Fabricate Acceptable Use Policy

Effective date: 2026-05-05 Version: 3 Jurisdiction: England and Wales

This policy lists what you can and can't do on Fabricate. It is incorporated by reference into the Terms of Service — agreeing to those means agreeing to this. Breach can result in account suspension, termination, forfeiture of pending payouts, and where required, report to law enforcement.

The platform is for personal, non-commercial use only (see Terms §2). Even where a use is not specifically listed below, it is still prohibited if it falls outside personal hobbyist use.

If you see something on the platform that breaches this policy, email support@helixdreams.co with a link to the job, file, or maker. Anonymous reports are accepted.

1. Absolute prohibitions

The categories below are absolute prohibitions. Both Creators and Makers commit to these. There is no "I didn't realise" defence — if your part falls in any of these categories, don't post it.

1.1 Weapons, weapon components, and restricted digital templates

• Firearms, firearm components, and any 3D-printable firearm template — whether or not the file purports to be a "decorative" or "training" copy, whether or not the part is "the regulated part" under the Firearms Act 1968, and whether or not the assembly is functional.
• Receivers, frames, "ghost-gun" components, conversion devices, suppressors, magazines, ammunition components (casings, primers, projectiles).
• Imitation firearms even where personal possession would be lawful, including airsoft, BB-gun, and replica props that present as functional firearms.
• Restricted offensive weapons under the Criminal Justice Act 1988, the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959, and the Offensive Weapons Act 2019: knuckle dusters, push daggers, swordsticks, butterfly knives, gravity knives, telescopic batons, throwing stars, zombie knives, cyclone knives.
• Spring-loaded or trap-style mechanisms intended to harm an animal or person.
• Edged or pointed items clearly designed for combat use rather than legitimate sport, kitchen, or craft.
• Explosives, pyrotechnics, and their components.

You acknowledge that the possession, supply, manufacture, import, or transfer of digital templates for restricted firearm components is a criminal offence in England and Wales under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, the Firearms Act 1968, and other firearms legislation. Any breach of this clause will result in:

• immediate and permanent account closure without notice;
• forfeiture of any pending payouts and platform balances held on your account;
• retention of uploaded files, chat transcripts, identity verification data, and pickup metadata as evidence;
• referral to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and any other relevant law-enforcement body, with full cooperation.

1.2 Lock-picking and security-defeat tools

• Bump keys, skeleton keys, jiggler keys, or any device designed to defeat a specific lock without authorisation.
• Vehicle entry tools (slim jims, lockout wedges, key cloning rigs).
• Decoders for commercial alarm or access systems.
• Anti-theft tag removers, RFID skimming hardware, magstripe writers.
• ATM skimmers, point-of-sale overlays, or any payment-device tampering hardware.

1.3 Drugs, drug paraphernalia, and unregulated substances

• Items intended for the cultivation, manufacture, packaging, or use of controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
• Pipes, bongs, grinders, or similar items where context makes the intended use clear.
• Vape cartridge moulds or tooling for unregulated vape products (the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 apply).
• Pill-press dies for tablets shaped to imitate any controlled or branded medication.

1.4 Counterfeit goods and IP infringement

• Items bearing a trademark you don't own or aren't authorised to use (logos, brand names, distinctive trade dress).
• Replicas of patented, design-right-protected, or registered-design products you don't have a licence for.
• Files copied or derived from another designer's commercial product without their permission, including Patreon-only files redistributed in breach of their licence.
• Currency, banknotes, postage stamps, or government-issued ID cards in any form, including "novelty" or "movie prop" copies.

1.5 Sexual content and content involving minors

• Sexual or explicit imagery, products, or accessories involving anyone under 18 — strictly prohibited under the Protection of Children Act 1978 and the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. We will report directly to the police and to the Internet Watch Foundation.
• Adult products in general are not permitted on Fabricate at this time, even where lawful.

1.6 Hate, harassment, and terrorism

• Symbols, names, imagery, or insignia of organisations proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 (Schedule 2) or the Terrorism Act 2006.
• Items intended to promote violence against, or harass, an identifiable person or group on the basis of race, religion, sexuality, gender identity, disability, or any other characteristic protected by the Equality Act 2010.
• Doxxing tooling, or items intended to identify, locate, or harass a specific individual.

