this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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3DPrinting

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Just want to thank everyone that engaged with my post today everyone was so chill and inspiring. I want to encourage us all in this community and all over Lemmy to continue to be kind and helpful. I had so many bad experiences on Reddit with hate keepers and know it alls and I’m glad we got this opportunity to be something better.

Ps: what cad software did you start on and what do you use now? Any tips and tricks will be greatly appreciated!

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[–] lanolinoil 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you code at all OpenSCAD

If you've never done modeling at all TinkerCAD

If you want the easiest experience Fusion360

If you live the FOSS doctrine -- FreeCAD

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's possible that I'm not familiar enough with it, but in my experience OpenSCAD makes the vast majority of projects take way longer compared to non-scripting-based CAD software. I learned Onshape for a class and haven't used OSCAD since. (though it definitely still has some niche uses)

[–] lanolinoil 1 points 1 year ago

I find the same thing but It seems clear to me if you understood 3d geometry really well you would have a ton of benefit

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you're new to 3d design I usually recommend starting with Tinkercad. I moved from there to Fusion 360. Fusion is a huge pain in the butt if you don't want to way them large sums of money, but it's the cad software I most enjoy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Step 1. Start with TinkerCAD
Step 2. Graduate to Fusion 360
Step 3. Go back to TinkerCAD because F360 was difficult
Final Step. Read other people's comments about moving to Fusion 360 and cry a little

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

: Perhaps I should learn this OpenSCAD thing or maybe FreeCAD. Then I would have all the fancy features and I'd never have to worry about paying for such software.

Actually, there exists no commercial equivalent to OpenSCAD that I'm aware of. Those doing generative design via code in industry are already using OpenSCAD or they're using truly custom stuff.

Pro tip: Use the latest nightly build of OpenSCAD from their website and enable the new features that speed up rendering times by like 1000% 👍

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The manifold renderer is a game changer. I seriously didn't like OpenSCAD before that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I made the jump using youtube tutorials but it's been a few years so I don't remember which to recommend. One of the reasons I keep using fusion is that it's ability to move back and forth through design history so so well made it easier to overcome my early screw ups.

[–] bemenaker 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For learning or use. Fusion 360 still offers a free version for home use. There are great tutorials on YouTube or buy a $30/month Udemy account and get access to tons of courses and everything else in their library and cancel when you're done learning.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

For Mac and Windows only, limited to 10 editable designs and 1 drawing at a time.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The window part kills me... Wish there was a real Linux alternative.

[–] fhein 4 points 1 year ago

Last time I checked it almost worked in Wine.. No issues with the actual CAD stuff, but IIRC the window for managing projects was broken so once I had reached the limits of the free version I couldn't close any open projects.

I use FreeCAD primarily. It's powerful but the UI is a bit clunky and occasionally you have to spend a lot of time on something that feels like it ought to be a simple operation. Perhaps I ought to try OpenSCAD too

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used to run Fusion 360 in Chrome on my Chromebook and then chromium when I flashed the Chromebook to Ubuntu after my support schedule ended. I get it for free through the school district where I work and am using my two licenses on my computer and on my friend's computer where I definitely do much of my modeling. -cough- lie -cough-

If you or anyone you know has an email account from an educational institution, you should be able to access it for free!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Shit I didn't know about the education email thing, I'll have to give that a shot soon.

I'm currently using the hobby license of it.

[–] bemenaker 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But you can save your files locally, and then delete them. The 10 file limit isn't really a limit. It's an annoyance.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can just need to switch them between editble and read-only to save the hassle. But I have 14 on-going projects right now, it's a giant pain to keep within that limit.

[–] bemenaker 1 points 1 year ago

I didn't realize you could toggle them. Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The 10 file limit really isn't that bad, I just set my files in Fusion 360 from "editable" to "read only" and it frees up more space.

Then if I need to edit an older one I just go in reverse.

And the 1 drawing at a time thing I didn't know was a thing as I normally only have 1 open but there have been a couple times I've been working in more than 1.

