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Best 3D Software


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Hi all, my kids are wanting a 3D printer for Xmas

It's a good idea- they clearly are the way to the future engineering and with NASA seriously talking of 3D printing moonbases, and seeing a bridge, a house, metal parts for aircraft, and model trains, just wow.

They are 13 & 11, and 3DCAD seemed too difficult for them

Clearly Models are something for me as well!

There is now Software thread, so starting with recommendations for the kids, we could also discuss merits/experience of other programs?

Many thanks in anticipation....

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I'd say there is no best, it depends on your use case and personal preference.


I tried most of the free packages out there - Shapr3D, SketchUp, FreeCaD, Fusion 360, 3D Builder and TinkerCAD off the top of my head!

 

I found Fusion 360 the best, it just seemed to work the way my mind did. It's a steep learning curve, but there are lots of videos out there; I used some of Lars Christiensen's ones, but then ultimately just spent time playing. 

 

Shapr3D was good if you have a suitable iPad (and Apple Pencil), but too restrictive in it's free guise for what I wanted for 3D printing, and I didn't want to pay.

 

3D Builder (the native W10 app) is very simple, and may be a place to start, but I found it too simple. Personally none of the others worked for me, but others will vary.

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FWIW: I love Sketchup. (Couldn't get my mind around Fusion 360 yet).

 

Sketchup's working method is very easy to get to grips with (to explain it in very simple terms: drawing 2d shapes then extruding them to 3d) and from that simple foundation you can go on to do very complex things if you need to.

 

Not sure if the free online version will export STL files for 3D printing, though.

 

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5 hours ago, Harlequin said:

FWIW: I love Sketchup. (Couldn't get my mind around Fusion 360 yet).

 

Sketchup's working method is very easy to get to grips with (to explain it in very simple terms: drawing 2d shapes then extruding them to 3d) and from that simple foundation you can go on to do very complex things if you need to.

 

Not sure if the free online version will export STL files for 3D printing, though.

 

 

It does indeed. I export to .stl from the free version.

 

After getting a little used to Sketchup, I tried TInkerCad & found it very strange. I did not persevere so maybe I judged it prematurely?

It made me feel that the program you use promotes a way of thinking which works with it. If you then try another which works very differently, it takes a while to adapt.

 

This would be true of most 3d design programs but I also find it useful for drawing 3d plans of buildings. It allows me to get the scale of the walls, roof angles etc correct much more easily than drawing then building prototypes with card.

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I write 2D drawing software for a living - have done for 20+ years - and we've always tried to make our program very intuitive for our users. If we had ever been given the chance to write a 3D program it would have looked a lot like Sketchup, it has a similar ethos.

 

I love Sketchup so much that I (eventually) stumped up for a licence for the full version! (That's why I wasn't sure of the capabilities of the free version.)

 

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Start them on TinkerCad. It will give them the basics and get them going. It does not have too many tools to get lost over. (I teach this to 7 and 8 year olds). They will grow out of it but having the basics is a great start. 

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I use Fusion 360, but I've had previous experience

with other 3D CAD packages.

 

My biggest frustration is nothing to do with Fusion;

my PC isn't really up to running it.

I think I need a better graphics card.

Edited by rab
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There are so many different products out there that it's hard to know where to start, In engineering terms Fusion 360 is very good, but if they were to decide that in fact they preferred more organic shapes it's not very useful, find a selection of free (or very cheap) 3d software with plenty of online video tutorials and let the kids try each until they find something they get on with, I won't recommend the stuff I use at about £12K of software on my laptop it's not really starting level LOL 

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As some other people have said, Tinkercad is the best starting option in my opinion. It is designed for children, features some easy tutorials and allows users to produce something that they can then print without losing interest. You can produce more complex designs using Tinkercad, but i've found that it tends to struggle once you hit a certain number of concurrent objects. Hence why I really need to get round to learning Fusion 360...

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I'd agree with Tinkercad - its like building things in Lego, but it is capable of surprisingly good results. There is a lovely layout on here by Locksley where all the buildings were 3D printed on the photon after designing them in Tinkercad.

