scanman Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Hi all - Title says it all, really. I've seen several 'mentions' of the 3-D printing process on various forums and it's something I'd like to use to develop my own modelling skills. Currently I have access to TurboCAD and Google Sketchup, so the first question is - which is best (I'm not overly familiar with either in 3D, but use TurboCAD for model building design in 2D). Current plans include using the process in the '2011 Challenge' (the 'Viewpoint' entry, possibly going as far as to attemp a complete (non-working) train - double headed by a 'Star' & 'Hall'. Actual models are inappropriate as the concept means the train will diminish in scalle over its length! Ant help gratefuly received& I'll be watching (and hopefully contributing) with anticipation! Regs Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
backofanenvelope Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 Hi Ian and welcome to this little corner of RMweb... Well CAD is really horses for courses as like most things in the computer world there a number of ways of doing things and its down to personal preferences or feature sets of each program. Sketchup then by @last Software started out as a Architectural CAD program and as such was not meant to be for mechanical/product design but has evolved into this indirectly, and was one of the first pieces of software I brought. But if you look here further down the page you can see what can be achived. I too have access to Turbocad on both Mac and PC and so far am finding learning curve pretty steep! As most of the other packages are either way out of my budget or require yearly subscription I settled on TC but most to the same things in different ways. Anyway I hope that has cleared the fog a little and maybe others can give you more detail. Regards Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scanman Posted June 14, 2011 Author Share Posted June 14, 2011 Hi Ian and welcome to this little corner of RMweb... Well CAD is really horses for courses as like most things in the computer world there a number of ways of doing things and its down to personal preferences or feature sets of each program. Sketchup then by @last Software started out as a Architectural CAD program and as such was not meant to be for mechanical/product design but has evolved into this indirectly, and was one of the first pieces of software I brought. But if you look here further down the page you can see what can be achived. I too have access to Turbocad on both Mac and PC and so far am finding learning curve pretty steep! As most of the other packages are either way out of my budget or require yearly subscription I settled on TC but most to the same things in different ways. Anyway I hope that has cleared the fog a little and maybe others can give you more detail. Regards Tom Tom - Thanks for that. I can relate to TC's 'learning curve' - more like 'loop the loop'! I'll probably persevere with it tho - it seems to handle cones (a la most GWR boilers!) easier than 'sketchup'. I see lots of midnight oil being burned... Regs Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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