3D CAD software – what do you use?

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Barrie Lever on 20/05/2020 00:04:49:

Posted by Bandersnatch on 19/05/2020 22:16:16:

Do you do 3D printing?

Yes but almost exclusively from my own designs.

 

I do my own stuff too (really get a kick out of modelling then seeing the printed result!).

However I'm printing something right now from Thingi. It's a longish print (~8 hrs) and it's not going that well. I think the design could be modified to improve printing (and function actually) with some simple changes. But …. I only have an STL file. The only other recourse is to remodel it from scratch.

Edited By Bandersnatch on 20/05/2020 01:35:18

[Bill PudneyParticipant @billpudney37759]

Clearly I am a 21st Century Luddite. As an old time draftsman, from back in the days of drawing boards and pens I was quite looking forward to 3D CAD. I've been using Turbocad as a sort of electronic drawing board for 20 odd (some of them very odd!!) years. It's o.k., a bit clunky at times but it does what I want it to do. A few times I have tried to make the leap to 3D CAD, via Alibre, Solid edge, Fusion even Turbocad etc etc. The anticipated leap was more out of interest than any real need to see things in 3D. For me I found the really steep learning curve just too steep to allow my interest to be maintained. At one stage as The Boss was using the PC almost 24 hours a day, I was seriously thinking about getting a small tabletop drawing board. However sanity prevailed, and the boards I looked at were pretty awful really. As part of the Draughtsman training way back in the 60s one of the elements was freehand 3D sketching an article before drawing it "on the board". This enabled the development of the ability to visualise the part in all it's 3D glory, well most of it anyway. Fortunately for me this ability still exists, more or less. So I think I can do what I want to do, without the mental pain of 3D CAD.

So that's another thing which marks me as a 21st Century Luddite. Up there with battery powered things in the workshop.

cheers

Bill

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Posted by Bill Pudney on 20/05/2020 02:53:58:

I've been using Turbocad as a sort of electronic drawing board for 20 odd (some of them very odd!!) years. It's o.k., a bit clunky at times but it does what I want it to do. A few times I have tried to make the leap to 3D CAD, via Alibre, Solid edge, Fusion even Turbocad etc etc.

So that's another thing which marks me as a 21st Century Luddite. Up there with battery powered things in the workshop.

cheers

Bill

You rang a big bell with me there Bill – I've been using TurboCAD D/L since V4 came out as a freebie CD with a computer magazine – I think I ran it on a '486' PC – remember them? However, as you may have gathered I'm now making the effort to get on board with Solid Edge and I can already see the advantages of doing so. Being able to watch demos on YouTube these days is a big help (the TurboCAD manual was little more than an instructions reference and not much practical help at all).

I've enjoyed the SE 'starter' videos by 'Design Fusion' – quite old now but they still seem to cover the basics. I just keep going over them until I can repeat the demo myself – which is very good practice.

As for 'battery power' I keep telling my sons that their fancy battery powered tools won't last the way my old mains powered stuff has – but thy don't care. Everything is cheap and therefore disposable these days unfortunately.

Regards,

IanT

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

My first encounter with CAD was with a DOS based program called EasyCAD. When, I too, got a freebie TurboCAD (2d only) with a magazine I switched to it and eventually jumped on the bandwagon and purchased a copy of the professional version which could do 3D. 3D in TCAD is really very basic and relatively crude, but although it does work, updating a drawing can be so problematic that it's usually best to start over completely.

Then somebody showed me Solid Works which made me aware of TCAD's shortcomings, but the price! A friend who worked for SolidEdge was unable (unwilling) to provide a copy so I put up with TCAD's shortcomings – until Fusion arrived. I was hooked. Yes, the learning curve is steep, but it's well worth the climb. Don't believe anybody who tells you that a 3D CAD program is easy to learn – it just isn't possible. It really is commensurate with learning another language.

SOD. Yes, you can use F360 offline with certain caveats, see **HERE**

Bandersnatch. Yes, F360 can read STLs and convert them into solid models that you can edit, but, because STLs are dimensionless, there are obvious limits.

 

Edited By Gary Wooding on 20/05/2020 11:08:19

[Ronald MorrisonParticipant @ronaldmorrison29248]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 20/05/2020 01:33:22:

Posted by Barrie Lever on 20/05/2020 00:04:49:

Posted by Bandersnatch on 19/05/2020 22:16:16:

Do you do 3D printing?

Yes but almost exclusively from my own designs.

I do my own stuff too (really get a kick out of modelling then seeing the printed result!).

However I'm printing something right now from Thingi. It's a longish print (~8 hrs) and it's not going that well. I think the design could be modified to improve printing (and function actually) with some simple changes. But …. I only have an STL file. The only other recourse is to remodel it from scratch.

