Most Popular Software for 3D Printing

[jeffroig]

Interesting topic, I think this is a matter of preference. I do all my design work in TS 7.6 and export everything out as STL.
I then will use sketchup to double check the dimensions before printing.
I use Cura to Slice/Export Gcode.
Sketchup is a fairly okay software for designing it, its interface can be frustrating but there are many video tutorials out there to help.

[bitkar]

what about 123D or something from that family?

[jeffroig]

I have to be honest I have never used 123D, I am familiar with Lightwave,Poser and 3D Studio Max but other than 3D Studio non of them offer STL export.
My work flow for printing is like this.
1) Design in TS
2) Export out as 3DS file.
3) Import 3DS into Sketchup
4) In Sketchup do final inspection and measuring.
5) Export out of Sketchup as STL
6) Import into Cura and do Layers inspection
7) Save GCODE and start printing.

[the_ant]

My work flow for printing is like this:

1) 2D in DraftSight (DassaultSystemes) if needed (then Export 2D polylines in Autocad ver.12 ascii-DXF)
2) Modeling in tSp (7.61beta8 with bridge: using modelside and some booleans in workside)
3) Create .stl with tSp
4) Import into Cura (for my Creality Ender 2 the ver.15.04 is very good) and do Layers inspection
5) Save GCODE and start printing.

One of results is my Avatar Upgrade!

[bitkar]

gratz for the new avatar! :)

I see tS STL is pretty usable, thats nice.

[Rhino169]

Long time no post!

I was just modelling and 3d printing from truespace 6.6 last night and today. I save as a .stl file to OneDrive and then download it from there into my 3d printer and print. I have a SeemeCNC Rostock Max v2 printer. It looks like they are on V4 now.

https://www.seemecnc.com/collections/3d-printers

It works great so far.

I have had the potential to have my design molded, but the guy at the injection mold shop couldn't use the .stl code. I believe he was using Solidworks. He has mentioned using .stp or .iges. I believe my TS6.6 can save files that way, but I'm not 100% sure.

Has anyone saved files to be used in the injection molding process before or to Solidworks?

[Rhino169]

My work flow for printing is like this:

1) 2D in DraftSight (DassaultSystemes) if needed (then Export 2D polylines in Autocad ver.12 ascii-DXF)
2) Modeling in tSp (7.61beta8 with bridge: using modelside and some booleans in workside)
3) Create .stl with tSp
4) Import into Cura (for my Creality Ender 2 the ver.15.04 is very good) and do Layers inspection
5) Save GCODE and start printing.

One of results is my Avatar Upgrade!
IMG_20190102_083924 x tSp 500.jpg

Is this Cura program free? Can it be used without signing up for anything?
Just checking.

[the_ant]

Yes it is...and it's constantly upgraded ...nevertheless i work with the (oldest but simplest as wrote in the post) version in the free usb-key arrived with the kit of the printer.

[lrdsatyr8]

I've been using Truespace since version 2.0 and use it all the time for modeling for 3D printing. I love it's simplicity and intuitive interface that just makes more sense then some of the newer modeling programs available. Maybe I'm just used to the TS interface. The only complaint I have is when the models start getting high in polygon count, everything slows down and that's when crashes occur. Thank goodness for the Autosave plugin. When it's getting to the point it's bogging down at least I have a point I can restart from so I didn't lose too much work. A couple of things that I wish could be fixed is just before I export to STL I triangulate my mesh. However it tends to flip faces on the mesh and can be a pain to repair. If I forget to do so, and holes I've made in a solid tend to automatically disappear in the final export. Another thing I wish is that you could export to DAE format without having to turn the bridge on in the Model Side. If you've got a large mesh with alot of polys and have to turn the bridge on, it always locks up. The only way I've been able to get around it somewhat, is by saving the scene and then shutting down the program, then restart fresh and turn the bridge on and reload the scene and sometimes it'll work that way. Would be nice if you could just export directly without having to go thru all that! Just my thoughts. What do you all think?

[RAYMAN]

Yes Clintonman is the one to ask here he made the collada exporter! The modelside plugins can be made via python! Might be a good idea to look into the Python based Collada exporter for Blender and adapt it to TS MS!