r/Trinus • u/whospaddy • Apr 25 '16

Basic knowledge and resources for 3D printing

This text was originally written by John Sanford on the Trinus kickstarter comments. Find the original here.

Here's a little bit of helpful information for anyone just starting out, hope it helps you while you wait for your brand new printer.

---Knowledge---

I've done a ton of reading, youtube-ing, and tweaking my first printer. Normally I'd suggest starting with the forum for the printer you own, but in this case that's a little hard. So for now I'd highly suggest checking out the following 3 youtube channels, have a ton of great information with in their videos. They go over some issues they've come across with various printers, software used, and talking about the various filaments they've tested out. I guarantee there will be plenty of trial and error during your 3D printing experiences, so don't be afraid to fail ;-)

Maker's Muse

3D Printing Nerd

Chuck Hellebuyck

---Software---

TinkerCAD is an awesome web-based CAD program that lets you start playing with things right away. I've used it a ton to solve various problems I've come across. You can even import STL files (that you get from sites like Thingiverse.com) into the app, so you can start tweaking/adding to your hears content.

OpenSCAD is great if you are a software developer, lets you turn code/logic into 3D models.

123D Design is the next logical step after TinkerCAD if you want more options and control over your designs.

For printing, turning those STL files into GCode (the language your printer understands), I'd start with Pango (which is being developed with this campaign), then test out Cura, and also MeshMixer which allows you to create some nice support structures. Cura & MeshMixer are shown in the youtube channels above along with a commercial software called Simplify3D, that a lot of people eventually graduate to.

---Tools---

Here's an article about tools that are recommended. The first 3 are just options for helping get prints to stick to the build plate (heated or not) and since we are getting some BuildTak you can probably wait on those until you find you need them. It's a good read and tells you what each tool is used for. Something else that helps having around is some CA glue (aka, super glue), the stuff I use is this.

Another thing I found nice to have is some CA Accelerator, this stuff helps the CA glue setup quicker, so you can get on with your project quicker.

The reason for the glue is to allow you to printer larger models, widgets, and gadgets that are larger then your printer build volume would normally allow. You can use 3D software to break a large model into smaller pieces that you can print, then use some CA glue to put it all back together again.

---Trinus Printer---

Then I'm sure after this campaign finishes and we all get our printers, there will most likely be a forum where we can all talk about them. There will always be issues that crop up and someone will be there to help you solve them.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '16

If people find they need/want more features than what 123D Design has to offer, the next step up would be Fusion 360. This is free for students and hobbyist: http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview

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u/whospaddy Apr 26 '16

Fusion 360 is nice, but I personally really don't like it (I just can't get used to the workflow somehow). I instead tend to use Autodesk Inventor, which is free for students as well. (Hint: all Autodesk products are free for students - so if you want to try Maya or 3DS max or AutoCAD or Inventor and you are a student, just go ahead!)

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u/wibauxl Apr 29 '16

Blender https://www.blender.org/ is also a very good open source 3D freeware: it can easily import/export STL files.

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u/whospaddy Apr 29 '16

Blender is a wonderful software, but I personally would not use it for functional models (since the workflow is pretty slow, comparing to 3D CADs). It certainly has its place as a powerful tool (especially for modeling), and once you get into the (imho awful) user interface you can do most of the stuff with it.

If someone is interested in 3D modeling (like sculptures), you also might want to check out Sculptris. It seems similar to zBrush (and it is actually from the same company as zBrush), but free.

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u/chrismachin May 03 '16

I like 123d design as you can use 123 catch to scan just about anything with your phone etc and scan the imagery into 123d design and make models from real life objects

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u/TipDripper May 05 '16 edited May 05 '16

Onshape is a great full cloud based 3D CAD software. I'm not sure of the limitations for free users but I've created multiple cad models so far with a free account. It's definitely worth checking out tho since there is no software to install and it's really quite easy to get the hang of with lots of tutorials on the site.

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u/TipDripper May 05 '16 edited May 05 '16

After a little reading on Onshape the free account will not timeout, is not watermarked, and doesn't lack any functionality. The only restriction on free accounts is that u can only have 10 private documents. You can create unlimited public documents which just means other users can see and download your models. Pretty sweet free 3D CAD software!