[–] lanolinoil 7 points 1 year ago

lol hatekeepers. I'm going to use that -- what an apt term

[–] TeXitoi 7 points 1 year ago

First design was on freecad. The others on openscad.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Fusion 360. Free for home use and it's really not as bad as some people make it out to be. A little tricky to get the hang of first but there are thousands of tutorials out there.

I had absolutely zero 3d modeling experience prior to diving into fusion360 and I am still really new to it, but I'm quite enjoying it.

[–] overzeetop 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The tutorials for F360 are numerous, and some very good, you just have to find one that supports the current build. I still struggle with the invisible auto constraints it inexplicably adds and the apparent inability to modify constraint hierarchy (I had a couple thousand hours of Pro/E back in the day), and I throw things when they don’t have all the mathematical ways to create construction objects. Aside from that it’s a good tool as long as you’re working with solid objects and not meshes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yea that is the one thing I noticed. Trying to work with a mesh was damn near impossible for me. Makes it annoying if i'm trying to modify an existing .stl. Still haven't really worked out how to do that but one of these days i'll get it.

[–] TeaHands 1 points 1 year ago

Yep I started on SolidWorks back in the day due to doing a related degree, but it's honestly overkill for most of what we do in our house. Fusion has been great for sharing designs between me and the husband, and we've not yet needed anything it can't do.

[–] debiangamer 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This will be unpopular, but I would recommend getting an autoddsk Inventor eduational license, if you can, to learn the basics of parametric modeling. Build up general skills and then graduate to a FOSS solution like Freecad. I would recommend finding broken gadgets/toys and home and reverse engineering replacement parts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

@debiangamer I think it is important to note that if you're learning any modeling software, it is important to follow tutorials to learn the process and workflows (especially with FreeCAD)
#3dprinting

[–] lanolinoil 1 points 1 year ago

Do you have a good interactive parametric tutorial suggestion?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

OnShape is my go-to. It's what I taught my students when I was a TA for an introductory engineering class at college, and they could pick it up in about a day.

Can do just about anything a "professional" cad suite does, but it's free, works in a browser, and is generally so much better designed so you don't have to fight against the UI to get anything done.

[–] pterencephalon 2 points 1 year ago

I'm also team onshape. I have a powerful desktop, but I still end up doing CAD from the couch on my 6-year-old Chromebook, so onshape is a champ for that. It's also nice for collaborating, which I do when working on bigger projects with my fiancee.

I got started with it entirely from the tutorials provided by Onshape itself. The learning curve was a lot less steep than I expected.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Totally agree with Bishma on Tinkercad, it has limits but you’ll be building stuff. I came from SketchUp which isn’t strong for 3D printing, played with Blender for a short bit then sucked it up and dove into Fusion.

I started watching videos from Paul McWhorter on YouTube who walks through things slowly instead of some of the other guys who go at a lightening fast pace, not saying they aren’t good but too many what just happened there moments. Paul’s videos are slightly dated but still strong for basics.

Fusion 360 or die learning…

[–] FatherOgre 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have only created a few simple stls in Tinkercad. Real basic stuff. Anyone have thoughts on Sketchup?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like SketchUp for my woodworking stuff and wanted it to work with 3D but the shortcomings at the time weren’t worth it. The product could have changed so this could be dated.

Always seemed to fight getting models watertight which has been no issue with tinker, fusion, openscad, or freecad. Also, it was hard with curved objects. Lastly, it didn’t have parametric support which is a must for design once/use many things. As an example, I have a simple funnel with a lip to fit into bottles or whatever. Need one for a different container? Just a couple of adjustments and I’m printing.

Not saying not to use it but others have listed many alternatives for 3D that are superior. SketchUp seems to have a good community for questions it’s just that other tools have better (IMO.)

