Design Software

[figworthy]

Afternoon all.

 

I'm starting to look at the design software for 3D printing.  I've not got anything too elaborate in mind at the moment for projects to print.  Looking through the various threads here, the options look as though they may be :

 

Blender

Fusion 360

Sketchup

 

A someone coming into this with no real CAD experience, which would be the best to use ?

 

Thanks

Adrian

[rue_d_etropal]

I recommend looking at any free trials to see what is best for you. I was recommended Alibre(it then became Geomagic Design, but is now back to Alibre), it had a free trial period, and I made sure I had the time to fully use it.

[Quarryscapes]

Of those 3, Skecthup is by far the easiest. There are some caveats with Sketchup though, you always need to work 'scaled up', you need a plugin to export STL files for printing and you will need to run those STLs through Netfabb to repair any errors. 

 

Fusion 360 is more powerful if you think you'll ever want to do any CNC machining rather than 3D printing. It is a lot harder to use as you really need to plan how you're going to assemble your model before you start. It has some annoying features missing and lots of quirks, but unlike Sketchup you can export STLs directly and they need no further work.

 

Blender..well I tried blender, don't think I ever managed to create anything with it as it was just horrible. 

[rue_d_etropal]

One reason I suggest people try several packages is that each person is different and some find it easier to use one package and some another. Alibre was recommended to me by Tom Bell (Tebee), and between us we probably have more designs out there than anyone else. I tried Sketchup but could not get on with it. remember it was originally developed to design landscapes for Google Map, and Blender is again more a landscape(for computer games) tool. Resizing designs should not be viewed as a nice extra, but an essential part of any design package used for what is essentially engineering. There is also the issue of commercial licences. Mny of the free packages donon't allow you to use it commercially. If you only want to design stuff for yourself, then OK, but it you want to sell items, then you should really get a commercial licence.

Edited August 20, 2017 by rue_d_etropal

[thegavs]

I use freecad which seems similar to Fusion 360 and works on Linux.   It seems ok and is free.

[eldavo]

DesignSpark Mechanical available free from RS components is my tool of choice. Similar in some respects to Fusion 360 but with less function and thus a bit simpler to use.?

 

Cheers

Dave

[figworthy]

Thanks for the suggestions, hopefully I'll have time for a play over the weekend.

 

Adrian

[Gt.Shefford]

If your starting from scratch I would suggest Fusion360 for ease of use and quality of video tutorials. It has the advantage of being a solid modeler so there will be none of the issues commonly encountered with surface modelers such as blender and sketch-up.

 

Jonathan

[rue_d_etropal]

sounds like Fusion360 is more like what I use. Certainly recommend these types of packages, but depending on what you plan to do, check out costs. Mine ony has a one off payment(unless you want all the support bells and whistles). I certainly could knock up one of those wheels. More an issue of print quality, specially for something that would get a lot of wear and tare.

[tjf4375]

Personally I've found Sketchup to be very powerful and more than capable of creating workable STLs for 3D printing. I use a tool called solidinspector to check components in SKP before exporting to STL format and so far that has worked almost flawlessly. Sketchup has a particular way of working which doesn't suit everyone, but if you do click with it you can get some great results. It's free as well, unless you go for the extra features in the pro version. I would definitely recommend it to anyone for its intuitiveness, and there are plenty of tutorials and addons out there as well.

[figworthy]

Personally I've found Sketchup to be very powerful and more than capable of creating workable STLs for 3D printing. I use a tool called solidinspector to check components in SKP before exporting to STL format and so far that has worked almost flawlessly. Sketchup has a particular way of working which doesn't suit everyone, but if you do click with it you can get some great results. It's free as well, unless you go for the extra features in the pro version. I would definitely recommend it to anyone for its intuitiveness, and there are plenty of tutorials and addons out there as well.

 

Thanks for recommendation.

 

I've downloaded Sketchup, and whilst it is happy to install, it won't run.  It tells me that I've got the wrong drivers on my (Intel) graphics card, and according to Intel, there are no newer drivers for it.  It needs OpenGl 3.0 (or better), and I'm on 2.1.  It seems a bit extreme to have to buy a new graphics card just to run the software.

 

Fusion 360 has some details on the system requirements (amount of memory on the graphics card), but nothing about drivers related information.  However looking at the T&Cs, they seem rather keen on data acquistion (or am I reading too much into them).

