Which program for 3D printer

[Walt]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering in which program I can make 3D models for a 3D printer.

Thanks!

[klh2000]

5 hours ago, Walt said:

Hi everyone,

I was wondering in which program I can make 3D models for a 3D printer.

Thanks!

Autodesk fusion 360 or inventor works great for me.

[bobthemac]

I quite like 123D for general modelling but I mostly use scad lets you do some quite interesting things using code good for making gears and such.

[Hackentosher]

+1 for fusion 360. Skip inventor, it's not as intuitive and not as powerful as fusion. 

[Beskamir]

Any program that can make 3D models should be fine as long as you can export it to the correct file format. (I think most 3D printers want stl files.

[TubsAlwaysWins]

For easyness and beginners TinkerCAD is super easy and is web-based

[Limited660]

On 5/23/2017 at 1:20 PM, Hackentosher said:

+1 for fusion 360. Skip inventor, it's not as intuitive and not as powerful as fusion. 

You're joking right?  Inventor can do FEA and dynamic analysis plus offers many more options for constraining assemblies and sketching.  It's not readily available to a hobbyist unless you use a student email to get it so I would recommend 360 but given the choice of Inventor vs Fusion360 I would be going with Inventor all day.  I started on Solidworks in college and transitioned to Inventor at work and I've used it almost daily for 5 years now and have tried to use Fusion at home for 3D printing but they don't compare.

[Hackentosher]

29 minutes ago, Limited660 said:

You're joking right?  Inventor can do FEA and dynamic analysis plus offers many more options for constraining assemblies and sketching.  It's not readily available to a hobbyist unless you use a student email to get it so I would recommend 360 but given the choice of Inventor vs Fusion360 I would be going with Inventor all day.  I started on Solidworks in college and transitioned to Inventor at work and I've used it almost daily for 5 years now and have tried to use Fusion at home for 3D printing but they don't compare.

What say you to the fact that inventor is single threaded and harder to learn? I used inventor for a little while, but I prefer fusion simply because it's easier. I will agree that inventor is better at sketching. 

[Limited660]

47 minutes ago, Hackentosher said:

What say you to the fact that inventor is single threaded and harder to learn? I used inventor for a little while, but I prefer fusion simply because it's easier. I will agree that inventor is better at sketching. 

I wouldn't say one is easier to use or learn than the other at basic operations, Inventor has many many more options for doing things so that might be overwhelming at first but both work on the same principle. You draw a profile and extrude/revolve it until you get your desired shape, in Inventor it's a simple as starting a new part, clicking "Start 2D Sketch", select your plane and then pick line/circle/rectangle, make a closed loop, close sketch and then extrude or revolve.  They are both more than capable of doing that and both work the same way.  If you know how the concept of creating something from 2D profiles works then you can use any parametric modeling software with just a bit of time learning where things are. 

 

Now I haven't spent much time in Fusion360 beyond just playing with it but with Inventor you are given many more powerful tools to work with models.  A lot of the cost and complexity of Inventor is the FEA, Dynamic Analysis, Mold Design, Weldments, BIM Exchange, iParts, iLogic, Bill of Material Management, Cable/Harness/Pipe modeling, Vault interaction.  All things that aren't very useful to a hobbyist but are used daily in industry.

[blepmaster]

It really depends on what you're looking for. A web interface like Tinkercad can work really well for some people if you're just making simple designs.

 

If you are looking for a desktop application, then your operating system is the main factor. For Linux, I like to use FreeCAD. For Mac and PC, I like to mainly edit modals using Meshmixer.

 

Hope this helps!