Program to draw/ render cases and mods?

LauriHimself · July 2, 2021

Hello there ladys and gents

Is there some sort of software (free or otherwise) where you can plan, draw, and maybe render cases and mods? I'd like to implement sheet metal plates or other custom elements to ease my modding workflow.

At the moment I usually do a first try in cardboard to see if fitment is ok and then do up to 3 versions till I am satisfied by the outcome.

Please mind that I am not in any way shape or form experienced with 3d modeling (other than powershape, which is not really applicable for my usecase) so something rather easy to use would be great!

What do you use to visualize your mods?

Wish you all a splendid day

Biohazard777 · July 2, 2021

20 minutes ago, LauriHimself said:

What do you use to visualize your mods?

Blender, sometimes when the need arises Solidworks.

20 minutes ago, LauriHimself said:

Is there some sort of software (free or otherwise) where you can plan, draw, and maybe render cases and mods?

What you are looking for is very specific, too narrow and I doubt you will find it.

Kilrah · July 2, 2021

Protocase has a design program, never tried it though:

https://www.protocase.com/design/protocase-designer.php

DigitalGoat · July 2, 2021

26 minutes ago, LauriHimself said:

Hello there ladys and gents

Is there some sort of software (free or otherwise) where you can plan, draw, and maybe render cases and mods? I'd like to implement sheet metal plates or other custom elements to ease my modding workflow.

At the moment I usually do a first try in cardboard to see if fitment is ok and then do up to 3 versions till I am satisfied by the outcome.

Please mind that I am not in any way shape or form experienced with 3d modeling (other than powershape, which is not really applicable for my usecase) so something rather easy to use would be great!

What do you use to visualize your mods?

Wish you all a splendid day

Blender, Gimp, Inkscape, powerful combination of totally free apps, fairly easy to use with plenty of tutorials online. Blender in quad view is pretty much a technical drawing app with an isometric preview updating in real time (a four view mode, wireframe, solid, shaded, rendered) which allows you to visualise your creations in 3D. Inkscape is a vector drawing app that you can import the drawings into blender and Gimp. Gimp is a "photoshop" clone style app best used to adjust your blender renders for printing, maybe.

cachethrash · July 2, 2021

FreeCAD is a CAD software that's free, and it has a pretty wide library of PC components that you can just import into a sketch. It is still a CAD software and kinda hard to use though, I often give up and go back to using pen and paper.

rhine227 · July 2, 2021

Blender is a great 3d modeling program but I don't think it's best for this as it's more mesh modeling. For your use 3d cad (parametric modeling) would be the way to go I would think. Parametric modeling in blender is doable but I've never had much success with it as it's not, at it's core, what it's meant for. Someone suggested SOLIDWORKS, which is 3d cad and very powerful program, but it's neither free nor is it cheap. We're talking thousands of dollars for a single seat license. Which brings me to Fusion360. Fusion 360 is a full 3d cad/cam program made by Autodesk. It's an amazing program really and very intuitive. I've learned both blender and fusion on my own through YouTube and Udemy and personally I think fusion has the easier learning curve. That is just my opinion because parametric modeling just comes more naturally to me. Fusion also has dedicated tools for working with sheet metal. And here's the best part, fusion is free. Well, sort of, it has a free license for hobbyist. Which means that if you use the program and make less than $100,000 in a year it's free to you. They have limited this license a bit recently and caught some flak for it but not enough for me to really even notice with my intermittent use over the years. If you are a student there is also a free license for, I believe, the full program. I'll try to end this rambling soon... I think fusion is worth looking into and it's free so no loss. There are plenty of tutorial series on YouTube and throughout the net that taught me to use the program rather efficiently with zero previous experience in 3d cad. It has built in cam so if you want to 3d print or cnc your creations you can do that as well. If at any point you find the hobbyist license too limiting, it's only around $350/year for a full license! Ok, I think I'm done. Good luck in whatever route you decide to go. If you do go fusion I can try to find some of the tutorial I used and thought were best. If you're comfortable working in a 3d space then it really won't take long for you to pick it up.