Hi from Hamburg, Germany

@frogandtoad

Good deal!  That would indeed be good news.  Since learning Fusion 360 is not for the faint of heart if you are already familiar with another CAD type program.  I will say that Fusion 360 is making great strides to be the CAD software of choice.  Sort of how Kicad is becoming the PCB design software of choice for many hobbyists and professional alike.

@frogandtoad I got no hope. That isn't parametric. 

@inst-tech 

I've been using OpenSCAD for my 3D designs for years now. It's sort of additive geometry using script and is primitive enough match my avatar 🙂

I tried Fusion 360 and it's a lovely piece of work, but my projects don't require the extras that are possible with it (i.e. no round edges or fillers). I also found the learning curve to be quite daunting and, since 3D printing is only sn occasional task for me, required frequent re-learning.

As my "Hi from Hamburg" thread is moving towards a discussion of 3D cad I will give you my 2 cent of what i'm using.

As a designer of mechanical instruments I am using Siemens NX (was Unigraphics a long time ago) on a professional basis. I have tried fusion 360 but for me it is too far from NX and I am always trying to implement commands as I would use them on NX. Therefore I switched to the Solid Edge community edition (SE). This is much closer to NX. The sketcher is very much the same as both programs (NX and SE) come from the same company.

SE offers quite a lot of tutorials which can be accessed from the programs menu.
For me in my personal situation SE is the perfect choice.

Regards, Poppa

@zander

Posted by: @zander

@frogandtoad I got no hope. That isn't parametric. 

I thought you said that you were CAD handicapped!

That comment made me smile, because it's harder to learn a parametric CAD system/workflow as opposed to a direct CAD system/workflow  🙂

If you really want to use a parametric system/workflow, then there is nothing better than Fusion 360, followed by the completely free open source "FreeCAD", which also offers a parametric system/workflow, and is very good too, and constantly improving its features.

Cheers

@codecage

Posted by: @codecage

@frogandtoad

Good deal!  That would indeed be good news.  Since learning Fusion 360 is not for the faint of heart if you are already familiar with another CAD type program.  I will say that Fusion 360 is making great strides to be the CAD software of choice.  Sort of how Kicad is becoming the PCB design software of choice for many hobbyists and professional alike.

I have a background in AutoCAD and Inventor, and Fusion 360 is trying to merge the two IMHO, at least to some degree there is a lot of overlap. It definitely is a great piece of software, but if you want something totally free and open source, then I think FreeCAD is actually the KiCAD of the electronics world and catching up with new features all the time - Well worth learning too.

I love Blender though for it's power to do just about anything, literally anything!

Anyway, I did find out that there is a 3D Print Toolbox addon for Blender, which helps to analyse your model's mesh, and also helps to correct its mesh where it detects faults before exporting it and sending it to your slicing software of choice.

I'm not sure if you already knew of the addon or used it previously, but it seems to address a lot of previous problems.

Cheers

@frogandtoad On second thought, I do have the simple box scad file from @will. and will call it quits at that, any holes can be drilled, any mounting thingys can be hot glued, I think my simple needs are satisfied after all. All I have to do is change the parameters, sample in pic. Couldn't be easier for a simple box.

@zander

Posted by: @zander

@frogandtoad On second thought, I do have the simple box scad file from @will. and will call it quits at that, any holes can be drilled, any mounting thingys can be hot glued, I think my simple needs are satisfied after all. All I have to do is change the parameters, sample in pic. Couldn't be easier for a simple box.

 

I've had a look at OpenSCAD in the past, and imo, it's probably more difficult to learn than using a dedicated 3D CAD drawing package.  Your example shows the easily recognisable attribute names, but it's the workflow and understanding of that, which is the more difficult part to learn.

Anyway, if you're comfortable with it, that's all that matters.

Cheers

@zander

Just and FYI! - Missing a few members from the past (one has since passed away, RIP), and I haven't seen or heard from the other two in a long time, I hope they are healthy and OK!

I acknowledge, that OpenSCAD was never meant to be able to make such models, but just showing off what can be done in Blender - The latest version with the latest add-ons is unbelievable, and allows even greater creativity!

A little Blender from the past: blender-anomalies

Cheers