Shoes/Footwear 3d printing and CAD options

Hi All!

I´m very happy to have discovered this forum - seems like a very active community! I have some questions where I hope you can guide me a little bit.

I´m currently having some thoughts about 3d printing and shoes. I´m a complete novice to both 3D CAD and printing. I have more experience in the shoes industry and would like to see how it´s possible to combine this. Mainly for shoe development and not for retail purposes.

I have read some articles and watched some videos about this. Many of the articles articles are focusing on the success of different companies starting to use 3d solutions (Timberland, Clarks). These are in genera some years old and it seems a bit strange not more companies have pursued the same track if there is a clear benefit. Some have of course adapted parts of it (Nike, and some orthotics companies) but not for full prototyping.

What I would like to gain some clarity in is:
- Which is considered to be the most user friendly yet powerful CAD software and which would you recommend? I know about Romans CAD, Dassault Solidworks and Delcam Crispin.
- Which 3D printing solution would you recommend for prototyping a full shoe?
- Which 3D printing solution would you recommend for prototyping components (Outsoles, heels)

Thanks!

https://www.myminifactory.com/search...ist?query=shoe

here are some pretty cool shoe design's, they had a nice contest about making shoe's. I would get in contact with the maker's of those good design's and see maybe what they used.

But I'm sure if you wait long enough, someone around here will know also :) But still nice to see some of those designs