[–] FatherOgre 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the insights. Still new to drafting my own designs. I will probably stick with Tinkercad awhile longer and the move to an open source program from there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Only advice I can give, not knowing your learning style, is whatever CAD platform you choose will seem challenging until you "get" the mindset it uses. Not really hard, but all have an approach which will become natural after some time. Take something you did in Tinkercad in 10 minutes and recreate it in say freeCAD, initially it’ll seem like something so easy shouldn’t be this hard….in short order it’ll be a breeze.

[–] sylver_dragon 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

some of the other guys who go at a lightening fast pace

This drives me nuts on a lot of "tutorials". Not just for CAD but for anything on YouTube. The presenter will launch into a massive word vomit, jumping from step to step, with barely a breath in between. They'll have half the thing done and I'm still trying to figure out which side of my mouse I'm supposed to grab. And FSM help me if the idiot behind the camera opens a copy of notepad and starts typing instructions instead of speaking....

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

There’s a ton of content out there for everything but a huge difference between being a teacher vs being an expert. People think it’s easy, just make a video of me doing something, but instruction is much more than that.

[–] Guy_Fieris_Hair 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have been just brute forcing blender to do what I needed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I don't remember what I started with. It was forever ago, so something very obscure and tedious. I use https://freecad.org exclusively for my own work these days. Free as in freedom and it does about everything.

[–] rambos 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Started with solidworks in 2008 and that was a big mistake. Its too good and its not open source lol

[–] GullibleOyster 2 points 1 year ago

Same which is why I pirate it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I had some past experience with Blender, but for functional designs I picked up OpenSCAD

[–] Couldbealeotard 2 points 1 year ago

I might be a bit of an odd case, but I use Autodesk Maya 2014. I was trained for 3d modelling and animation on it and it was still on my computer from those old days. I'm familiar with the tools and I get get what I want out of it quickly. I'm definitely missing some modern features but I'm not printing anything that needs more.

I've got other priorities at this stage in life to bother learning a new system that may not bring any benefit.

[–] ArchTemperedKoala 2 points 1 year ago

I started with TinkerCad and is now learning Shapr3d with the iPad. Haven't made much designs tho

[–] woefkardoes 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I bounce around between FreeCAD and OpenSCAD but I started on Sketchup.

[–] sylver_dragon 1 points 1 year ago

Use TinkerCad for basic shapes and anything where I am more interested in the visual appearance than the exact measurements.
Use OpenSCAD for anything where precision matters. But, I'm an OK hack at programming and math; so, it's a pretty natural way for me to think.
Keep meaning to give a "real CAD" program a try and keep falling back on what I know. Some day I'll do more than open FreeCAD and run screaming away from my computer.

[–] adityajazz 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I use AutoCAD r14 for 2D and for 3D modeling I use Delcam PowerSHAPE (now it has been acquisition by Autodesk), it's back when I study in university. Later I change it depends on what company use/have. Last I use NX in work.

For tips and tricks you'll be find it more when you do more practice, it is difficult to say what need to do. But for basic I'll say :

  • Create better defined sketch.
  • Do feature based mod/operation first. For examples do fillet/chamfer last if can, do pattern feature not sketch. It'll be easier later when you need to edit.
  • Learn how to modeling efficiently.

For starting software there are many option out there. But I can recommend you view of it, especially that has educational/hobbyist/free version.

  • Fusion360 (with edu email).
  • Solidworks (IDK, it has version that I mean or not, but this one have largest user base).
  • Autodesk Inventor (with edu email).
  • Solid Edge Community Edition.
  • NX education license.
  • ZW3D edu license.
  • Creo (it'll force you to learn how to model efficiently)
  • Onshape (cloud based CAD, just need web browser to modeling).
  • FreeCAD (if you want FOSS)
  • Shapr3D (works on iPad and Windows, will be great if you have apple pencil or graphic tablet), (with edu email).

All of them have similarities in how to do 3D modelling, each of them has pros and cons. Choose one that you like and master it, try other CAD package and you'll find which one is home to you. 😂

Keep practicing and be better.

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