this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
38 points (88.0% liked)

3DPrinting

15770 readers
862 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or [email protected]

There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]

Rules

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

So, I'm trying to print some older models from thingiverse and I have discovered that basically all the files I want to print have glaring flaws in them.

Internal free floating structures, connector pieces and holes that are the exact same size... So on and so forth...

Do I need to learn a software like CAD or Blender to fix these? I seem to be able to do some basic stuff in Orca Slicer but it honestly seems like as much of a pain to modify the parts there as it would be to use a real software.

Is there one that's easier? I think I messed around with SketchUp once upon a time.

I am worried this feels like opening a can of worms just so that I can make a thing that already exists in a dozen forms better.

(page 2) 20 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yes. Advise against doing what I did which is getting weirdly agile with modeling in the slicer at the cost of making cad software less desirable to learn. I finder Tinker cad pretty limiting and personally I can do more in slicer than I can with tinkercad. I do like Mattercontrol which is free, easier to use, and more powerful than tinkercad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Netfabb before Autodesk fucked it will fix a lot of hanging vectors, Sketchup is just way easier to use than any CAD software I've every used but may or may not be able to open files included with Thingiverse downloads, depending on what was used to make them.

DM me if you need a copy of either. I've installed both on Linux in the past as well and have a link to some documentation on that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

@Krauerking my opinion is no. For many things you can find a model on line. Much of the challenge can be getting the printer to work as you wish, so modelling might not be first on the to do list.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Good old Thingiverse. You'll get a great education in now not to design things for 3D printing wading through that slurry pit.

Yes, consider a 3D printer useless if you don't know how to use 3D modeling software.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Google's sketchup (last free version is from 2017, but can still be found) is easy tool and still has bunch of mantained add-on's.

Even though I have FreeCAD installed (and I thinkered in it) I use SketchUp for all my prints.
Plus in comparison to FreeCAD SketchUp has no learning curve (plus I learned some tricks from free tutorial videos Trimble uploads)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (7 children)

May not be a popular opinion, but if you just want to fix shit like that, you can use Microsoft 3D Builder, it's super simple and pretty powerful.

Modifying existing meshes is difficult, especially more complex ones, I find that this makes it much easier to fix dumb shit or make simple modifications.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i've been dying to try an llm that can generate stls from natural speech

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›