I liked OpenSCAD, but I couldn’t figure out how to do anything very advanced… until the LLMs became good. Now the LLMs are great at guiding me on rather complex projects.
If I were going to do it again, I’d probably learn solidworks. They have some great discounts which make it accessible for home users.
Oooh haven’t tried OpenSCAD yet with LLMs! I wrote a lot of OpenSCAD a few years ago for my CNC router projects and “vibe coding” a solid object would be very cool.
Really depends on how motivated and how much time you want to invest.
I find Tinkercad to be an incredibly simple (and yet also surprisingly useful) way to build our simple to moderately complex parts, it’s free, and you can even sell parts you’ve created with it. It’s no Fusion360, but it also doesn’t have nearly the learning curve.
Fusion is fantastic for complex parts, but costly if you ever want to sell anything. It is a combination CAD/parametric modeling program. FreeCAD has gotten better over the years, though it’s a bit clunky but has a lot of parity where it counts for 3d printing. Either one is going to require a time investment. Others have provided good resources for that.
Personally, I’d start with Tinkercad to dip your toes in the water. Let your needs decide whether you should invest more time in another program (or not). You might be surprised at how for it can take you, and it will introduce you to the thought process you’ll need for designing 3d objects.
A quick primer. There are two forms of 3D modeling - parametric solid body modeling, used in engineering CAD programs like Solidworks, and mesh modeling, used in CGI industries from programs like Blender. Hobbyist 3D printing currently exists between these two audiences of engineers who design for function and designers who design for design, and all the newbies get caught up in the mosh pit between them all and it gets crazy confusing. It doesn't help that some software (like Fusion360) integrates both in the same software, or that STL is a mesh format and not a solid body format (like STEP).
If you want to make things that have any importance put on things like fit, function, dimensions, tolerances, etc., then you want to learn CAD (Solidworks) and find resources that teach the basics of mechanical engineering parts design (intro to CAD courses, basically). If you want to design from a more artistic standpoint, then use a mesh modeling software (Blender).
Fusion360 is actually quite usable for both, but my problem is that the Fusion resources for functional design are frequently non-engineers trying to teach engineering concepts and it's just a longer and more frustrating process.
BTW, their Maker version locks Maker-created files to ONLY be editable in Maker, which means upgrading to normal Solidworks renders your previous files unusable. The $60/year student edition is better. Avoid cloud versions of anything you pick. Up to you on your use case.
I was on the same boat as you. The “Learn Fusion 360 in 30 Days” series on YouTube is awesome. In the first video you make a working Lego brick, and after a couple of hours I could make my own simple parts. Complex objects still seem hard, but simple household 3D prints turned out to be easier than expected. I started with OnShape but switched to Fusion just so I could follow this tutorial. I think (hope) the skills will be pretty transferable to any CAD.
I learned Fusion360 by using it. I had no real experience with 3D modeling beyond a little bit of TinkerCAD work for really basic 3D prints, and SketchUp for very basic architectural plans.
As I modeled things in Fusion, if I wanted to do something but didn't know how I'd search YouTube for a tutorial to do that specific task. Now I'm making fairly complex, decent looking, models. Here are my public ones that aren't solving a very specific problem that I have https://www.printables.com/@WhoaFactorial_912016/models, many of these are a a half day or so of modeling to get the basic shape right, then another couple of hours of tweaking for perfect fit.
Get good calipers, they'll make modeling so much better because you'll have good measurements to go off of.
I just did this recently! Here’s what worked for me and had me modelling fairly complex parts in a few hours:
- Watch a few tutorial videos on your tool of choice (I was using OnShape) to get an understanding of what is possible
- Set up a Grok project with the prompt being something along the lines of “You are mentoring me in using OnShape. Respond briefly and concisely.”
I have the two windows side by side and whenever I don’t know how to do something I ask Grok and it points me in the right direction.
I tried FreeCAD, I really did. I gave up due to constant crashes and terrible UX and went to Fusion. Even though it's slow on my laptop it's still a far better experience. I am never going to commercialise my models so it's acceptable for me.
(Note: I would have tried Solidworks given the reasonable hobby pricing, but it's Windows only, and I don't want a web-based CAD tool)
I bit the bullet, and learned FreeCAD, and it wasn't easy. There are plenty of YouTube videos to watch a few times and try to see what's going on. The key realization for me was I could actually just draw boxes, lines, etc. Later, you can add constraints to them to get the right size, add symmetry, etc.
