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.

I'm dipping my toe into the world of 3d printing, and was wondering what programs and the like people are using out there. Right now the most advanced thing I want to do is take a symbol:



"extrude" it to give it 3 dimensions, and curve it on the edges to sit on a space marine kneepad or shoulder pad.

I don't have a 3d printer yet, but do have access to one. Not sure what brand, but it's been used to print mini terrain pieces.

Simple, right?

What you actually want is a 3D designing application, independent of 3D printing in general.

I use Rhino3D, which I in no way recommend - it's very expensive and very old and I think there is much newer stuff out there. You might want to look into Tinkercad (free) or Blender (also free) or... whatever the people after me recommend.

So far as actually extruding that is not complex but the exact process is going to be specific to your application.

Also, if it is an FDM printer - ie, prints off of a spool of plastic filament? You're going to get, in my opinion, terrible prints for a shoulderpad. You either want get a resin printer (like a Photon or a Mars), or send your design off to Shapeways, where they print on demand.

For making objects like that I would take a look at Fusion 360 which is free for personal use. It very much works in the way you describe - you sketch things in 2D and then extrude and manipulate them.

I second what Ouze says about resin printing being the way to go for small objects like shoulder pads and insignia.

If you have Windows 10 you already have the 3D Builder program where you can take any image and emboss or deboss it onto any STL. You just need to have the image in the negative, but so easy to play around with and really easy to use - best of all it is free and probably already on your computer. Here is an example of a design I embossed on the shield:

wait whaaaat?

I use the Microsoft 3D Builder program to alter and make edits to so many stl files - it is totally awesome. You just cannot do any sculpting, so I use Meshmixer (rarely Blender) or the like when I need to shave down or manipulate the shapes of the sculpt.

That is very good news, I'll give it a shot.

Fusion got neutered. I recommend FreeCad for all but organics. Blender has good Add-ins for sculpting. Mechmixer is a good tool for refinement. I'm a fan of SolidWorks but that's $100 for a student license per year. If you go with blender I would recommend learning displacement for reverse engineering organic textures from gray scale.

Hexagon (Daz3D) is another good free modeler but it's a lot simpler to learn than blender in my opinion.

I've also used meshmixer to chop models up to fit on my printbed, quick and easy

I'd say depending on what you want to do with it long term, it might help to think of learning a modeling program as an investment.

TheBoy wrote:
Fusion got neutered.

Not really. I question how many people in the hobbyist 3d communities (especially those that use Fusion for wargaming modeling) used any of the features removed from the free version outside of the online storage.

 Ouze wrote:
What you actually want is a 3D designing application, independent of 3D printing in general.

I use Rhino3D, which I in no way recommend - it's very expensive and very old and I think there is much newer stuff out there. You might want to look into Tinkercad (free) or Blender (also free) or... whatever the people after me recommend.

So far as actually extruding that is not complex but the exact process is going to be specific to your application.

Also, if it is an FDM printer - ie, prints off of a spool of plastic filament? You're going to get, in my opinion, terrible prints for a shoulderpad. You either want get a resin printer (like a Photon or a Mars), or send your design off to Shapeways, where they print on demand.

Rhino 6 is 2018 release. It is expensive by the virtue of not being free, but for what it is it's quite fairly priced piece of software (compared to autodesk products like 3dsmax & maya which will run you more than permanent license for rhino 6, not to mention the formers' the transition to subscription based).

In my experience, Rhino is one of the best nurbs 3d modelling software in the market (most mesh based 3d modelling software are parametric based - these are better for "sculpting").