![]() But, you're quite right - that seems like an illusion. I'm not asking for the ability to create assemblies of aircraft engines here.but I feel like, the way the software is advertised, I should be able to use it to do something useful like design a cell phone holder for the dashboard of my car, that I can then print at home. I guess this is OK for cutesey little 3D printed trinkets, but that makes it completely useless for something like a simple angle bracket where you need exact dimensions for the diameter/location of holes. In any other parametric CAD program you'd be able to define the location of the center of that circle relative to the edges of the rectangle but he just drags it around until it looks centered. I took one look at it and thought "Ah! Look how nicely that whole assembly fits together! This guy must know what he's doing, hopefully these videos will explain how to do this properly".only to watch a few of them and find out that he was freehanding/eyeballing the whole thing.Ĭoncrete example - at about the 4:15 mark in that video, he draws a circle (to extrude a cylinder) on top of an existing rectangular face. I also had a brief panic moment that I was already too old and curmudgeonly to easily pick up new software (I'm 27).įor example, I found this Instructable with a series of tutorial videos like this one. Tinkercad Tinkercad is a free web-based 3D design and 3D printing tool for people of all ages. ![]() It looks like we're not alone (I got a comment from another engineer on an forum who agreed 123D was "infuriating to use"). I'm just spoiled from using professional-grade software, and really need to scale back my expectations for what these free programs can do.Īny insight would be appreciated.especially if you can point me to a good tutorial for something like designing a bracket with exact dimensions in 123D. I'm just being lazy/impatient and need to look at more tutorials for the programs (although all of the tutorials I've seen so far seem to be more about qualitatively clicking and dragging things around, not entering exact dimensions) the center of the hole is defined by two distances from perpendicular edges of the bracket), seems impossible. For example, just creating a simple right-angle bracket with holes in certain locations (e.g. But, as far as I can tell, it's remarkably difficult if not impossible to set the dimensions of each new feature relative to each other beyond clumsily clicking and dragging them around, or some basic "snap together" functions. Generally, I get that most of them let you create 3D shape primitives (rectangular prisms, cylinders etc) and set their dimensions. I've tried Autodesk 123D Design, TinkerCAD, and Google Sketchup - and the result is that I just get immediately infuriated at (what I perceive as) the very limited functionality of these programs. Recently I tried to pick up using a free consumer CAD program for use with my home 3D printer. This is 3D Printing, if you stop learning you get left behind fast.I have ~7 years of experience using Solidworks. Once you can do that with one app, keep doing it AND pick another one that makes you uncomfortable and start learning again. It has features that lead into 3D animation as well, but I stop at the modeling part, so I don’t worry about the rigging and timelining and all those features.Īt the end of the day really, the best modeling app is the one that you can make things with and feel comfortable. I am by no means a Blender expert, but that is the app I am currently studying. I can certainly say I still have a lot to learn there too.įor more organic style modeling, there is Meshmixer, which a lot of people love (not me), and Blender is another excellent free app with a huge following, lots of support and training available. Personally, I use both 123D still (offline mode) if I need something easy to model and to get it done quickly, and Fusion 360 if I have more time and it is more complicated. That covers pretty much everyone in here. It is free for students, hobbyists/enthusiasts, and any business earning less than $100k per year. ![]() Tinkercad is going to inherit some of the more “intermediate” features of 123D Design and not feel quite so amateurish (and why anyone would feel any sense of shame is beyond me, use whatever gets the model made!).įusion 360 is pretty awesome, very powerful, and a bit complicated, but there is a massive amount of free tutorials and learning resources for it. If you follow along over at Autodesk Community, the changes coming are very transparent. If you are lucky enough to have it already, hang on to it, but it won’t be getting any updates, and anything in the cloud is gone. It is also discontinued, so I am confused as to why it is being recommended. Onshape has not changed, it IS free but all your models are public if you are not paying, and non-commercial only.ġ23D Design is (was) pretty great at filling the niche in between TinkerCAD and Fusion 360.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |