What 3D printer...

[ukracer]

"Learn Fusion 360 or Die Tying..."

Yep, that's where I am at....

<edit> This is going to be tricky. Go to the "Create" tab. There isn't one. Software update has removed it. "Create a 2 point rectangle". Uh. No reference to that at all, not anywhere, not even in the Autodesk website where they are also showing you how to use the old software that you don't have...

It seems to "follow" this tutorial you would have to know in advance if your design is going to be a mesh, a form, sculpting or sketching for sheet, solid or... well you get the picture. I will give it a go but there does not appear to be a tutorial which you can follow, the buttons they point to are not there, the pages look different and on my dual monitor setup, Fusion hides everything you're doing if you flick back to the video.

I may die trying after all...

I was in the same boat. So I started to look at the older version of fusion and cross referenced the new version and wrote down where it was and what it was now called.
It's all still there. But it's been moved and or renamed.

But rest assured it makes very little sense when you start as it's not using usual windows logic.
I found ignoring sketches. When I started helped me to alter basic shapes to get what I wanted. Now I need to learn how to apply a sketch to use as a tool to cut or alter the shapes I can create.

I am aware you should start using sketches but just could not get my head round it.

 

[Dr.Al]

"Learn Fusion 360 or Die Tying..."

Yep, that's where I am at....

<edit> This is going to be tricky. Go to the "Create" tab. There isn't one. Software update has removed it. "Create a 2 point rectangle". Uh. No reference to that at all, not anywhere, not even in the Autodesk website where they are also showing you how to use the old software that you don't have...

It seems to "follow" this tutorial you would have to know in advance if your design is going to be a mesh, a form, sculpting or sketching for sheet, solid or... well you get the picture. I will give it a go but there does not appear to be a tutorial which you can follow, the buttons they point to are not there, the pages look different and on my dual monitor setup, Fusion hides everything you're doing if you flick back to the video.

I may die trying after all...

I know I've said this before in various threads, but if you're not too worried about keeping your models private (i.e. you're not making them for commercial reasons or whatever), try onshape. It's free and much, much better than Fusion 360 (in my opinion - I have no affiliation to them I might add, I just did a several-month long comparison test where I tried out making a handful of models in 11 different affordable-ish CAD applications†). Onshape runs in a browser and as a result is also less demanding of your PC than most CAD applications.

https://www.onshape.com/products/free

This short video gives a brief introduction to how modelling works, first with a "random doodle" type sketch and then with something slightly more parametric. It's very, very basic and doesn't really explain parametric modelling but it's not a bad place to start. The principles apply to Fusion as well; the buttons are just in different places. There are loads and loads of good tutorials for onshape, I'm just linking to a very basic starter one here.

† Alibre Atom 3D, Design Spark Mechanical, FreeCAD, Fusion 360, NaroCAD, NanoCAD Pro, OnShape, ZW3D Lite, OpenSCAD, OpenJSCAD & CADQuery

 

[Onoff]

I was looking at OnShape to try out of interest.

I'm trained on AutoCAD and love it. My lad uses Fusion 360. Never the twain shall meet etc. He doesn't like AutoCAD and I don't like Fusion! Hard to believe Autodesk make them both.

Saying that he prefers Solidworks from using it to A Level but doesn't have access anymore. The student package isn't free either.

 

[Dr.Al]

I was looking at OnShape to try out of interest.

I'm trained on AutoCAD and love it. My lad uses Fusion 360. Never the twain shall meet etc. He doesn't like AutoCAD and I don't like Fusion! Hard to believe Autodesk make them both.

Saying that he prefers Solidworks from using it to A Level but doesn't have access anymore. The student package isn't free either.

Solidworks is good. I've used Solidworks, Solidedge and NX in various jobs (I'm not a mechanical engineer, I've just been involved in tweaking stuff and making occasional jigs for electronic stuff). If memory serves me correctly, onshape (the company) was started by some people who used to develop solidworks. It felt very natural to me to pick up, but then I've tried so many different ones over the years that I don't remember what it was most similar too!

I've used AutoCAD, but only a very old version and only 2D. Having said that, I used to like it a lot. Fusion is very capable and I can see why people choose it (the free for private stuff for small organisations thing is a very good thing), I just think there are better options out there.

For my use I ended up paying for ZW3D Lite so I can do private stuff. It's not the cheapest but it's a lot better than Fusion. I still go back to Onshape for a lot of things though - it's better than ZW3D or Fusion. I also use CADQuery for some things, but that's a bit specialist and very different to the likes of Solidworks.

