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What 3d software works the best/ most accurate/ easiest?

Discussion in 'Software' started by Kirk, Mar 26, 2014.

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  1. Kirk

    Kirk Member

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    I’m new to 3D designing and was looking for recommendations and why for software. I have tried google sketchup and it was pretty straight forward to figure out but it was difficult to make custom curves and or angles on curves at the same time, the measurement tool was a great item and how it snapped you to axis was also helpful. Now im trying Hexagon 2 and find it easier to do the curves I like the symmetry feature and also the wire feature but really miss the measurement option and find it difficult to keep track of the actual dimensions of the objects.


    I’m hoping someone can lead me in the right direction to some free or low cost options. Measurement and accuracy is important to me as well as the freedom to manipulate objects easily and hopefully be semi straight forward to use. The objects designed will later be printed on a ROBO 3D
     
    #1 Kirk, Mar 26, 2014
  2. Ziggy

    Ziggy Moderator
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    If you want to create "engineering" type models, Openscad is a pretty good (and free) option. By "engineering" I mean models which can be constructed from geometric shapes.

    Openscad is easy to use once you understand how the syntax works. You do need to think like a programmer to use it to its full potential though.
     
    #2 Ziggy, Mar 26, 2014
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  3. 1d1

    1d1 Active Member

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    I've used Tinkercad for some time. It isn't engineering oriented but gives you a good, basic design system that can be quite accurate and has a measurement tool. It's free. Capable of complex curves, but takes some learning to get it to do them. Working from primitive shapes, it's totally adequate.
     
    #3 1d1, Mar 27, 2014
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  4. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    Well there are tons of applications you can choose from the keys to look for are
    it must have the ability export stl files as these are the files used to create the gcode used in 3d printers including the robo3d


    nice things to have:
    ability to import other types of files:
    sometimes you may need to import an existing file or share with others for further development.

    good interface
    something you can handle, this varies alot so experimenting with free versions may be the best way to test it

    online tutorials
    this will help you learn the basics of the software

    I personally use and love Solidworks but it is very expensive but there is an educational version but I am not sure of the cost

    blender is another one I tried but the UI to me was a bit confusing.

    Both are very powerful in what they can do SW amazes me
     
    #4 tesseract, Mar 27, 2014
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  5. SteveC

    SteveC Well-Known Member

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    Solidworks edu license is not cheap at $100 per year. Autodesk has some free edu licenses that you might want to check out. Autodesk, http://www.autodesk.com/education/student-software. 3DS Max looks interesting but I have not gotten around to trying it yet. Meshmixer can make organic morphed shapes. One idea is to use Sketchup and modify the STLs output with Meshmixer http://www.meshmixer.com/ . One problem with Sketchup is that is sometime inexplicably generates non-manifold output.
     
    #5 SteveC, Mar 27, 2014
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  6. scotta

    scotta Active Member

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    I use blender, I've had great success with it, however......
    The learning curve is quite steep, but it is powerful once you get it.
    It's background is animation and modeling so not really a cad app.
    However not great for getting measurements
     
    #6 scotta, Mar 27, 2014
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  7. Kirk

    Kirk Member

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    Thanks guys.

    I have briefly looked at openscad and seems similar to google sketchup only with more of a manual UI, I have also quickly looked at blender and it seems fairly similar to the hexagon 2 hd I am currently trying I did notice that it can save files as stl’s among about a half dozen other types.

    I will definitely look at the others mentioned as well, thanks for the help and I will keep checking this thread for any new info posted.
     
    #7 Kirk, Mar 27, 2014
  8. Peter Krska

    Peter Krska Active Member

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    I use Cinema 4D ver 8.2
    It's not the most up to date version,
    But it does everything I need including exporting to Stl. Great for animation and creating things. You need to learn what works and doesn't such a booleans are not very friendly for stl. Repetier sometimes complained that the model was non manifold or manifold. If I continued it ended up slicing and printing anyways. Who knew!?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    #8 Peter Krska, Mar 27, 2014
  9. Kirk

    Kirk Member

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    Yeah after I did my first boolean in hexagon and then saw the geometry in the wire view I figured it probable wasn't an good thing especially if you wanted to do anything with edge after.
     
    #9 Kirk, Mar 27, 2014
  10. SteveC

    SteveC Well-Known Member

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    I found that Meshmixer has some useful smart tools for making measurements. You choose some options to give it hints at what you want to measure, click and it automatically figures it out. In Sketchup I might have to put down multiple reference lines to get to what I want to measure.
     
