I put this here because I could not figure out a better place for it.
My question is: What software do you use to design your prints?
I have been using tinkercad and 3dtin. Just started playing with rhino.
What do you think is the easiest to learn. I am leaning more toward mechanical and tool type design than art design. Just haven’t figured out what I might like best.
rhino and solidworks.
Inventor
Catia and sketchup
Rhino, SolidWorks. Plus some Inventer
I use SolidWorks. On internet are lot of video tutorial collections, specially for SolidWorks: Solidprofessor, SolidWorks Video Courses and Tutorials from lynda.com, Innova Systems, Infinite Skills Learning SolidWorks...
I use SketchUp and Cinema4D
Solidworks, Rhino, Modo & 3DS Max. Would really like to get into Zbrush too.
SolidWorks + few video manuals, perfect set for mechanical parts and assemblies.
Best Regards
I have been playing with Rhino, sketchup and thinkercad. Sketch-up and thinkercad are really limited at creating refined design. Double-curved surfaces (except for spheres) can not be drawn using sketch-up or thinkercad. Try to round three edges of a cube: impossible, so all your designs will be square!
Another limitation of Thinkercad is that one can only substract simple shapes: cube, cylinder etc. Writting text and then substract it from a cube to get engraved text is not possible.
The test I do to select my drawingtool is in rounding edges: create a shape, say a cone, substract another shape, say a cube, and then try to have one of the resulting (double curved) edges rounded. Most tools fail that test, except for Rhino, it completes the job correctly. Solid work would probably pass that test as well.
As a java programmer I prefer repeatable design: so I program my designs using OpenScad. Openscad is a scripting language which allows geometries to be added and substracted ect. To make it simpler for me I use the JavaScad wrapper, I program in Java which creates an OpenScad script which is rendered in the OpenScad program.
If there is an error in my design, I can change anything, also in the beginning of the design, and just run the program again.
Actually Tinkercad can now do rounded edges via shape scripts. And it is not true that it can only subtract simple shapes: to make engraved text you simply set the text’s color to “hole” and voila.
@bluevoid… for SketchUp, you need plugins to do good designs… Creating spheres, you can use follow tools (built-in)… round three edges of a cube => use RoundCorner plugin by Fredo…
Anyone trying Blender?? Open source free 3D modelling software… and it is cross-platform… windows, mac and linux all supported
Sketchup and Designspark Mechanical
I started on Sketchup, now I am moving over to Designspark. Designspark feels like a more advanced Sketchup, and with a few tutorials, I am gaining proficiency fast.
Thanx for teaching me :). Especially the ‘hole’ color of tinkercad text, I would not have found that.
I intend to print designs from friends and family on my printer aswell and will point them to tinkercad to design as it is a very easy to start with.
That will save me from questions like: “Can you design this for me?” and still enable them to do it them selves.
[quote name=bluevoid]Thanx for teaching me :). Especially the ‘hole’ color of tinkercad text, I would not have found that.
I intend to print designs from friends and family on my printer aswell and will point them to tinkercad to design as it is a very easy to start with.
That will save me from questions like: “Can you design this for me?” and still enable them to do it them selves.
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My pleasure. Tinkercad is amazingly simple and powerful at the same time. Anyone, even a small child, can start designing things in just minutes, yet it can also fill the needs of professionals like myself. Of course I cannot make final, tooling-ready drawings with it, but for R&D and proof-of-concept prototypes it does what I need in most cases.
Huh, Tinkercad does look pretty good for simple objects anyways. I’ll have to give it a try tonight.
[quote name=petrusyap]@bluevoid… for SketchUp, you need plugins to do good designs… Creating spheres, you can use follow tools (built-in)… round three edges of a cube => use RoundCorner plugin by Fredo…
Anyone trying Blender?? Open source free 3D modelling software… and it is cross-platform… windows, mac and linux all supported
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I’ve been playing around with Blender to learn the software. It’s intricate, but once I get the hang of it I think it will be the best one to use. I had a design made for me I came up with from a guy using Sketchup. It seems ok but not as complex as I designed it cause Sketchup has limitations but I heard its the easiest to use.
Cheers. Can’t wait to get the Mac Zsuite and get started printing. Have fun
[quote name=JuliaTruchsess]Actually Tinkercad can now do rounded edges via shape scripts. And it is not true that it can only subtract simple shapes: to make engraved text you simply set the text’s color to “hole” and voila.
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Is that done with the MetaFillet generator or is there a better one?
[quote name=The6uest][quote=JuliaTruchsess]Actually Tinkercad can now do rounded edges via shape scripts. And it is not true that it can only subtract simple shapes: to make engraved text you simply set the text’s color to “hole” and voila.
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Is that done with the MetaFillet generator or is there a better one?
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I just browsed the pre-made shape script objects and found “rounded edge cube” by “Tony”. Using the script parameters you can make it any dimensions and any radius you want. Note that the dimensions specified in the script do not link to the resizing controls in the drawing space (or at least they didn’t when I last used it, maybe they worked on that in the recent update) so the radius will change if you resize it in the drawing space.
julia
Thanks, I’ll check that one out!