Atom 3D was the one that came bottom in my test. For the price (a few hundred pounds from memory) it doesn't give you any benefit at all over FreeCAD. Both Atom 3D and FreeCAD suffer from a lack of an ability to design parts based on other parts (top-down design I think it's called). The developers of FreeCAD are working on this; Alibre (who make Atom 3D) use it as a differentiator from their much more expensive products (which don't seem that good either to be honest) so are unlikely to ever include it. ZW3D Lite, Onshape and Fusion all support this.

 

[Screwdriver]

I'll give onshape a go. Been playing with Fusion trying to follow a tutorial (impossible) but I'm basically having to Google every mouse click. Was going OK until suddenly I am in some mode which basically doesn't do anything! Page looks the same, in the ambiguously named "Design" tab but "D" doesn't bring up dimension and I can't seem to get back to the object I am working on at all.

Meh. Back to the shed...

 

[PhillipM]

I had a couple of rolls of 3DQF and I'll never buy it again, complete ****, diameter was all over the place and there were lumps in it - and people are still complaining about similar now about a year after they said they'd fixed the problems....

 

[Onoff]

Draftsight was an excellent 2D AutoCAD clone and truth be told had some limited 3D ability. I remember starting to use it in literally seconds after coming from using AutoCAD. I used to use it on my Linux pcs.

A downside was that solids generated in Draftsight couldn't be edited in AutoCAD. AutoCAD would also throw a hissy fit and tell you your .dwg wasn't created in AutoCAD etc.

Then the barstewards started charging for it.

 

[BelgiqueB]

I have an anycubic Chiron, it's an ok printer for the price, the biggest downside i found is that anycubic is a smaller brand and not so much support forum/facebook group wise when you have issues. If i was to buy a cheap chinese printer again i would go with the creality brand as they are the biggest of the cheap printers, therefore there is much more support when things go wrong.

Also made the jump from sketchup to fusion when i got the printer, had a very frustrating few weeks, but kept at it and now i can hold my own with fusion, once you get used to some of it's proprietary quirks and ways of doing things it really is a great program with lot's and lot's of free tutorials built into the program and on youtube. Another advantage is that you can export sketches as DXF files, and then have them cnc cut, been a while since i've messed around with sketchup but a couple of years back this wasn't possible.

 

[Ruffian]

Looks like they have just released the ender 3 version 2 literally recently.
(Didnt see it on the website yesterday but email saying its available today)

Near on the same but with a flashy screen.

 

[Dr.Al]

Draftsight was an excellent 2D AutoCAD clone and truth be told had some limited 3D ability. I remember starting to use it in literally seconds after coming from using AutoCAD. I used to use it on my Linux pcs.

A downside was that solids generated in Draftsight couldn't be edited in AutoCAD. AutoCAD would also throw a hissy fit and tell you your .dwg wasn't created in AutoCAD etc.

Then the barstewards started charging for it.

I used Draftsight a bit but got frustrated with the annual "renew your licence" thing long before they started charging for it. LibreCAD isn't anywhere near as good, sadly, although I've used it for a few things when I've wanted to work in 2D.

I have an anycubic Chiron, it's an ok printer for the price, the biggest downside i found is that anycubic is a smaller brand and not so much support forum/facebook group wise when you have issues. If i was to buy a cheap chinese printer again i would go with the creality brand as they are the biggest of the cheap printers, therefore there is much more support when things go wrong.

Also made the jump from sketchup to fusion when i got the printer, had a very frustrating few weeks, but kept at it and now i can hold my own with fusion, once you get used to some of it's proprietary quirks and ways of doing things it really is a great program with lot's and lot's of free tutorials built into the program and on youtube. Another advantage is that you can export sketches as DXF files, and then have them cnc cut, been a while since i've messed around with sketchup but a couple of years back this wasn't possible.

My recollection of Sketchup was that it was generally a pain to get it to interact with other systems (although it can export STL at least). Most half-decent CAD programs will allow you to get sketches or drawings out as DXF or DWG files. I think even FreeCAD can do DXF!

 

[Screwdriver]

My recollection of Sketchup was that it was generally a pain to get it to interact with other systems (although it can export STL at least). Most half-decent CAD programs will allow you to get sketches or drawings out as DXF or DWG files. I think even FreeCAD can do DXF!

