3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

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JamesB
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3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by JamesB »

Hi guys.
Again asking for the help of this great group :D
Let's see... here's again the old classic PS sheet+epoxy putty old fashion modeler trying to upgrade to modern modeler :lol:
I won'ty deny it's with great envy I see you guys do excellent stuff with 3D printers... (Christian, Thomas, anyone listening in Germany? :lol: :lol: Edgar?? a bit nearer...? :lol: ) and surely I'd try to have a go myself.
I admit I'd be happy with things such as mechanical parts to start with.
So far I've tried with 123D from Autodesk. It's probably a crappy program I know.
I usually see how lost people are when it comes to decal printing. I have been doing that for some 20 years now (hell time flies!! :cry: :o ) and I see how people miss a varied array of things, as if decals draw themselves, or if just with a picture you press a key and get a wonderful decal. So I know from both sides that you don't know how much you don't know, when you don't know. So I am quite aware that I am in this same case.
Lets see, I don't know if, for instance, I draw a thing with 123D, and regardless its a quite simple thing, the crappiness of the software with which it was done makes it even worse. I don't know the process between the drawing and the printable thing and I don't really know how much detail can be lost.

Then (partly from this) comes the importance of software. I'd want something that quite simply allows to draw precise shapes as I can do with Corel or Autocad, and then extrude, rotate, slice, sum and rest solids etc, chisel, roundish... not much more. I tried Meshmixer and honestly did not know where to start from, for instance.
So I'd like to know from you guys what softwares would allow the red text target above, and what computer specs are you needing for this.
I mean, if someone asks me what's the minimal to make ALPS decals, I'd easily give a quite precise idea. But fpor the theme asked, I am in the shadows.
I remember I could do that with an old Autocad version 20 years ago with a PC that could not be a rocket (at the office, I don't have them any longer!) , but I wonder if, for instance, 3GHz speed and, say, 8B GB RAM I can reasonably do something. I am near to invest in buying something (tight budget) and I would not want to fall short :roll: :lol:
All examples will be more than welcome. :D Thanks in advance!!
BR
James
Last edited by JamesB on Fri Apr 22, 2022 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by BMW »

Excellent topic start James! :D

I have not much to contribute with, but I am going to read when smarter people write!
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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by gp-models »

I just started with the same knowledge like you, 21 years back i learned AutoCAD R13 but never used it and all i learned was gone when i bought my 3D Printer and i thought how should i fix the issue with CAD drawing.
I watched around which software was available for free ( did not want to buy one cause i did not knew if i will get i done finaly), asked some people for advise and tried a few with more or less success. Starting with Meshmixxer as beginner is like having a real hard time, its very complex in the way of thinking when creating parts of even bigger things like a complete car.
FInaly to make it short i sticked to Fusion 360 which is easy to use and learn, tons of videos around on youtube where you only need to follow the way they did it, much more then on other softwares.
In my opinion it is easier to start with some parts then trying to design a complete car, for that case it is very simple to use. Ok there are issues in the beginning to understand how it works, but it is not hard to follow and understand, especially with some advise from videos and with using it more often, you become more experienced and the work will go faster. In the beginning it takes time, sometimes a lot cause even the videos shows sometimes not essential stuff why they did it that way and not other, but you find out why when growing in experience.
All i can say is that Fusion is realy nice made, but with only 8GB RAM it can be a bit short, don`t remember what is the lowest value you should have, i`m using 16GB Ram and it works fine.
A good point in Fusion is also that you can export the files in different forms, most likely is STL as you can use this data straight for your 3D printing software.
Fusion is also from Autodesk, so if you have an account at autodesk, you can easy install Fusion. There is a free version for download as well as the pay version, simply choose the free version and don`t wonder that it calls for only 4 weeks of testing, it will work after the 4 weeks as well.
Hope this helps to clear some questions, i use Meshmixxer more likely to cut bigger parts or something like this, not for design. Blender is realy tough to learn, lots of functions that you don`t need for 3D printing like videofunctions and so on, it would not be my choice to start with that for creating parts.
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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by daniel »

Nice topic...

I did quite a lot of 3d printing but didn't do much modelling lately due to summer-other-hobbys-excuse. Since I do 3D Animation (www.3dgrafix.de) for over 20 years now, creating modesl is no big deal. But I use a little different approach. I use an entertainment software (https://www.autodesk.eu/products/maya/o ... bscription)
It can pretty much do the same then packages like AutoCAD etc ....but not really the same. Most construction softwares use NURBS but in the entertainment industry we mainly use Polygons. So what is easier to learn ????? ...I would say Polygons.

So what software should you use. Honestly no idea what is the easiest to learn. Compared to programs like Illustrator or Photoshop 3d is really hard. One idea may be to look at https://www.blender.org/ it's free, has a massive community, has a great modeller but again it's Polygon modelling....is it good or bad dont know !? I have modelled everything I printed in Polys so far.

An idea....maybe search fo a modelling tutorial of a simple object and try to follow it and see if the workflow suits you. OK you will get tons of other tool in the program besides modelling but you can simply ignore them.

Does that help :)
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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by MoFo »

Fusion 360.

(not what I use, but it's free, and does exactly what you're looking for)
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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by JamesB »

THanks guys!! :D soo much help, really grateful.
Please others keep them coming, any shared experience is worth it.
Thanks daniel, nice idea.
Thanks gp-m, the historic evolution is quite useful :D I see how the process may be!
Thanks also Mofo and BMW 8)
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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by indycals »

You need to find an app that thinks like you do. When I first started dabbling - 10 years ago now - I tried blender and found it to be one of the worst options out there. My impression was it's great if you're doing animation, not so great of 3d printing. A lot could have changed in 10 years. I finally settled on Rhinoceros. https://www.rhino3d.com

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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by dmarek »

my simplified take:..It depends on how you work...I use Autodesk ALIAS because its wireframe is like drawing linework then filling in between like a sketch. I use Maya as well but it is more like clay model sculpting... It comes down to taking the time to learn the software -I suggest pick something you want to build and know well and reverse engineer...In the end you will open up a whole new modeling world!
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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by Steffen_T »

I recently installed the free software SketchUp make 2017 to try my first steps in 3D drawing.
I got trouble getting into it, but once I got a bit used to it, it worked fine for me.
As I haven't read this software’s name in this thread yet, I wonder if anyone else has experience using it?

Regardless the software you are going to use, I think it is most important to start with something very easy, and slowly progress to more and more complex objects.
My first project was this Fujimi tire Stencil holder:
(Originally just one. The second was added later and connected to the first to have just one object)
Image

This is the third attempt.
The first one took four hours and resulted in an object with several problems!
The second took one and a half hours and already looked decent.
The third one was done in half an hour and was perfect!
I am writing this to give you an idea how fast you can improve your skills, once you understand how the software works. At first it might appear as a waste of time, but it surely isn't. Accept that you might fail with your first objects. You will learn from your mistakes very quickly!
The stencil holder was delivered a few days ago from shapeways, and for a first attempt I am quite satisfied.
Image

Image
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Re: 3D Drawing/Printing Computer/Software advice needed!!

Post by steinietrabi »

Steffen, can you tell me what kind of material your template is made of?
Greetings Thomas
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