Which CAD program to choose?

[borges1]

Great info here, I am looking to learn 3D design to make .STL files for our 3D printer.

I've narrowed my focus to Fusion 360 and SketchUp. Any advice on which one to choose?

i use the full version of sketchup for my work and have a fair amount of experience with it for architectural work. i often have trouble exporting to other formats and getting the results i need from things like online cutting services. the troubles are in how sketchup works in the background, most of which can be accounted for ... if you know what is going on in the background (which i have not completely figured out). vector vs. raster for instance. arcs and circles in sketcup are another troubles spot, espeically in the small sizes used for common machining/holes/drills/taps. If you have no CAD experience, but are using printers and machining more i would suggest you learn fusion. i have not picked it up, but given my current frustrations with sketchup, and my goals in machining/product development i may learn. I see lots of recommendations for fusion related to printing and machining, virtually none for sketchup.

 

[GeneT45]

Great info here, I am looking to learn 3D design to make .STL files for our 3D printer.

I've narrowed my focus to Fusion 360 and SketchUp. Any advice on which one to choose?

F360 hands down. It's a "real" CAD program whereas Sketchup is a glorified drawing program. I'm pretty confident you'll find Fusion more capable as you learn (which is not to say that learning will be painless, but that's true of all the good SW).

GsT

 

[WobblyHand]

I've had no troubles using FreeCAD for both 3d print modeling and for making designs for machining. I've shipped models to SendCutSend and have received perfectly made parts as well. I've also done FEA with it, which is built in.

Doing CFD is a little harder. (Getting all the prerequisites installed isn't that easy.). Haven't yet gotten one of my own models to run yet, although I have simulated a supersonic rocket example model using 80% of the cores on my MacBookPro. Both CFD and FEA are processor and memory intensive.

The cost is zero. I've also found support on their forums is quite good. There's whole video series to watch and get up to speed. If this is for personal use and on your own nickel, I highly recommend it. For other use cases, that's up for you to decide. There's no prohibitions on using the software for commercial use, it's free for everyone to use.

 

[WobblyHand]

F360 hands down. It's a "real" CAD program whereas Sketchup is a glorified drawing program. I'm pretty confident you'll find Fusion more capable as you learn (which is not to say that learning will be painless, but that's true of all the good SW).

GsT

F360 is a good choice, although the terms of use may vary if for commercial purposes. It's very powerful and relatively easy to use. Has a good user interface.

 

[brino]

I started using Fusion-360 to make models for 3D printing.
At the start I tried very hard to learn it, but never really cared for it.

Sure, some of my negative experience with Fusion-360 comes from not using it often enough.
like: every time I wanted to use it I'd have to spend 20 minutes waiting for updates to finish......frustrating!

Then when they changed the interface I lost everything I had learned, nothing was recognizable, features were moved/hidden.
I will admit to being an old grump, but if I have to re-learn the software I am just as likely to walk away.

Much like I still do NOT use the ribbon interface for microsoft word and excel, but instead install the old icons and menus with an add-on.

I am going to move to FreeCAD, based on the recommendations here.
I look forward to installing one version and keeping it forever, unless _I_ decide that I really need a new feature.

Brian

 

[DavidR8]

I managed to get a 1-year subscription to Solid Edge X and CAM Pro. Still learning but it's pretty amazing.

Happy to use it for free for a year but the list renewal price is a jaw-dropping $28,000.

 

[pontiac428]

If I were to start all over again, I'd go with Fusion360 for the generous licensing and strong community. I have been locked into SolidWorks since I committed to learning it with version 2003 using a number of books and the built-in tutorials. They got pretty awful about licensing, but their plug-ins are top shelf and the workflow is practical. One of these days I'm not going to want to maintain a Windows 7 machine, and I'll be stuck with having to learn another environment or paying for a retail subscription. I shiver at the thought.

 

[B2]

I am a total beginner on this.

Many machines are g-code specific and requires a dedicated driver. As you might expect, the Gcode for a 3-D printer looks entirely different from the Gcode for a mill. I have tried several CAD systems including Fusion 360, FreeCad, AutoCad,... Any one that will do complex things takes a while to learn, so you must invest the effort. Then as @brino said if you do not use it often you forget and have to learn it again. For Milling I do not always like the paths that the CAM generates for cutting. They are not always the most efficient and sometimes drives the tool around doing nothing a good portion of the time.... So, you have to invest time to make the most out of these things ... You may also find that even if you use a CAD/CAM to generate the G-code you may wish to modify it by hand.

So my advice is to do the following to learn what this is all about. Most importantly, write some G-code by hand! Pick out something simple you want to cut on your tool to start with. For me it was my Mill. Perhaps you could make a circle shape with a hex or square pattern shape in the center cutting in repetitive paths to go deeper and deeper. What ever you want. But first just do straight line objects with varying depth. Then add more code to drill holes in some pattern. (Mill some wood, plastic, Al or something you can waste so that you can learn about cutting speeds and rates. ) The very first thing I cut was a heart shaped pattern in a piece of brass. Then I polished it up and gave it to my wife for tolerating my new hobby. There are not very many instructions in G-code instruction set so it does not take long to learn how to write out manual instruction sets.. ( If you cannot write G-code by hand then you probably cannot understand if F-360 or FreeCAD is going a decent job of generating the code. Most CAD generated movement do not always use the best G-code commands. ) This exercise also forces you to think about which operations should come first and which ones you cannot even do if you have already cut things away. By the way, the heart shape turned out to use several G-code arc instructions to get the shape proportioned correctly.

One thing you will want to have is some form of simulator so that you can simulate the G-code to visually see the tool pathe and so determine if the instructions you wrote actually generate the shape you think it is making. My mill came set up for Mach3 (ArtSoft of New Fangled Solutions) to drive it... so I purchased it. Today you should get Mach4 ($200) as it is no doubt better, but a lot of machines are stuck with Mach3 interpreters. I can simulate the code via stepping through the instructions operations by hand at the Mill computer before cutting. It is cheap. Then I also purchased their Mill Wizard software $75 to simulate the Gcode off line. It turns out to be very handy. https://www.machsupport.com/ These prices are a one time license that lasts for ever. Anyway, it is a way to try your hand out at this even without a milling machine.

Have fun...

 

[borges1]

These prices are a one time license that lasts for ever.

Yeah, i did that too - then all those 'forever' licenses turned into mandatory subscriptions to function and are not cheap. i never believe this any more.

 

[WobblyHand]

I started using Fusion-360 to make models for 3D printing.
At the start I tried very hard to learn it, but never really cared for it.

Sure, some of my negative experience with Fusion-360 comes from not using it often enough.
like: every time I wanted to use it I'd have to spend 20 minutes waiting for updates to finish......frustrating!

Then when they changed the interface I lost everything I had learned, nothing was recognizable, features were moved/hidden.
I will admit to being an old grump, but if I have to re-learn the software I am just as likely to walk away.

Much like I still do NOT use the ribbon interface for microsoft word and excel, but instead install the old icons and menus with an add-on.

I am going to move to FreeCAD, based on the recommendations here.
I look forward to installing one version and keeping it forever, unless _I_ decide that I really need a new feature.

Brian

If you need any help with FreeCAD, let me know. I'm not an expert at it, but I do manage to get it done. I'd recommend following one of the video series. By the time you get to #12, you can do a lot.