3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: [email protected] or [email protected]
There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]
Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
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No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
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Do not create links to reddit
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If you see an issue please flag it
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No guns
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No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
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I haven't used Google Sketchup since 2017/2018 so take this with a grain of salt.
Sketchup is a simple to use, and a very beginner friendly CAD program, with crippling limited capabilities for my needs. I moved to Fusion 360 around 2017/2018 since I wasn't able to make the shapes I wanted to. Chamfers, Fillets, and referencing previous parts for current designs.
If you are making simple shapes Sketchup is good, like boxes and circles... I feel it's a step up from what I've seen of TinkerCAD. But I feel a better comparison for FreeCAD is with Fusion 360.
For what tools I need with designing 3D Printable parts, FreeCAD is comparable with Fusion 360. It's just missing some Quality of Life features, like Chamfers that go beyond the edge and cut into a part, or text that can warp to a cylinder or exist between points A & B. There are some plugins that help and do work, but not to the same extent that Fusion does.
With that said play with the tool enough and you will find workarounds and alternatives that might even make your models better.
Thank you. Exactly the kind of comment I was looking for. You are exactly right about sketchup, way too many limitations.
Edit: went with Solidworks. Tried out FreeCAD and just couldn’t wrap my head around it, the workflow seemed too disjointed. For some reason Soldiworks clicked right away despite my dislike of F360’s system and the similarities between the two. Yeah, not free, but for a few bucks a month for the Maker subscription I couldn’t argue. None of Autodesk’s constant fuckery with license agreements and feature reductions.