- Joined
- Nov 3, 2022
- Messages
- 66
im not at that level to pay $500 a yearWell tell ya what. Get fusion360 from autocad. It can run on a potato. You can get a used laptop or pc cheap these days that will blow your old PC away. The pandemic saw a surge of laptop and pc buying...work from home...now people are trying to unload them.
Also fusion 360 is very easy to learn and play with..also countless videos on YouTube. I design tooling at work with it right next to the engineers...and I never got a degree in engineering...just YouTube.
Oh no they have a personal/ hobbyist version! It's free. I'm sorry left that part out. You can still model and 3d print..also make technical drawings. You just can't print them or save them as a pdf without a subscription.......I just screen shot them.im not at that level to pay $500 a year
Winter is setting in and I will look into all this stuff and learn some more. Need a new PC or lap topOh no they have a personal/ hobbyist version! It's free. I'm sorry left that part out. You can still model and 3d print..also make technical drawings. You just can't print them or save them as a pdf without a subscription.......I just screen shot them.
All new, it will be a slow process probably wont get a new computer or lap top till after the holidays.Another option is FreeCAD. Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. It's free to download and use No licensing for use - forever. While not quite as spiffy as the commercial offerings, it's more than adequate for hobbyist use. I've used it to model my lathe to design parts for my own Electronic Lead Screw system, design and build lathe back plates, back flow prevention valves, kitchen cabinet brackets, and lots of other things. It also creates stl files for 3d printers. There's a whole series of videos of learning the SW. Last but not least, there's really good FreeCAD forum support, which has provided me rather quick responses to my questions. I had an issue yesterday about a model that was difficult to open, and I got answers from the forum that told me one of my settings in Preferences was ridiculously set, within 20 minutes. Changed the setting and all was good again.
If you are new to 3d CAD it will take a bit before the rush of information sinks in. It took me about 3 weeks before I could get around enough to make things easily. Absorbing the basic concepts so you can use them, at least for me, was what took the time.
At this point its old enough to retire it. It wont even do a windows 10 update from window 7?Can you add memory to your computer? If not than look at refurbs. I have not bought new in over a decade. The last one I bought is a HP Z800 workstation which on the used market are cheap and very fast.
Pierre
Be aware that thumb drives are subject to failure without notice.At this point its old enough to retire it. It wont even do a windows 10 update from window 7?
I plan on getting all the pictures coppied to thumb drives and CDs
Then move on.
Friend of mine came through with some 3d gears . I will try to get them on and test run . If so he said we can move on to better materialI print gears in ABS, but pla or PETG would also work fine. As important (or more important) is the orientation in which it is printed. In a nutshell, you don't want layer lines parallel to the load path or the load can split teeth off. Print flat and at a high infill and no worries other than possible warping when printing.
I'd recommend searching 3d sites like "thingiverse" for change gear STL files. If you find something that works for tooth count, changing the center bore to match your smithy is a doodle on a site like "tinkercad" or similar....