The reason I went with FreeCAD is because there is an available Gear Generator workbench, and I wanted to have something I could keep, without having to pray Autodesk still likes me next year.
Now, if you want to just 3d sculpt things, there are simple programs that let you push and pull shapes, rotate, rinse and repeat, like Windows Paint 3D.
I used some courses on Udemy called something like design for 3d printing with Fusion and it went through starting with very simple flat objects(I think it was a comb) and working your way up then there were intermediate and advanced courses for after. I went from zero understanding of fusion to being not an expert or even advanced but comfortable enough to design pretty much any little part or idea I have in just a few days of practice.
I've been getting by for years with tinkercad. It's not sophisticated but you can make some surprisingly complex and accurate parts with it very easily.
You can start by solving your own problem in your life. For example, design a cup holder, headphone holder, stationaries box etc. You'll need some tools like digital caliper for measuring.
1.Download 2d drawings of model engines, model them in CAD software and also the drawings you got from the website are manufacturable. https://outerzone.co.uk/plans.asp?cat=Engines
Use onshape, it’s so much nicer to use something browser based than desktop based. If you’re a student it’s free.
Watch 2-3 onshape tutorial videos and then just dive in trying to make parts for yourself.
If you’re new to 3d printing you’ll soon learn that what you design doesn’t always print right. Welcome to creating things in the real world. This is part of the learning experience (and why you need to learn by doing).
Onshape also has a bunch of public cad designs, so you can look at how other people made things to learn (sort of like reading source code to learn).
I liked OpenSCAD, but I couldn’t figure out how to do anything very advanced… until the LLMs became good. Now the LLMs are great at guiding me on rather complex projects.
If I were going to do it again, I’d probably learn solidworks. They have some great discounts which make it accessible for home users.
Oooh haven’t tried OpenSCAD yet with LLMs! I wrote a lot of OpenSCAD a few years ago for my CNC router projects and “vibe coding” a solid object would be very cool.
IME they're really not great at OpenSCAD or POVRay but some of them can at least produce syntactically correct SDL these days.
Really depends on how motivated and how much time you want to invest.
I find Tinkercad to be an incredibly simple (and yet also surprisingly useful) way to build our simple to moderately complex parts, it’s free, and you can even sell parts you’ve created with it. It’s no Fusion360, but it also doesn’t have nearly the learning curve.
Fusion is fantastic for complex parts, but costly if you ever want to sell anything. It is a combination CAD/parametric modeling program. FreeCAD has gotten better over the years, though it’s a bit clunky but has a lot of parity where it counts for 3d printing. Either one is going to require a time investment. Others have provided good resources for that.
Personally, I’d start with Tinkercad to dip your toes in the water. Let your needs decide whether you should invest more time in another program (or not). You might be surprised at how for it can take you, and it will introduce you to the thought process you’ll need for designing 3d objects.
What do you want to make?
A quick primer. There are two forms of 3D modeling - parametric solid body modeling, used in engineering CAD programs like Solidworks, and mesh modeling, used in CGI industries from programs like Blender. Hobbyist 3D printing currently exists between these two audiences of engineers who design for function and designers who design for design, and all the newbies get caught up in the mosh pit between them all and it gets crazy confusing. It doesn't help that some software (like Fusion360) integrates both in the same software, or that STL is a mesh format and not a solid body format (like STEP).
If you want to make things that have any importance put on things like fit, function, dimensions, tolerances, etc., then you want to learn CAD (Solidworks) and find resources that teach the basics of mechanical engineering parts design (intro to CAD courses, basically). If you want to design from a more artistic standpoint, then use a mesh modeling software (Blender).
Fusion360 is actually quite usable for both, but my problem is that the Fusion resources for functional design are frequently non-engineers trying to teach engineering concepts and it's just a longer and more frustrating process.
BTW, their Maker version locks Maker-created files to ONLY be editable in Maker, which means upgrading to normal Solidworks renders your previous files unusable. The $60/year student edition is better. Avoid cloud versions of anything you pick. Up to you on your use case.
This was also posted to HN 2 months ago and is a gold mine of useful info for designing for function. https://blog.rahix.de/design-for-3d-printing/
I was on the same boat as you. The “Learn Fusion 360 in 30 Days” series on YouTube is awesome. In the first video you make a working Lego brick, and after a couple of hours I could make my own simple parts. Complex objects still seem hard, but simple household 3D prints turned out to be easier than expected. I started with OnShape but switched to Fusion just so I could follow this tutorial. I think (hope) the skills will be pretty transferable to any CAD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3qGQ2utl2A
Thanks a lot for this!