2. Items that need certification we cannot verify

Certain categories of items can be lawful but require regulatory certification we have no way to check. Listing these on Fabricate is prohibited because we cannot verify your compliance. If you are properly certified and want to use Fabricate to print these items for personal study or display only, contact support@helixdreams.co before posting.

2.1 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• Helmets, harnesses, fall-protection gear, climbing hardware, eye protection, respirators, filter components, gloves rated for chemical / cut / fire protection.
• Required to comply with the Personal Protective Equipment (Enforcement) Regulations 2018 and to carry UKCA / CE marking. Fabricate cannot verify either.

2.2 Medical and dental devices

• Anything intended for the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, or alleviation of disease or injury.
• Specifically: dental aligners, prosthetic or orthotic components, surgical guides, anatomical training models for clinical use, syringes, inhaler parts, mobility-aid load-bearing components.
• Subject to the Medical Devices Regulations 2002 (as amended) and require MHRA registration we cannot verify.

2.3 Vehicle structural and safety-critical parts

• Parts that bear load on a road-going vehicle: suspension, steering, braking, seat-mounting, restraint anchors, structural body panels, engine mounts, fuel-line components.
• Subject to UK Type Approval and Construction & Use regulations. 3D-printed parts will almost never meet the relevant standards.

2.4 Aviation, marine, and aerospace structural parts

• Load-bearing or safety-critical components for aircraft, drones (over 250 g intended for any non-recreational purpose), or marine vessels.
• Subject to the CAA, MAA, and MCA regulatory frameworks.

2.5 Children's toys for sale or distribution

• Subject to the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011 and CE/UKCA toy-safety marking.
• Personal-use toys for your own children are fine; selling, gifting commercially, or distributing them is not.

2.6 Food-contact items

• Utensils, cookware, food storage, food-prep tools.
• Subject to the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (England) Regulations 2012 and food-grade material certification.

2.7 Pressure vessels and gas-bearing components

• Anything designed to contain a flammable or hazardous substance under pressure.
• Subject to the Pressure Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016.

2.8 Export-controlled and dual-use items

• Items, components, or software subject to UK Strategic Export Control or the US ITAR regime.
• Cryptographic devices subject to export controls.
• Drone components beyond hobbyist class without appropriate certification.
• Industrial-control or SCADA-system components for critical national infrastructure.

3. Marketplace integrity

These apply to how you use the platform, regardless of what you're printing.

3.1 No off-platform transacting

If you've matched on Fabricate, payment, communications, and dispute resolution stay on Fabricate. Arranging payment outside the platform to avoid the platform fee, or moving the conversation to private channels to circumvent dispute logging, is grounds for permanent account closure and forfeiture of any pending payouts.

3.2 No business / commercial use

Per Terms §2, the platform is for personal, non-commercial use only. You must not:

• use Fabricate as a hidden manufacturing supply chain for orders placed with you by your own customers;
• buy parts on Fabricate for resale, hire, or distribution as part of a trade or profession;
• list parts for production at a scale that goes beyond reasonable hobby use.

If we detect commercial use we may suspend the account and pursue actual losses through the courts.

3.3 No review manipulation

• No paid reviews, no review trades, no incentivised reviews, no fake accounts.
• No coordination between Creators and Makers to write reviews of jobs that didn't actually happen.
• The mutual reveal-on-both review system is built to make this hard but the rule applies regardless.

3.4 No impersonation or false identity

• Use your real name (or, where applicable, a real business name with a verifiable Companies House registration if a future commercial tier exists).
• Identity is verified for Makers via Stripe Identity (passport / driving licence + selfie liveness).
• Creators are trusted on best-effort; Fabricate may revoke that trust at any time on suspicion of impersonation.
• Don't sign up with a false identity, a stolen identity, or a synthetic identity. Doing so is fraud.

3.5 No automation, scraping, or reverse engineering

• No auto-bidding bots, scraping of Maker prices, or dumping of the public maker register.
• No reverse-engineering of the platform's APIs for redistribution or competing products.
• Fair-use access (browsing, normal in-app actions, occasional exports of your own data via the data-portability rights in the Privacy Policy) is fine.

