Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi All!

I am the kind of guy who really like to plan out and work through my projects and also I have been thinking of using lasercutting and 3d printing for some projects so I need to sketch things out on the computer.

I used to dabble a little with sketchup but the new owners seems to have destroyed the ease of use aspect of it (never got any good I must admit)

At present I am trying Autodesk 123, any thoughts on that or are there other good suggestions?

Either Sketchup, as you mentioned, or 123d design. they're both easy to use, each in it's own way. I would advise you to follow the getting started tutorials, to familiarize yourself with both the UI and the workflow of both programs.
I regularly use 3d printed parts on most of my scratchbuilding projects as an additional means for detail or base building. Just don't see it as an end. See it as just another tool, with it's own limitations

Thanks for the input. I will take time to go through the tutorials and see if it is a good fit for me.

And yes, you are absolutely right. I am thinking components when it comes to printing and cutting (I have neither available right now) and I am thinking plans for larger projects. I am hoping to get into some prop building later on.

You could try sculptris. Which is by the company behind Z brush.

I realize that I didn't specify. I am looking primarily for something CAD-like not polygon based.

Btw, it's hard to take you seriously with that avatar

I would have thought you'd want something polygon based for 3D modelling things for 3D printing.

If you do come across a decent free CAD program let me know because I hate all the free ones I've tried At work we use NX and Solidworks.

In CAE linux there used to be some open source CAD programs but last time I used them they were very cumbersome, but that was several years ago now, maybe they've improved.

Now I am curious, why would polygons be better than mathematical curves?

The STL format used on 3d printing is triangle-based, meaning that NURBS based software, like Rhino, Solidworks, etc, when exporting, convert the NURBS surfaces to triangles, usually within certain parameters defined by the user (mesh density, minimum feature size, etc). Honestly, in my experience, I don't see any advantage in using polygon-based modelling for 3d printing, unless you're talking about organic modelling, in the realm of the millions of polygons, like in zbrush. Even in more detailed hard surface modelling, I prefer a NURBS-based software. It gives me way more dimensional control.

 granander wrote:
Now I am curious, why would polygons be better than mathematical curves?

Well I've mostly only done NURBS stuff, but I would have thought polygons is better for 3d modelling for printing because you can more easily manipulate surfaces and just smooth them as necessary. If you use a CAD type program to create complicated curved surfaces it creates high order splined surfaces, they're just not as easy to manipulate and if you create dependencies on certain curves that you used to make the surfaces they can be difficult to manipulate later.

Basically polygon modelling is more "free form". It is mostly used by artists. CAD is more precise but can be fiddly, especially if you don't know beforehand exactly how you're going to represent surfaces.

But each to their own, all artists I know who do 3D modelling pretty much exclusively use polygon based programs. CAD programs are mostly used in engineering.

If you're doing simple stuff it probably doesn't matter a whole lot either way.

In ancient times I actually studied CAD/CAM at Uni. I didn't pursue the profession but I still remember that it was very easy to do mechanical style designs.

Since then I have tried to get into it again a few times but I have had a hard time to get my head around it.

I am primarily interested in mechanical designs (and buildings) so I think that CAD style would fit me better. Also, it might be good to know in future positions at work. And since the programs that prep the files for printing seems to handle the polygonthingie fine I guess it doesn't matter what you choose.

Yeah, if you can easily represent things with basic shapes, extrudes, sweeps and so on, CAD is good. I did CAD in uni and then went on to teach it for a few years and I still hate having to do free form modelling in it, I grimace when I have to design a fairing or body work in CAD, lol.