Any of you guys do any 3D printing for fun or as part of your jobs?
I’ve been interested in the concept for years, but even though I’ve done some 3D modeling, I’ve never actually tried printing anything.
I saw an amazing project recently that got me thinking about the possibilities of making my own models, and I was just wondering if anyone here had any advice …
I had worked professionally with 3d printer back in the days when the technology was new… was the first color one in my country and when there were just a few in the world. Basically it had a software that converts the 3d model + you can adjust it there before printing. After that it takes quite a few hours, it was powder/glue based (lays a layer of powder, then glue on the right spots, then powder, then glue and so on till the details is printed. It slices the model to layers.
I haven’t been too impressed with the quality of FDM printers, but after seeing the results of the SLA process from the Formlabs Form 2 in that project I mentioned, I’m really interested in that particular printer:
Not bad, but I never worked with SLA to give some first hand experience about drawbacks/positives. Also worth mentioning that the printer I worked on costed 50 000$, it was not exactly home class 3d printer. 
#cantrelate
Ehh I cant say for a job but one of my classes (Im learning 3dMax rn) has one and we use it for smol stuff for fun like character models and other stuff.
I have both 3ds Max and Maya – I previously used Modo, but I never got comfortable with it. I LOVE Maya … haven’t done much of anything with Max yet. But now I know who to ask for tips. 
Aye! Im still learnin 
I fully got certified for Autocad, Inventor, and Revit last. I can help there 
I gave AutoCAD a 30 day trial and LOVED it – I really wanted to use it for furniture design. But it was much too expensive to justify, particularly since most of my woodworking tools are currently in storage.
Someday …
I was using the student version (when I was learning it) so If I wanted to continue to use it, I would have to pay to renew and thats a fat no for that much.
Though it was a FUN time tho. I can say with confidence that it was the easiest out of the three to pick up and learn quickly.
Even now my pal still uses it to make miniature swords for his collection.
^ Sword from fate/stay night that he’s planning on making
The one I worked on had the option to import from both (actually, quite a lot formats). It was hardly made for class fun mini projects and was not small either (could print the entire battle buss model in one go).
Solidworks anyone?
Took it for engineering and learned cad
Onshape is a decent engineering-focused CAD tool. I think it’s free but with some storage constraints unless you pay.
