Learning to design in 3D

[chaotic1]

I have Photoshop, Illustrator and Sketch up which I really haven't used but I need to learn HOW to design things in 3D. Can anyone recommend a good starting point for designs for the M3D printer?

[kkuntz16]

Designing in 3D does take some getting use to but if you are going to use Sketch Up here are some great tutorial sites:

http://designerhacks.com/sketchup-tutorials/
http://www.sketchup.com/learn/videos/58
https://www.youtube.com/user/4sketchupgo2school/videos

If you are just looking for designs then I would recommend thingiverse.com its a great place to go and find just about anything.

Hope this help.

[curious aardvark]

I'd recommend openscad - easy to learn, no drawing involved and every single design can simply be exported to your slicer without any need for post processing with netfabb etc.
Plus versions available for android as well as mac.

[3dex ltd]

There are so many pieces of design software available so it can be really hard to decide on one and then learn it. However, luckily there is the glorious depths of Youtube that make learning easy.

For example, there are thousands of tutorials on Blender 3D on youtube. It makes learning the software much easier!

[iDig3Dprinting]

I have Photoshop, Illustrator and Sketch up which I really haven't used but I need to learn HOW to design things in 3D. Can anyone recommend a good starting point for designs for the M3D printer?

The only way to learn it is just to get in there and start designing something. Start simple and build on each model. It helps to think of designing things in a very modular way.

[chaotic1]

Thanks for the responses. I have picked up a few designs on Thingverse so I can get a better idea of what can be done with the little M3D printer. I printed a miniature chair (for a 1:48 scale house) and it worked a treat! I am finding that different colors and materials seem to work differently. Glad there is a forum available to ask questions.

[curious aardvark]

the best cad for 3d printing is openscad.
mainly because everything you export is automatically manifold anf ready to print with no other messing about.

Looks a bit intimidating at first, but you'll be surprised at just how quick you pick it up and you'll be making your own designs in no time :-)

[Geoff]

I have Photoshop, Illustrator and Sketch up which I really haven't used but I need to learn HOW to design things in 3D. Can anyone recommend a good starting point for designs for the M3D printer?

If you can't get the hang of openscad (i'll be honest, it was a little too much for me, and turned what is generally a visual experience for me into a mathematical brain meltdown) I got into Blender years ago and never looked back. Free, completely free and can handle metrics just as well as any cad program, it's pretty much all I use these days.

www.blender.org