a hassle to place in every single tile you print, and then on the frame as well.
By contrast, the puzzle method can be used seamlessly. In fact, many comments mention they were able to use it without trouble and find it preferable to the magnet method. There are only five files, but you’ll need multiple repeats of each, so follow the instructions provided carefully. There are also different sizes and types, but the creator has provided instructions.
- Who designed it? MikeJacobi
- How printable/popular is it? This model has had 6 makes shared and 374 likes so far. Comments recall that they work without a problem and offer great interlocking.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Piece-Card-Score Holder
This multi-purpose model is a system that helps Catan players organize their unused roads and houses during play. It also allows players to both keep track of and display their number of victory points and in-game accolades, like the Longest Road, Largest Army, and even Harbormaster for players with the Seafarers expansion. If that’s not enough for you, this holder will also hold resource cards in the middle slot.
The entire holder can be printed in one piece and doesn’t require any supports. You can either use extra road pieces to indicate the victory point amount and accolades earned or print a few spare road pieces (see “Spare Settlement, Cities, & Roads” later in this article).
- Who designed it? romroig
- How printable/popular is it? This model has been downloaded over 5,000 times and there are 3 posted makes. There is even a remix of this model showing the community is active in using and developing the model for their own purposes.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Catan Accessory Boxes
Keeping your board pieces – plus expansions, a deck of cards, tokens, characters, and more – organized and safe can be quite the challenge. So with this model, you can keep all your Catan utensils from getting lost or damaged.
It includes boxes or shelves for props, cards, numbers, and all-purpose boxes for any other item you’ll need. If you already have some organizing compartments you can choose to print only the ones you need. Or you can print them all.
- Who designed it? ricxvision
- How printable/popular is it? Over 700 users have downloaded this model, and you can be the first one to share your own make of it.
- Where to find it? Cults
Magnetic Resource Drawers
Designed for a faster game setup and convenience during gameplay, this set of six drawers divides the resource and development cards into separate trays. Each tray is engraved with a symbol matching its respective resource card. The trays can be laid in a row to make an organized resource bank or stored in a box as a set of drawers when not in use. All of the trays are inlaid with six cylindrical magnets to hold the drawers together when laid in a row and when stored in the box.
Both the drawers and the box can be printed without supports, and there are slots to add the magnets – no need to pause at height or any additional tricks. The designer provides a link to the magnets and a photo showing their correct pole orientation for ease of assembly.
- Who designed it? deemended
- How printable/popular is it? This set of drawers currently has a number of positive comments, over 1,000 likes, and 8 recorded makes.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Modular Card Holder
This is a simple yet useful modular cardholder to keep resource cards organized while you play. Each module is printed separately and either glued or bolted together (both options are available).
Do your friends a favor and add this to your game night.
And don’t worry about any hassle during printing: It seems like supports aren’t necessary, as the overhang angle is gradual enough to take care of any overhang.
- Who designed it? Julius3E8
- How printable/popular is it? So far, this model has five makes and a few remixes posted.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Dice Cup
Rolling dice is a skill. Not only to get the number you want but to keep them from falling all over the place. And the greater your Catan game, the less space on the table for the dice.
With this dice cup, though, you can throw your dice without concern. Although any cup could technically suffice, this one goes with the overall theme so you don’t lose your Catan immersion.
- Who designed it? Dragon_Ball_Z
- How printable/popular is it? This useful dice cup has over 800 downloads, 70 likes, and 3 makes. The creator recommends printing the model scaled up at 120% for more dice rolling area.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Box Insert Organizer
Turn the box upside down or jostle it around, this organizer will keep all of the game’s pieces, tiles, and cards neatly inside the box.
This design is composed of several parts that are printed separately, mostly without supports.
- Who designed it? brettmcgin
- How printable/popular is it? There are three makes posted, but plenty of people claim to have successfully printed these models in the comments.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Borders
These 3D printed borders should keep all of the board’s tile pieces from slipping and popping out during the game.
The models were designed in inches, so depending on your slicer, you might need to resize the model accordingly (25.4 times larger, to be exact).
- Who designed it? kellogg816
- How printable/popular is it? There are currently six makes posted by users that used either PLA or PETG. The pieces are sectioned, so you don’t need to worry about printer size.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Complete Sets & Expansions
Here’s what most of you were probably looking for: entire Catan boards with tiles, tokens, and pieces. Most of them look prettier than the original, but some post-processing skills may be required.
