Hello 3d printing community! I’m a complete newb and I am planning on doing a lot of 3d printing in the coming months.
I wanted to get into 3d printing with the intention of designing a lot of models and printing them for use around the house. So, I wanted to ask what people typically use for designing their own models to print?
Ideally the software would support both Windows and Mac as that’s what I typically use these days. Let me know, thanks!
Update
First of all, thank you everyone for weighing in here!
Set aside some time last night and played with both Fusion 360 and FreeCAD since those two software kept popping up in the answers. My initial impressions of Fusion 360 was not great. I’m not sure if it’s just the Mac version but the software was a bit laggy and at the end of my session it froze. Otherwise it worked fine and I was able to make a prototype with it and I would have finished it if the program didn’t freeze.
Next I tried FreeCAD. I think the UX is definitely worse than Fusion 360, however I will say it was fast and I did not notice any lag. I admit that my initial impression of it was not good. The second I opened a fresh install of FreeCAD it was already erroring. I watched some tutorials. It definitely suffered from the issue some issues pointed out in the comments where the program has a ton of tutorials but none are really for the latest version so you kind of have to figure out the “modern way” to achieve what the tutorial is telling you to do. It also seems to have some weird bugs. I ran into one where sometimes I had to repeat an action for it to work. No idea why. Otherwise I was able to design a decently complicated prototype in it. I could see myself using it long term for sure.
I saw some programs mentioned where you would basically create models by writing code. If I have time, I will try some of those next. I’m not that into programming though /s.
Copied this from a similar question I responded to a while back: I have been using Sketchup 2017 (whatever the last free version was they released) for years to make 3D models for all kinds of purposes, incl 3D printing. For my brain it has proven to be the most intuitive tool to learn, it’s been a really long time so maybe I have forgotten but I feel like the barrier to entry was pretty small. There is a lot of content out there from people giving tips and tutorials. There are plug-ins still flooding around that have really good functionality. I use it with a Connexion 3D Space Navigator mouse that’s prob 10+ years old. That’s been a godsend and adds so much efficiency and flow to the tool.
I don’t know if you can still download it from Trimble but there are sources for it elsewhere.
Have fun, whatever you choose.
Same! I find sketchup so incredibly intuitive compared to the other apps mentioned here, it just vanishes into the background of what I’m creating. Granted, it’s got a few quirks running under Linux, and getting an STL file out if it requires a few hoops, but I can do things I can’t do otherwise - not that the other apps can’t make the shapes, but the parametric paradigm inhibits my creative flow.
Funny enough I actually used SketchUp a bunch in the past for interior decoration. I would create realistic renders of rooms in our house in Sweet Home 3D and I used SketchUp to create all of the funiture, etc. I heard it wasn’t that great for 3d printing which is why I am inquiring if there is something better but if I don’t find anything I like maybe I’ll just stick with SketchUp lol.
Oh that is funny. I’ve had no issues with it, that said, I was content to use a website to convert my .skp files into .stl so I could print but that was less annoying than the learning curve of new software. I tried all the free/OS ones people tend to mention and maybe I’m just an old grump now, but they frustrated me more than just being able to make the thing I’m trying to make and spend no more than 1-2 minutes getting the file uploaded, converted and saved ready to go.
Keen to hear if you find a good solution given we have the same foundation tool. I’d be willing to try a recommendation from someone in the same boat.