Edited By Bandersnatch on 20/05/2020 01:35:18

Thingiverse doesn't prohibit posting the CAD file in with the STL but most people don't care to make changes or the person posting doesn't want others to make changes so they don't upload the CAD file. When you see an item you want to modify, the maker's name is on the top of the first picture. Clicking on that name opens an "about" page with a place at the bottom to send a message. Asking for the CAD file would be my method for starting to modify.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 19/05/2020 22:14:52:

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 19/05/2020 18:16:51:

STL is not a good format for imports, aside from not defining what units things are in, if you have compound curves (e.g. curved fillets) they become massive because every surface is converted to small triangles.

This means they can't sensibly be back-converted to any other type of shape.

I'm not talking here about using STL as a way of saving model files per se. Simply as a way of making simple changes to the plethora of 3D Print models published on Thingiverse (and elsewhere) which are almost invariably supplied solely as STL files and may need only small changes to make them suitable for you own purpose.

As far as I can recall, every 3D client I've looked at does handle STL files at least to the point of importing them. Whether they can do anything useful with them I haven't discovered. MoI on the other hand doesn't even show STL as an import file type.

See also my response to Barrie.

TurboCAD will import STL, as I remember.

I recall it's rather like getting a potato. Quite easy to chop bits off but if you want to attach things or change its shape, good luck!

I'd suggest Blender might be the way to go for editing STLs.

Neil

[Josh ReynoldsParticipant @joshreynolds46097]

I’ve a hobbyist/student license for fusion 360 – very impressed with the features for a free software that seems to run ok on an intel i3 processor with 4gb of ram!

ultimaker cura is what I use for slicing (free from ultimaker website.)

Thingiverse has lots of downloadable cad models for 3d printing should you need!

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Nice model of a starter motor made with MoI here.

Martin.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember32069]

[This posting has been removed]

[Raymond AndersonParticipant @raymondanderson34407]

Blowlamp, Those are lovely renders. 👍

[Enough!Participant @enough]

That is incredibly good. One can only dream !

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

I eventually went for Fusion 360 and am slowly getting to grips with the interface – not surprisingly, it needs a change of mindset from what I was familiar with (2D CAD in Autosketch), so it will take a while. Not fluent enough to do much in the way of drawing within Fusion, but I have discovered that if the model you are constructing breaks down into a small number of layers, a perfectly workable strategy is to draw each layer in 2D using Autosketch (been using it for ~20 years now so very quick to use) and export DXF; you can then use Fusion as what amounts to an "extrusion engine" – import the first layer DXF, extrude it to the right height, import the next DXF on the top face, extrude that…etc. Rather quicker than the nuclear option of getting fluent with enough of Fusion's complexity to do the same job directly in 3D! The latter can wait until the nights start to draw in again.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I've been persevering with Solid Edge and gradually improving my skills.

A few weeks back, I 'paused' my YouTube watching (because I was still struggling with SE) and decided to start to work methodically through the self-paced learning provided by Siemens instead (the link to this is on the start page of the SE package).

There are a number of 'learning paths' available and although I am familiar with 2D CAD, I decided to choose the "New to CAD" beginners path. I have now completed the 'basic' training, which has taken me through the User Interface, 'Part' creation, Sheet metal construction, 'Assembly' & drawing explosion and Slider assembly (e.g. making parts move). I am certainly not SE 'fluent' yet but I do now have a much better foundation to work from – and a useful reference to check back with if in doubt.

Being self-paced – I've been able to step through training at my own rate – going back (if required) for understanding or to correct mistakes in my drawings. This has suited my learning needs very well and I think is very necessary to really understand how to use the SE product well. The training works by having the live SE 'app' open – and following a step-by-step guide in a separate browser window. At the end of each exercise, you have therefore actually drawn the item shown at the beginning of the instruction.

I should perhaps mention that I was involved in 'e-Learning' professionally before I retired – and these SE packages provided are high quality and would have taken a great deal of time and money to develop. So the training support available to Solid Edge users is just as good as the SE product itself appears to be (which for a 'commercial' product is perhaps not so surprising)

In conclusion, I would very much recommend Solid Edge to 'would-be' 3D CAD Designers – not only because the product itself is so good (I am deeply impressed) but also because of the learning support being provided. This is absolutely essential for any amateur (like myself) starting out on a sophisticated CAD application at home.

Regards,

IanT

PS I initially watched some of the videos provided by Siemens – which seem to have some kind of 'automated' voiceover – perhaps to manage multi-lingual use. I was a bit put off by this – hence my going to YouTube initially. But the Solid Edge self-paced training has been a real godsend and is so much better than trying to learn via YT.

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