Cities & Knights & Seafarers
These are the most popular Catan expansions, and thanks to this maker, you can 3D print them yourself, as many times as you want, then play the longest game in Catan history.
Since there are so many parts and small details, the creator has provided detailed instructions on what to print and how to assemble each one. You can print the parts with a multicolor setup (like Bambu Lab’s AMS) or print them separately, then assemble them – which the creator took into account in their design. Of course, there’s always the option to get artistic and paint. A user mentioned some issues with warping, so brims can be a good solution.
- Who designed it? MioPrint
- How printable/popular is it? There are 9 makes and 1,300 downloads.
- Where to find it? Printables
Travel-sized Catan
As you would expect for a travel set, it’s made to not occupy too much space and be easy to play while on the move. It doesn’t have all the fancy 3D details other 3D printed sets have, but for a travel set, we need practicality over looks.
You can carry it in the box included with the models, and it also has a base to keep it all together while splayed out. So, playing in a setting like a train or a long car ride shouldn’t be impossible.
- Who designed it? Tarpon907
- How printable/popular is it? There are 300 downloads and a couple of makes, so far. It doesn’t include the cards, but the box has enough extra space to fit them. Some pieces are meant for dual printing.
- Where to find it? Printables
Seafarers Expansion
The Seafarers expansion released in 1997 was the first expansion to the base Catan ever issued. This expansion introduces ships, pirates, gold, and fog, among other changes to the game.
This 3D printed Catan: Seafarers is loaded with detail on land and sea. The mountains, valleys, and fields are all textured and as realistic as can be. You can replace most of your base game and Seafarers expansion with these models. Plus, if you really like the landscape tiles but don’t aim to play the Seafarers version, you can print only the ones you want to add to your setup. The designer based the Seafarers board on their original 3D Catan board.
- Who designed it? Dakanzla
- How printable/popular is it? This expansion has over 1,200 downloads and 245 likes. There are no posted makes of this model yet.
- Where to find it? MyMiniFactory
Five-Six Player Multicolor
This is yet another awesome-looking board, and it offers the possibility of adding one or two players to the regular four-person Catan game. Besides the water tiles, each tile is unique – even those for the same resource, which is rather cool.
The thing about this board is that it requires a huge amount of magnets: 460 spherical 5.0-mm diameter magnets for the five- to six-player version (12 per resource tile). Depending on the number of players, the sum of magnets may change, so be ready to buy in bulk.
The designer hasn’t shared any printing tips, and the different makes mostly specify a filament choice (PLA), while as for layer height, it can only be assumed that the lower, the better. Post-processing can be a part of the preparation for the game, as most makes were later handpainted.
- Who designed it? Mystik738
- How printable/popular is it? As of now, there are more than 800 likes, and 12 different makes have been posted.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Monocolor
This is a complete three- to four-player set that can be printed with a single nozzle printer. It comprises all resource tiles and player pieces – settlements, cities, and roads – in different themes.
The quantities required for each part are listed under the “Thing details” tab, including the link to the official Catan cards in case one would like to purchase them. The author recommends running a mesh repair in some of the water pieces for nicer print results.
- Who designed it? trevorclarke
- How printable/popular is it? This is quite a popular model, with over 2,000 likes, 30 shared makes, and 9 remixes!
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Oil Springs
The settlers have discovered oil! This expansion set has everything you need to enhance your 3D printed Catan board based on the Oil Springs of Catan expansion, including the five- to six-player version. A PDF with the official instructions for this version is also provided.
- Who designed it? MDesigner423
- How printable/popular is it? A remix and two makes have been posted, with the latter two handpainted (and looking awesome).
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
New Energies Tiles
Catan: New Energies is a standalone game that’s a modern take on the classic Catan. The game is set in the 21st century and introduces a climate change twist to gameplay: Players must manage their societies’ energy needs by building power plants that can run on either fossil fuels or renewable energy. Their decisions impact the island’s future and require them to balance societal needs with environmental impact.
This set of tiles is designed to replace the stock tiles in New Energies with detailed and textured landscape tiles, but you’ll need all the other pieces in the game to play. All tiles can be printed without supports.
- Who designed it? EcoDad
- How printable/popular is it? These models are very new but have already been viewed over 300 times, and they have around 15 downloads and 10 likes.