Naturally I share that frustration but it actually only applies to the free version. If you pay (a small fortune - annually!) you get the export options...

 

[ukracer]

 

[ukracer]

 

[ukracer]

 

[hotponyshoes]

Naturally I share that frustration but it actually only applies to the free version. If you pay (a small fortune - annually!) you get the export options...

More than one option but,
Print to “save as PDF”. Tick the “Vector Printing” Box in the print dialog.
Import the PDF into Inkscape, then:
File->Save as... .dfx

At least one of the free versions has a dxf option. (I think, will have a look tomorrow)

 

[Screwdriver]

More than one option but,
Print to “save as PDF”. Tick the “Vector Printing” Box in the print dialog.
Import the PDF into Inkscape, then:
File->Save as... .dfx

At least one of the free versions has a dxf option. (I think, will have a look tomorrow)

Been there, done that, bought the T shirt (it didn't fit).

Ask @Brad93 who tried to help once with a PDF derived Sketchup bracket. IIRC it was so bad it was easier for him to redo the file from scratch! @Bladevane went the extra mile and not only remade the file but had two perfect brackets CNC cut while I was still banging my head against the wall.

It **might** be possible to take a less complex Sketchup file and export to .STL/DFX by nefarious means and I might even give it a try but I wouldn't put anyone else through it.

 

[BelgiqueB]

Been there, done that, bought the T shirt (it didn't fit).

Ask @Brad93 who tried to help once with a PDF derived Sketchup bracket. IIRC it was so bad it was easier for him to redo the file from scratch! @Bladevane went the extra mile and not only remade the file but had two perfect brackets CNC cut while I was still banging my head against the wall.

It **might** be possible to take a less complex Sketchup file and export to .STL/DFX by nefarious means and I might even give it a try but I wouldn't put anyone else through it.

I've been where you are at now, trying to make sketchup work for DXF files and such never quite managed it, I switched to Fusion struggled my way through the first few very frustrating weeks, but kept at it and now it's just an absolute pleasure to use.

How does sketchup handle STP files, that's another thing i started using since I've switched to Fusion, if you go to traceparts.com you can download an STP (and most of the time even the native fusion file type) of just about any bolt, tube, h beam, bearing and god knows what else for free, super handy!

 

[Brad93]

Been there, done that, bought the T shirt (it didn't fit).

Ask @Brad93 who tried to help once with a PDF derived Sketchup bracket. IIRC it was so bad it was easier for him to redo the file from scratch! @Bladevane went the extra mile and not only remade the file but had two perfect brackets CNC cut while I was still banging my head against the wall.

It **might** be possible to take a less complex Sketchup file and export to .STL/DFX by nefarious means and I might even give it a try but I wouldn't put anyone else through it.

Now I know how to import as a canvas and calibrate it, it would of been a 10 minute job but bloody hell we had a nightmare didn’t we!

 

[Dr.Al]

I've been where you are at now, trying to make sketchup work for DXF files and such never quite managed it, I switched to Fusion struggled my way through the first few very frustrating weeks, but kept at it and now it's just an absolute pleasure to use.

How does sketchup handle STP files, that's another thing i started using since I've switched to Fusion, if you go to traceparts.com you can download an STP (and most of the time even the native fusion file type) of just about any bolt, tube, h beam, bearing and god knows what else for free, super handy!

I sometimes import STP files to Sketchup but it's a bit of a pain as Sketchup is designed to work with meshes rather than CAD objects.

I do it by converting the STP file into an STL file and importing this. That conversion can be done by most proper CAD systems (I wrote a short cadquery script to automate it).

 

[ukracer]

while I have the CAd design experts together. lol I am in need of some basic tuition. Using fusion I have managed to get this far!



I need the part to hold 2 pieces of bent reebar in position. I need more that two pieces but each block will end up being and insert. Eventually made out of ally and welded in place.

But for now I am trying to prototype.

So the top two holes I need to cut lines 17mm apart to make the two holes join, with a radius at the rear. this will have a bent reebar pointing upwards. The single hole is fine as it is because the bent rebar will be pointing down. (matching the radius in the rear of the block.)

I will now attempt to use a paint program lol
so imagine that red blob I just added extruded to the right all the way through the block creating a cavity. What process do I need to do that. I can extrude a round hole and I can add bits to an object but cant create a form tool to be able to extrdue the shape I want..lol I am sure thats the way its done but cant quickly find a tutorial.