3.6 No abuse of the dispute system

• Disputes filed in obvious bad faith (filed weeks after pickup, with no contact attempt; filed despite the part matching the supplied file; filed in retaliation for an unrelated grievance) will be denied.
• Repeat bad-faith disputes count toward account suspension.
• Frivolous chargebacks (claiming non-receipt for a part you actually collected, claiming "Item Not as Described" for a part that prints to the supplied file's geometry) may be challenged with all evidence we hold including pickup-code logs, chat transcripts, and the test-strip stencil.

3.7 Maker file hygiene

• Makers must delete all copies of the Creator's files within 24 hours of confirmed pickup, or 14 days of "Ready for pickup", whichever is sooner (Terms §6).
• Retaining files beyond this window, redistributing them, or printing additional copies for yourself or third parties is a material breach and may give rise to a separate claim by the Creator.

4. Files, copyright, and notice-and-takedown

4.1 Creator's confirmation at upload

By uploading a file you confirm that you own the file or have a sufficient licence to use it for the requested print run. Uploading a file you don't own or aren't licensed to print is a breach of these rules and a likely breach of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

4.2 Fabricate doesn't pre-screen

Fabricate does not pre-inspect uploaded files for IP issues. We act in good faith on takedown notices (see 4.3 below) and may proactively remove files that, in our reasonable view, infringe rights, breach this policy, or risk legal exposure to Fabricate or other users.

4.3 Notice-and-takedown procedure for rights holders

If you are a rights holder and you believe a file or listing on Fabricate infringes your rights, send a notice to support@helixdreams.co containing:

1. Identification of the rights holder (you), with verifiable contact details.
2. Identification of the infringing material (the file URL, the listing URL, the maker, or the user).
3. Identification of the right alleged to be infringed (registered trademark number, design right, copyright, etc., with evidence).
4. A statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorised.
5. A signed declaration of accuracy under the Computer Misuse Act / Fraud Act consequences for false representation.

We aim to respond within 5 working days, will act on valid notices by removing or restricting the listing, and will inform the user whose content is removed (giving them an opportunity to respond, typically with a counter-notice).

4.4 Maker good-faith protection

If a Maker prints a file in good faith and the file later turns out to infringe a third-party right, the Maker is not the primary infringer — the dispute is between the rights holder and the Creator who uploaded the file. Fabricate may forward correspondence and may suspend the offending listing, but Makers acting in good faith on a Creator-supplied file are not target ed by takedown action absent specific evidence of bad faith.

5. Enforcement ladder

We try to be fair. The first-time accidental violation gets a soft response; deliberate, repeated, or absolute-prohibition breaches get the hard response immediately.

Platform fees are not refunded on breach-driven closures.

We will retain enough data after closure to defend any subsequent legal claim or to comply with any law-enforcement disclosure request, even where erasure rights would otherwise apply (see Privacy Policy §10 / §15).

6. What you DO print — the affirmative permission

Most things, if not on the lists above. The platform is for hobbyist parts and personal projects:

• Replacement parts for things you own (a broken bracket, a missing knob, a custom tool handle).
• Hobby and craft projects (RPG miniatures, board-game tokens, terrain, dioramas).
• Cosplay armour and props clearly marked as costume and not safety-rated.
• Decorative items — figurines, plant pots, ornaments, art objects.
• Functional household items for your own use (cable holders, drawer inserts, mounts, hooks).
• Educational models — anatomical, geological, mathematical — for personal study or display.
• Prototyping a personal project before sending it to a properly-certified manufacturer for mass production.

Use your judgement. If you wouldn't be comfortable telling a friend you printed it, don't print it here. If you're unsure, ask support@helixdreams.co before posting — we'd rather pre-clear an edge case than discover it through enforcement.

7. Changes

When this policy materially changes we'll bump the version number and update the date at the top. The Terms of Service incorporate this policy by reference, so a substantive change here may also trigger the consent-gate re-acceptance flow that runs for terms or privacy changes.

8. Contact

• Reports of breaches, takedown notices, takedown counter-notices, or questions about a removal: support@helixdreams.co
• Data-protection / GDPR queries: privacy@helixdreams.co
• General support: support@helixdreams.co

Anonymous reports are accepted at the support@ address. We use the minimum data necessary to act on a report.