- Where to find it? Printables
Laser-Cut or CNC
Just to change things up a bit, here’s a complete Catan board that can be made by CNC router or laser cutting. It was designed by Glowforge, a laser cutter hardware manufacturer, but it’s open for everyone to download. Thingiverse user Carlotta4th made a few changes and reposted the design on the platform, as well.
Though the overall look of this board is quite different from the other sets on this list, it still looks pretty awesome and is a great alternative to 3D printing a complete board set.
- Who designed it? Glowforge, modified by Carlotta4th
- How printable/popular is it? There are currently four makes and two different remixes posted on Thingiverse. The pieces should have a clean fit, but depending on your cutter’s settings, you may have to do some sanding.
- Where to find it? Glowforge, Thingiverse
Mods & Themes
This category includes complete boards or different bits and pieces that either change the overall game mechanics or simply enhance its aesthetics.
Game of Thrones
When you play the game of Catan, you win or you die. Or maybe not. With these Game of Thrones add-ons, you can add a little bit of a theme and a little bit of roleplay to your Catan experience.
These designs are ideal for laser cutting and are available in SVG and AI formats. The set includes over 30 files with different components including a Weirwood lumber tile, cities, settlements and roads, and the achievement tiles (longest road and largest army) – all GOT inspired. You can even have the Greyjoy squid as the robber.
- Who designed it? Carlotta4th
- How printable/popular is it? This model has 335 likes and all of the comments are highly positive. There is only one make so far; yours could be next!
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Space
This awesome design was created by MosaicManufacturing, the company responsible for the filament splice device Palette Pro 3. Naturally, it’s been designed to work with its multi-material printing device, but the tiles and pieces can be printed in different ways as well.
Catan in Space is an entire Catan board with a space exploration theme. While all resources differ from the original game, all files are provided, including a PDF for paper printing the cards. Detailed printing instructions are described on the Thingiverse page linked below.
- Who designed it? MosaicManufacturing
- How printable/popular is it? On Thingiverse, this model has over 12,000 downloads, 1,000 likes, and 4 makes.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Medieval
This popular design is actually used by many complete 3D printed board sets that we’ve featured. The round pieces include roads, settlements, cities, and city walls for the Cities & Knights expansion.
When it comes to 3D printing settings, in addition to a 0.25-mm layer height and 25% infill, the creator recommends using a slow print speed to guarantee a high level of detail.
- Who designed it? Popsicle_peon
- How printable/popular is it? There are 16 makes so far, mostly in PLA.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Planet Catan
This is a rather popular version of the game: the globe board. While there are a few similar designs on the internet, this one doesn’t require any special materials for assembly or countless magnets to hold the parts together.
Instead, it uses a polypanel system, which is a kind of snap-fit coupling mechanism that doesn’t require gluing. And the best part: No supports are required for 3D printing the parts even though the result is a sphere.
- Who designed it? Rossero
- How printable/popular is it? There are three posted makes of this world.
- Where to find it? MyMiniFactory
Warcraft
World of Warcraft fan RecklessRobbie has developed a full set of Catan tiles themed after this popular MMORPG game. According to the creator, there should be enough models for the five- to six-player version of the game. However, some game pieces are still required, as only the resource tiles are provided.
All the different tiles were posted separately in Thingiverse, but they can be found on the creator’s page linked below. Some pieces need to be printed at 95% scale to avoid a too tight fit, so make sure to read the printing instructions.
- Who designed it? RecklessRobbie
- How printable/popular is it? Five different makers have posted successful makes of this Warcraft board. All of them are hand-painted and look great, showing that the pieces are both printable and paintable.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Two-Player
The rules for this unofficial version of the game for two players were first shared by Shawn Rifraf on a Board Game Geek forum, and not long after, the creator of a multicolor complete set provided the models for this idea.
While it was specifically designed to work with his board, this mod can definitely work with other 3D printed sets and even with the original game, as there aren’t many parts required. The models are very small and full of details, so it may be a good project to do in resin.
- Who designed it? Dakanzla
- How printable/popular is it? Although the models have been downloaded over 500 times, with the model’s page having received almost 10,000 views, although no community prints have been posted thus far.
- Where to find it? MyMiniFactory
Avatar TLA Tokens
Catan is a classic game and Avatar: The Last Airbender is a classic cartoon – what better combination? Even more so when both of them are all about world-building, quite literally in Catan’s case.