 

Blender installs, and starts, so it looks as though I'll be playing with that this afternoon.

 

Adrian

[David Bigcheeseplant]

I use Fusion 360 and find is really good, I tried sketch up and just found it not to my taste.

 

Attached is a building I have drawn up and it took about an hour to get to this stage.

Edited August 28, 2017 by David Bigcheeseplant

[Gt.Shefford]

I've downloaded Sketchup, and whilst it is happy to install, it won't run.  It tells me that I've got the wrong drivers on my (Intel) graphics card, and according to Intel, there are no newer drivers for it.  It needs OpenGl 3.0 (or better), and I'm on 2.1.  It seems a bit extreme to have to buy a new graphics card just to run the software.

 

That's the inherent 'problem' with surface modelers, they lean very heavily on the graphics card rather than the processor. As an example I use Rhino and the graphics card in my desktop cost almost as much as the rest of the PC.

 

Jonathan

[tjf4375]

It is true that Sketchup is a graphics heavy platform. It also does not seem to be supported on Intel graphics chipsets, which means a lot of laptops and desktops using onboard graphics will have problems. The system requirements for sketchup are stated on their website as follows:

 

Recommended hardware

• 2+ GHz processor
• 8+ GB RAM
• 700MB of available hard-disk space
• 3D class video card with 1GB of memory or higher and supports hardware acceleration. Please ensure that the video card driver supports OpenGL version 3.0 or higher and is up to date.
  SketchUp's performance relies heavily on the graphics card driver and its ability to support OpenGL 3.0 or higher. To test your graphics card's compatibility, please download and run the SketchUp 2017 Checkup application. Historically, people have seen problems with Intel-based cards with SketchUp. We don't recommend using these graphics cards with SketchUp at this time

Minimum hardware

• 1 GHz processor
• 4GB RAM
• 16GB of total hard-disk space
• 500MB of free hard-disk space
• 3D-class video card with 512MB of memory or higher and supports hardware acceleration. Please ensure that the video card driver supports OpenGL version 3.0 or higher and is up to date.

[Gerald Henriksen]

 

Fusion 360 has some details on the system requirements (amount of memory on the graphics card), but nothing about drivers related information.  However looking at the T&Cs, they seem rather keen on data acquistion (or am I reading too much into them).

 

 

You can choose to allow/disallow the sharing for information - and you can later change your mind in the preferences section of 360.  For those interested Autodesk has a page describing what and why:

 

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/fusion-360-information-about-product-usage

 

Another feature of 360 that might interest some is that a version is also available for Android and iOS, and while I doubt that you can necessarily make models on a phone or tablet it could be useful if you want to go out and compare your creation with the prototype, or to even evaluate and ponder your creation while commuting or on a quick work break.

[AndyH]

Re data acquisition in software companies such as AutoDesk, as opposed to web companies whose interest is in your marketable data, they are really only interested in you as another beta tester. How has it 'broken'? What hardware are you using? How were you using it?

Their interest is in a stable product with great features that has a high market share.

Fusion360 is a new model for AutoDesk, that for me works well. As Gerald above wrote, you can opt out of sharing data.

Blender can produce some good results. I don't find it that intuitive.

SketchUp was revolutionary, but even with the 'plugins' I still find some features frustrating, though it is quick to learn the basics and it is intuitive.

Fusion360 allows me to work quickly and accurately. It is now my primary 3D package (used SketchUp, Rhino, solidworks, AutoCAD, 3DSMax for years)

I'd look at online videos of tutorial projects for each package to see what looks easiest for you.

Edited August 29, 2017 by AndyH

[rue_d_etropal]

cost is something you have to seriously consider. If you only want a few items for yourself, then low cost/free software is OK. If you want to do more then you need to think how much you are prepared to spend.

Most packages seem to be in effect on a rental/lease system, so you hae to keep paying a fee. Some are more like the software you got on a disc, and you can keep using it over the years( I still use some very old software, which I seem to get to work even on Windows 10!) . My CAD software did not come on a disc, but it is only a one off payment, which unfortunately does mean I have to buy another copy when I upgrade computer. Still cheaper than some packages though, but really I need a more powerful computer(Windows 10 is a bit of a hindrence I think).