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Thread: Would a 3d printer work for me ?
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11-25-2015, 03:41 AM #1
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11-23-2015, 03:16 PM #2
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Yes; if you're not experienced in this and want to know how various different 3D printers will do with your models, it's a good idea to send them out for printing and compare results before spending a lot of money on a printer that may not be capable of doing what you want. There's also something to be said for not having to set up, adjust, babysit, feed and maintain a 3D printer; that all can be a lot more work than anticipated.
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11-25-2015, 05:25 AM #3
dependignon your budget you would probably benefit from a multi material printer like the hyrel.
It can print in plastic, extruded clay and silicon and pretty much anything else that can be extruded.
http://www.hyrel3d.com/
And yep the easy part of the box is the squashed sphere. IN openscad it'd take a couple of lines of instructions to do that.
Designed right you could actually print the hinges already in place.
If you use a dual material printer you can simply print a join between the two halves with flexible filament.
Printer wise - many many choices. Give us a rough budget and we'll give you a list :-)
But none of it will be super fast to learn.
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11-25-2015, 03:45 PM #4
if you've never done any cad - then absolutely start with openscad. It's the only one where you'll have a printable object in 5 minutes.
Most cad programs require a lot of farting about before you've got something you can actually print. Openscad ONLY makes printable objects.
No drawing - you just tell it what you want and it makes it :-)
http://www.openscad.org/
The online manual was most likely written by some kind of idiot savant - it's basically gibberish and almost impossible to understan by a 'normal' person'.
Fortunately there are lots of simple to follow tutorials online.
http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/OpenS...l#Introduction
http://blog.cubehero.com/2013/11/19/...s-in-openscad/
My openscad tip of the day: when making spheres or cylinders use 'd=' to state the diameter rather than 'r=' forthe radius. saves you having to constantly have to calculate the final size of something from a radius - just state the actual size you want as a diameter :-)
Why people still use r, I don't know.
Or why people put the modules AFTER the actual model script. back to front to me.
But I'm not a programmer :-)
It probably all makes sense to whoever wrote the manual.
Sketchup is a right bastard to make printable objects in. And - in my experience, the version you have is almost never the version in a tutorial so nothing ever works properly.Last edited by curious aardvark; 11-25-2015 at 04:21 PM.
Please explain to me how to...
05-17-2024, 12:15 PM in 3D Printer Parts, Filament & Materials