With this Avatar Mod, you can get fire nation temples, water tribe igloos, earth kingdom settlements, and air nomad temples. This way, you can bring the world of Avatar a little closer to real life – you can even choose what type of bender you want to be!
And, because the models don’t need support or a dense infill, combined with how small they are, you can print many at once and not spend too much time on the task, so you can jump straight into gaming.
- Who designed it? Ghost42
- How printable/popular is it? This collection has 30 makes shared by users.
- Where to find it? Printables
Spare Parts
Last but not least, the spare parts for those who want to remain true to their original Catan sets or simply want to replace a lost tile, piece, or card.
Spare Settlement, Cities, & Roads
This list wouldn’t be complete without the classic Catan pieces. Although many alternatives are included on this list, these models are by far the easiest to print. You can replace lost pieces or print entire sets in different colors.
- Who designed it? jstck
- How printable/popular is it? Seven makes have been posted by Thingiverse users so far, including five remixes and a remix that aligned all the parts for printing a set on small beds.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
Replacement Boat
This little boat can printed as a spare or as a replacement for the boats in the classic Catan Seafarer expansion.
When laid on its side, this model can be printed in a matter of minutes as there are no supports required. The maker recommends a layer height of 0.12 mm (rather than the more standard 0.2 mm), which can keep the sharper definition of the straightforward shape. And the same designer also created a set that, in addition to the boats, includes village, city, and road models.
- Who designed it? KJDesigns
- How printable/popular is it? This little ship has been downloaded around 40 times and has 8 likes; a make has been shared so far.
- Where to find it? Printables
Longest Road & Army Trophy Cards
Yes, we know: It’s rather hard to lose the big chunky “Longest Road” and “Largest Army” cards. Even still, it happens, and considering that there’s only one included with each board, both of these designs can surely come in handy.
Instead of cards, these models are more like small trophies and will definitely attract the envy of your opponents. Some users have struggled to capture small details, so make sure to print with a high resolution.
- Who designed it? titancraft
- How printable/popular is it? There are 11 and 9 makes posted for each model, respectively. The makes vary in terms of materials and layer height values.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse: longest road and largest army
Harbor Tokens
These cool-looking 3D harbors (or ports) are a great addition to an original Catan board or even a customized 3D printed one. All pieces come within the same STL file but can be separated in the slicer.
While there aren’t printing settings specified or recommended from the designer, most of the makes shared show makers opted for PLA with 20% and 0.1-mm layer height.
- Who designed it? titancraft
- How printable/popular is it? So far, 10 makes have been posted.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
The Robber
Here’s a cool repurposed model that can be used as the infamous Catan robber. This might be a great opportunity for challenging your 3D printing skills, as this miniature is quite detailed.
For those printing with FDM, a good 3D printer calibration would certainly be handy.
- Who designed it? jbkuma
- How printable/popular is it? So far, 23 makes have been posted. Most are in PLA, but a few resins prints have been shared as well.
- Where to find it? Thingiverse
City, Settlement, & Bridge
What to do if you lose some pieces? A tragedy! Or not. If you have a 3D printer pretty much nothing is ever doomed, as you can create new things from thin air.
With these models, you can replace or simply increase the number of city, settlement, and bridge parts you have. They get the job done for the purpose of playing the game and, more than that, they look very close to the real deal. When printing, the design doesn’t need supports, but a very fine printing layer will predictably improve the resolution of the prints.
- Who designed it? Merandey
- How printable/popular is it? This model has 17 makes and around 1,100 downloads.
- Where to find it? Printables
Ruler of Catan Trophy
If you’re a regular in the Catan scene, you probably have periodically scheduled games that go on for hours, and it is a badge of honor to win, until the next time. To validate the winner’s new (temporary) right to brag, you can print this Ruler of Catan trophy. Use metal or silk filament to get that nice gold trophy shine.
The trophy is two parts: the city and the base. Someone has remixed it to include a city that can be printed in multiple colors, and the original creator links to that option in their description.
- Who designed it? OldSalty3D
- How printable/popular is it? This model has five makes so far, as well as a handful of positive comments. The city is printed separately and glued to the base. The author recommends printing the city at 600% scale.
- Where to find it? Printables
License: The text of "Settlers of Catan 3D Print/STL Files: 30 Cool 3D Models" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.