I learned Fusion360 by using it. I had no real experience with 3D modeling beyond a little bit of TinkerCAD work for really basic 3D prints, and SketchUp for very basic architectural plans.
As I modeled things in Fusion, if I wanted to do something but didn't know how I'd search YouTube for a tutorial to do that specific task. Now I'm making fairly complex, decent looking, models. Here are my public ones that aren't solving a very specific problem that I have https://www.printables.com/@WhoaFactorial_912016/models, many of these are a a half day or so of modeling to get the basic shape right, then another couple of hours of tweaking for perfect fit.
Get good calipers, they'll make modeling so much better because you'll have good measurements to go off of.
You have to learn by doing. Here’s a good tutorial for Fusion 360 -> https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLISvF10lebIzMQjtPhKVlCwzs...
And a classic for Blender from Blender Guru -> https://youtu.be/4haAdmHqGOw?si=7Sk-dxbyPFi5PL8u
I’m no expert but the little I know was trying to solve one problem after the other.
Thank you!
I just did this recently! Here’s what worked for me and had me modelling fairly complex parts in a few hours:
- Watch a few tutorial videos on your tool of choice (I was using OnShape) to get an understanding of what is possible - Set up a Grok project with the prompt being something along the lines of “You are mentoring me in using OnShape. Respond briefly and concisely.”
I have the two windows side by side and whenever I don’t know how to do something I ask Grok and it points me in the right direction.
I tried FreeCAD, I really did. I gave up due to constant crashes and terrible UX and went to Fusion. Even though it's slow on my laptop it's still a far better experience. I am never going to commercialise my models so it's acceptable for me.
(Note: I would have tried Solidworks given the reasonable hobby pricing, but it's Windows only, and I don't want a web-based CAD tool)
I bit the bullet, and learned FreeCAD, and it wasn't easy. There are plenty of YouTube videos to watch a few times and try to see what's going on. The key realization for me was I could actually just draw boxes, lines, etc. Later, you can add constraints to them to get the right size, add symmetry, etc.
The reason I went with FreeCAD is because there is an available Gear Generator workbench, and I wanted to have something I could keep, without having to pray Autodesk still likes me next year.
Now, if you want to just 3d sculpt things, there are simple programs that let you push and pull shapes, rotate, rinse and repeat, like Windows Paint 3D.
I used some courses on Udemy called something like design for 3d printing with Fusion and it went through starting with very simple flat objects(I think it was a comb) and working your way up then there were intermediate and advanced courses for after. I went from zero understanding of fusion to being not an expert or even advanced but comfortable enough to design pretty much any little part or idea I have in just a few days of practice.
I've been getting by for years with tinkercad. It's not sophisticated but you can make some surprisingly complex and accurate parts with it very easily.
You can start by solving your own problem in your life. For example, design a cup holder, headphone holder, stationaries box etc. You'll need some tools like digital caliper for measuring.
1.How to CAD Almost anything in Solidworks from MIT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCfxQDCIZr0&list=PLxiALKuvAo... from the same channel, you can watch different softwares like onshape,fusion360,NX. https://www.youtube.com/@anex610/playlists 2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sSgkW0MhBw&list=PLROUP1bV8R... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tRznYbRaJ39XZNVYdS04eQiWDwE...
For exercises:
1.Download 2d drawings of model engines, model them in CAD software and also the drawings you got from the website are manufacturable. https://outerzone.co.uk/plans.asp?cat=Engines
2. Grabcad,thingverse(for 3d printing).
3.https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/tfrcdejxdd06kluk2hywh/AMLOrdy...
For 3d printing:
https://www.reddit.com/r/3drprinting https://www.reddit.com/r/functionalprint/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Z3GmM20JM&list=PLGqRUdq5UL...
And there are so many resources on the internet for 3d printing.
If you have questions, let me know in the comments.
Thanks! I will check this out. Looks like solid works for makers is $25 USD. I will check out getting a copy.
Use onshape, it’s so much nicer to use something browser based than desktop based. If you’re a student it’s free.
Watch 2-3 onshape tutorial videos and then just dive in trying to make parts for yourself.
If you’re new to 3d printing you’ll soon learn that what you design doesn’t always print right. Welcome to creating things in the real world. This is part of the learning experience (and why you need to learn by doing).
Onshape also has a bunch of public cad designs, so you can look at how other people made things to learn (sort of like reading source code to learn).
+1 for OnShape
It works like google docs where its in the browser
Try zbrush on an iPad with the pencil