Ready to step up my game, need some advice.

- After a lot of practice, I'm now fairly competent with TinkerCAD; but I'm starting to feel frustrated with its limitations, especially not being able to measure stuff like inner diameter. I can kind of handle myself with Sketchup, but I always end up having to spend a lot of time fixing the reversed faces and other bits of junk that pop up over the course of designing a part. I've messed around in 123D Design as well, but I find the UI really difficult to navigate for some reason. Is there any intuitively-designed software out there made with 3D printing in mind that offers lots of features and tools but has a nice, shallow learning curve?

- Is there a simple way to ensure the parts I print will fit together? Outer diameters print too large, inner diameters print too small, and dovetails are an exercise in frustration. I spent an entire night printing test walls (.1 to 3 mm) and measuring them with a micrometer, and each one was oversized by as much as 10% (1.5 mm was the least bad, with an average of "only" +4%). This is frustrating and I can't help but think there is some reliable trick that people far smarter than me have already figured out.

Thanks for helping!

I don't know what your budget is, but if you can afford it I'd highly recommend SolidWorks. A bit of a learning curve, but there are plenty tutorials and once you've got it it's incredibly powerful. Once you build a couple parts, you can put them into an assembly and see how they'll fit together. If you're a student or work at a university you can get the educational license (the full-blown software with all bells and whistles) for $150 a year (which is pretty amazing for what you get).

I am a student in college and I can get Autodesk Inventor 2014 for Free. Some limitations apply (though I have not found any), but for the most part, it is fairly easy to learn. 

-Michael

Look into Designspark Mechanical. It's free and fairly easy to learn. It's also very good software. Similar to Sketchup but I think it's easier. I generally leave a .005 (.13mm) gap on parts in the drawing. Then I must use offsets for the holes in Z-suite. Mine prints holes about .13mm small. This leaves me with a nice fit. Screen shot of hinge for my enclosure.. yzOqNT.jpg

Thanks, everyone. That tip about leaving gaps in the sketch and offsets in Z-Suite is golden. I'm hitching my wagon to Inventor for now because it appears to have a large community (and, you know... free). Since I'll be going the self-taught route, a larger community translates to more video tutorials and quicker Googling of solutions to specific problems.

Autodesk has a really deep certification section on their website, which to me is complete silliness (because, you know... money) but I'm using their exam prep checklist to benchmark my progress. I can already nail the majority of their basic certification requirements, but I'm having a little bit of trouble wrapping my head around Constraints. There are, like, 20 different kinds of Constraints and I've yet to really understand any of their applications. Really starting to miss TinkerCAD's Align tool right now...

Thanks, everyone. That tip about leaving gaps in the sketch and offsets in Z-Suite is golden. I'm hitching my wagon to Inventor for now because it appears to have a large community (and, you know... free). Since I'll be going the self-taught route, a larger community translates to more video tutorials and quicker Googling of solutions to specific problems.

Autodesk has a really deep certification section on their website, which to me is complete silliness (because, you know... money) but I'm using their exam prep checklist to benchmark my progress. I can already nail the majority of their basic certification requirements, but I'm having a little bit of trouble wrapping my head around Constraints. There are, like, 20 different kinds of Constraints and I've yet to really understand any of their applications. Really starting to miss TinkerCAD's Align tool right now...

No Align tool in Inventor??

No Align tool in Inventor??

I think that's done via Constraints. More options on where/how to align stuff, which I guess is ultimately a good thing, but gone is the simple process of just clicking a couple of buttons.

I think that's done via Constraints. More options on where/how to align stuff, which I guess is ultimately a good thing, but gone is the simple process of just clicking a couple of buttons.

I'll stick with what I'm using.. :D

Okay, I think I like Designspark Mechanical more. Way shallower learning curve. I'm actually making stuff instead of watching YouTube tutorials.

Also, please tell me there's an official abbreviation for Designspark Mechanical and I won't have to type all of that out every time :)

"DSM"? "DS Mech"?

Also, please tell me there's an official abbreviation for Designspark Mechanical and I won't have to type all of that out every time :)

"DSM"? "DS Mech"?

I just use DS.. You will learn to love it as time goes on!!

ciRosQ8.jpg

Practicing with supportless threading. I figure it's a good way to figure out how to do interlocking parts. This one's an 18-degree angle, 45-degree didn't work. Going to try 30 next.

Still can't find the Align tool in DS :)

PS. The bolt's head isn't actually that big. Damned wide angle lens.

Use "move"  select direction, then the "up to" the little box that pops up and pick your point. Might have to do it on X and Y but it will align to any axis, face or line. By default it selects the middle of part moving but you can drag the move to different faces by grabbing the ball on the XYZ arrows.

ciRosQ8.jpg

Practicing with supportless threading. I figure it's a good way to figure out how to do interlocking parts. This one's an 18-degree angle, 45-degree didn't work. Going to try 30 next.

Still can't find the Align tool in DS :)

PS. The bolt's head isn't actually that big. Damned wide angle lens.

45 should work fine if you use .14 layer height.

You can also YouTube “spaceclaim” Most of the stuff is the same.

Go to the end of this to see how he aligns the top and bottom of the box. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0HEF-5DnTw

Here's more.. I've never watched these.. Just got through the first one.. https://www.youtube.com/user/DesignSpark/videos

I may be getting the hang of this. Made a new mount for my Dropcam, since the old one doesn't fit in the enclosure. If this fits on the first try, it'll be a miracle.

si8d9Xr.jpg

Looks good!!

Thanks :)

I forgot to take vertical clearance into account and it ended up about 20mm too tall. Corrected version is printing now.