3d printer software

I took the class about a year ago before covid but never used them, is the class what you call the moodle?

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I found it, the online class, Thanks

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Start with Tinkercad. Their website is online and it has easy-to-follow tutorials. It’s designed for kids. It’s here:

Once you’ve mastered that, you’ll quickly figure out that it has significant limitations. You’ll want to move on to Solidworks or Fusion 360. Solidworks is a CAD modeling program that costs $4,000 for a license but they offer a limited number of yearly licenses to us for free.

I’m a Soliddork, so I can answer questions you have. I plan on teaching an introductory class soon, and if you give me your email address, I’ll alert you when I’ve put it on the schedule. Maybe I could even pick my lecture date to match your own schedule.

DT

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The machines accept gcode, which is the file that a slicer program creates. Any capable slicer should work.

We prefer that you use KiSSlicer, which is installed on the computers in 3D fab. Our KiSSlicer copy on the jump server intermittently messes up my files, so I wouldn’t use that one.

Sounds great David, would love to take the class

I’ve never used it but I have heard that Blender is a good free option.

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ZBrush for 3d sculpting is a good choice for more artistic sculptural projects. They have a cheaper scaled back version that you can learn on for 9.95 a month that you can cancel anytime. https://store.pixologic.com/zbrushcore-2021/

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Blender has a very steep learning curve. It’s designed for sophisticated animation, which often requires 3D objects, so you can manipulate them. I may be wrong, but I don’t think it has CAD design tools anywhere near the sophistication of Fusion360, Inventor, Catia, or Solidworks. It’s not suitable for a beginner – and maybe not even for an expert.

[For those who don’t know, Inventor is the big brother of Fusion360.]

As someone who struggled to learn the basics in kid-friendly TinkerCAD, I have no doubt Blender has a tremendous learning curve. Just throwing it out there because “free” is alluring to some folks.

Also, some folks do 3d-printing design in Sketchup (another one that I struggle with every time I use it).

FreeCAD should also be mentioned. It’s like solidworks or inventor but actually FOSS so no weird or expensive licensing issues using it. I’m trying to learn it so I get off my fusion 360 dependency. Tinkercad is still amazing for what it is and it’s saved my butt many times trying to make something quick.

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Same. I designed a part from start to finish and got it 3D printed right before COVID struck. It was difficult to learn but it felt good knowing I wouldn’t need a paid product to open the design in a couple years.

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Solidworks also has an output to 3D print. I have not tried it yet.

I’ve been dabbling in using Blender to create items for 3D printing. Been finding it easier than ever, they’ve really worked on the UI and its much easier to use (Don’t get me wrong, its still intense)

I’m actually drawing up a class to teach folks how to go from Blender to Printer.

Absolutely recommend Tinkercad though. It is simple, but powerful

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You might also speak with @Hanna_Kessler. She’s an avid 3D printer and I believe she said that she teaches Blender.

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Thanks Chris! I’ll send her a message

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Hey Steven,

There are many good answers in this thread, but I wanted to provide an oversimplified, long-winded, general overview.

Here’s the flow for printing a part:

  1. Design part
  2. Export part as an STL
  3. Process the STL in a slicer. This will produce GCODE, a simple text language that tells the 3D printer where to move and how quickly.
  4. Send the GCODE to the 3D printer. At the 'Space, we use Octoprint to send GCODE to the PolyPrinters.

Choosing the software for design can get a bit nebulous.
Generally, 3D design software falls into two categories: solid and shell modeling.

Solid modeling is most often used for mechanical applications, and includes SolidWorks, Fusion360, Inventor, Catia, FreeCAD, and similar. Some of these allow for parametric modeling, which makes it incredibly easy to retroactively edit your geometry. In a solid modeling program, you’ll edit shapes directly - the software uses shape objects. Create a cylinder in a solid modeler, and the application understands it’s a circle extruded to a particular height. Solid modeling programs will allow you to export a STEP file, which is an ISO standard file format for describing geometry in terms of shape objects. I’d use this for complex mechanical assembly, where you might need precise measurements, the ability to resize objects easily, and you’re not aiming for significant superficial detail (such as wrinkles on a person’s face).

Shell modeling is typically used for non-mechanical geometry and animation, and may also be called “mesh modeling”. Blender, ZBrush, and Maya, 3ds Max are examples here. Typically, this sort of modeling software represents surfaces with triangles, NURBS, or similar shapes, instead of shape objects. Internally, mesh/surface/boundary modeling software represents shapes by approximating them with triangles, curves, or other concepts. If you create a cylinder in this sort of program, it’ll be represented as a bunch of triangles, splines, etc., but not as a “cylinder”. I’d use this if I wanted to make an animated 3D movie, sculpt complex organic shapes, or other high-detail work that doesn’t require precise measurement or easy resizing. This type of modeling software likely won’t allow you to export a STEP file.

There are some complications to this explanation. For example, Fusion360 is primarily a solid modeling tool, but does have a surface modeling module. Also, you can use mesh modeling to model mechanical things, or solid modeling to sculpt complex organic geometry, but doing so may be more difficult.

Pretty much all 3D modeling software can export an STL file, which has become the standard for 3D printing. There are a few backronyms for STL, but I like “Standard Tessellation Language”. This is a triangle mesh that approximates the geometry of your design in CAD software. For example, if you create a circle in a solid modeler, then export it as an STL and zoom in, you’ll notice the circle is not truly a circle, but hundreds or thousands of straight line segments.

Pretty much all slicers will accept an STL file and generate GCODE for the printer. However, there are now several different flavors of GCODE, so it’s important to verify your slicer will export a flavor of GCODE compatible with your printer. Kiss Slicer at the 'Space is configured to export the correct flavor of GCODE for the PolyPrinters.

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Blender has recently undergone a massive overhaul which actually makes it a lot more beginner friendly. It is definitely not going to offer the CAD tools you need if creating precise parts is important to you. However it is a great option for beginners to 3D printing to design and create something cool. The sculpting tools have been overhauled and are actually quite decent now, and even poly modeling isn’t too bad. I wouldn’t sho beginners away from it, certainly easier to learn than Maya.

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It works great! Save as .stl and import it into any slicer. Maintains scale perfectly.

Be fair to yourself, kids have a much easier time working in a 3D digital space. I found kids did a lot better jumping straight into blender so I started skipping Tinkercad when teaching my 3D printing classes. It’s just like a video game to them so they understand it pretty quick.

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I started designing with Google Sketchup (there’s an STL export plugin). Later, I began using more OpenSCAD because of my programming background and the advantages of parametric design. OpenSCAD is also the engine behind Thingiverse’s Customizer, so being able to share easily modifiable models is nice.

I also use TinkerCAD, especially if I want to tweak an STL for which a higher-level representation is not available. I like it’s subtraction and union features which make stretching and merging parts of STL models easier to visualize and execute.

Note that I make mostly practical engineer-type models (tools, cases, parts, etc) - not organic, flowing models (trees, monsters, people, et al). None of the above tools are well suited for that latter class of models.

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