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/153874-frosts-mill/&tab=comments#comment-3935654

 

From there I think its horses for courses. Doing mainly architectural stuff I've found the 2017  Sketchup Make to be best. A) because its free B) because of all the extensions etc that can be added to it, many of them are written especially for architectural design. These extensions are community written and make Sketchup almost an opensource style programme  in terms of the community contributing to the programme and C) because I can run it on the standalone system that I've got, unlike most of the other packages like Fusion, Solidworks etc that need to contact a license server. 

 

Since Blender has done the 2.9 release to make its interface much more friendly, I've been dabbling in that again since that is also standalone, and the CAD style additions such as the push-pull style tool  that they've just added to it make it more Sketchup like so I can understand it a bit more.

Edited by monkeysarefun
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It's not been mentioned yet but you will also need a "slicing" program which produces the gCode that the printer needs. Again there are several out there. I use CURA, for my Filament printer (I believe Chitubox is better for resin printers) which is relatively simple but can be set up to allow a lot of tweaking.

 

You will get very frustrated if the settings for the gCode for your printer aren't right as it will lead to failed prints. The sample files that may come with your3d printer will have been optimised in a slicer program. Again there are many tutorials out there for CURA , or the other slicer programs.

 

Also it is worth reading up on how to set up your printer, leveling the bed, orienting the object etc before you print anything.

 

Having said all that, it is not overly complicated and is great to see something you have imagined appear as a 3d item on the printer.

 

Simon

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On 27/11/2020 at 19:48, DGO said:

There are so many different products out there that it's hard to know where to start, In engineering terms Fusion 360 is very good, but if they were to decide that in fact they preferred more organic shapes it's not very useful, find a selection of free (or very cheap) 3d software with plenty of online video tutorials and let the kids try each until they find something they get on with, I won't recommend the stuff I use at about £12K of software on my laptop it's not really starting level LOL 

I have been using Alibre for over 6 years. It is not free, but is not as expensive( a few hundeed not a few thousand!) as some others. Single payment, no annual fees. It is less push and pull, more design and measure. Suits me having spent many years in IT writing code. If something goes wrong it is relatively easy to debug, or work around, and it can do resizing with one simple line of code.  There is a free download, with limited time so if you have the time it is worth trying.

Oh, and as it is a fully commercial package you can use it for business. Some use free software  to create stuff to sell without realising they are not licensed to use it this way.

two problems, one is that it is not that good for organic shapes, although with more time and interset I might be able do those types of shaoes. Secondly, not the software, but my laptop really needs to be more powerful. Having said that it hasn't stopped me creating 100s of model designs, so far(fingers crossed).

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No one mentioned OnShape yet. That would be my longer term recommend* as long as you are content with sharing the designs in a community - probably not an issue with tween/teenagers - or the monthly fee to retain your IP. Everything in the cloud so no expensive graphics cards and fast processors to purchase either. It is closest to the expensive and very expensive mechanical CAD tools (SW, NX, Catia, Creo, ...) because that is exactly what it is. 

 

*Note that there are programs better suited to creating organic shapes.

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I would agree about Fusion 360 but the free version has some significant restrictions and the cost is beyond the value of the programme for modellers.

I have therefore started learning DesignSpark, available free on the RS Components website.

Their own tutorials are a bit limited and not up to date, but those from Fabrication Planet, on youtube seem very good.

Jim P

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I must say I’m yet to find any of the limitations of the free version of Fusion 360. I’m concerned they’ve changed the subscription model and mine expires in 2 days - hoping renewal is trivial...

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3 hours ago, njee20 said:

I must say I’m yet to find any of the limitations of the free version of Fusion 360. I’m concerned they’ve changed the subscription model and mine expires in 2 days - hoping renewal is trivial...

 

I renewed a couple of weeks back, and it was relatively painless.  Logged into their website, then downloaded and installed the software.  It looks as though you've got to do that, even though you've already got it installed.  Then you get the "Welcome to Fusion" email.  They suggest that you might have to wait a short while before you can use it, but I think I got in straight away.

 

Adrian

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