    #10 SteveC, Mar 27, 2014
  11. Ryan Ridings

    Ryan Ridings New Member

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    I use AutoCAD and 3dsmax and seriously love them both. In college all we used was autodesk software so I am pretty much all for anything autodesk.

    Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
     
    #11 Ryan Ridings, Apr 1, 2014
  12. SteveC

    SteveC Well-Known Member

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    Ryan, I have read that AutoCAD is "good for 2D parts and not the best for 3D modeling". When would you use 3DS Max versus AutoCAD?

    When I was in college for my freshman 3D design class we used a drafting board, T square and pencils o_O.
     
    #12 SteveC, Apr 1, 2014
  13. Ryan Ridings

    Ryan Ridings New Member

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    AutoCAD has came a long way from just 2d drafting. Is it better than 3dsmax? No but I use AutoCAD to produce my blueprints then take it to 3dsmax to model. I have been using 3dsmax since I was 13(23 now) and love it for modeling. Reason I use AutoCAD is because I can get the precision I need for the blueprints and the workflow is built for that obviously. I can then setup my units in 3dsmax for the blueprint then knock it out in no time.

    Also for my drafting class we spent more time drawing on paper than we did in autocad.

    Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
     
    #13 Ryan Ridings, Apr 1, 2014
  14. Peter Krska

    Peter Krska Active Member

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    Has anyone tried to test the accuracy of your software? Such as 2 mm translates to 2mm on the print.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    #14 Peter Krska, Apr 1, 2014
  15. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    that is where the steps come in and oneof the purposes of the 15mm cube is to test that min e was 15.02 15.01 15.25 if I remember right after I adjusted mine
     
    #15 tesseract, Apr 1, 2014
  16. Kirk

    Kirk Member

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    Tesseract
    I haven't received my printer yet. So impressed wondering if it doesn't print to actual scale can you adjust it? Or do you have to compinsate for it?

    Sent from my LGL86C using Tapatalk
     
    #16 Kirk, Apr 2, 2014
  17. R.Irwin

    R.Irwin New Member

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    It's pretty close within fractions of a mm Converting .ipt (Autodesk Inventor Part File) to .stl
     

    Attached Files:

    #17 R.Irwin, Apr 2, 2014
  18. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    The firmware has values that are supposed to correspond to linear motion so fixed amount of steps and microsteps of the stepper motor in conjunction with any gears and or belts create a specific linear movement along the associated axis.
    This information is in the firmware.
    No as each printer is a bit different these default settings will get you close but in all likelihood not exact. Many factors needs to be exactly the same in order for that to happen across the board so you could end up with as an example the numbers I listed.

    The firmware contains a specific number for the x stepper motors and the y steppers and they are the same as the motor and teh belts used are the same. The Z and the extruder ae also there but are quite different as the mechanics of each of those axis' are quite different. Yet they still have a single value set as the default for all printers.

    When I build my CNC machine it had an built in process where the actual linear distance was compared to the specified distance using the default numbers and a new number could be calculated that would yield better accuracy.

    By changing the numbers in the firmware or other places if the right things are in place can adjust the defaults to yield better accuracy here as well.

    The current default values for X and Y were set to 80 based on the steps and belts used so 80 steps were calculated to create a liner movement of 1mm along the axis so if in this example the 80 actually moved it 2mm you could probably set it to 40 to get 1mm but then again teh gears and belts come into play so the 40 may get you 1.1mmso further more finely tuned numbers could be used with several calibration prints.

    It could be that on your particular setup in stead of the 80 you actually use 79.845 to get the more precise value.

    Once derived those numbers could be loaded into the firmware

    This however is just an example and in no way should these numbers be used unless they are calculated independently by you when you check this
     
    #18 tesseract, Apr 2, 2014
  19. Technidyne

    Technidyne Active Member

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    I've been struggling to learn FreeCAD for the last couple days. The progress is painfully slow and hopefully I will eventually get the hang of it or I will come across a really intuitive solids modelling application.
    This is what I've done so far in terms of an actual item I would like to be able to print:
     
    #19 Technidyne, Apr 20, 2014
  20. bret4

    bret4 New Member

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    Bobcad/cam is what I use. It's not that hard to use and sometimes you can get it at a good price if you talk to a sales person.
     
    #20 bret4, May 12, 2014
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