New to 3D printing. Solidworks or Autocad for design?

[LuckyImperial]

I highly highly recommend OnShape.com. It's free, made by the guys who made SolidWorks (nearly identical), doesn't crash, can export STL's or many other formats, and follows a fairly logical build strategy.

I use SolidWorks for my CAD at work and it is extremely powerful, but it's prohibitively expensive for hobby use. Sketchup was what I was using at home until I found OnShape.com. It also works well, but the resolution it offers for smaller parts is pretty poor. However, Sketchup is about as easy as it gets in terms of learning curve.

https://www.onshape.com/

[Artiz]

I highly highly recommend OnShape.com. It's free, made by the guys who made SolidWorks (nearly identical), doesn't crash, can export STL's or many other formats, and follows a fairly logical build strategy.

I use SolidWorks for my CAD at work and it is extremely powerful, but it's prohibitively expensive for hobby use. Sketchup was what I was using at home until I found OnShape.com. It also works well, but the resolution it offers for smaller parts is pretty poor. However, Sketchup is about as easy as it gets in terms of learning curve.

https://www.onshape.com/

Some good sense at last... and a great cloud app recommendation too... onshape looks excellent! As I keep reiterating software/apps are personal and whatever/whenever it works for you is fine... silly negative comments aren't... what really matters is the research you personally do to find the software that suits you and your style/type of work... A professional designer friend of mine started off using Turbocad which he bought on ebay for £10 and he still uses it now 10 years later for certain elements of his work. Sketchup is as good a place to start as any other freeware... stl export can be problematic but Netfabb (free) can usually repair most issues. It's not that great for smaller parts either but as I said 'horses for courses'.

Solidworks is an entire suite of tools for professional use and clearly why it is one of the best out there... and the most expensive... but that doesn't mean you can't find freeware alternatives and gain experience until you are ready to make the massive leap to selling your designs professionally... all/any 3D/CAD type software/app experience is invaluable anyway.

"Tongue in cheek = not to be taken seriously"???... and Sigmund Freud said there's no such thing as a joke...

[davidvicky]

What does "tongue in cheek" mean?

what mean?

[Marm]

I meant it tongue in cheek as the OP has experience with Solidworks and other pro level CAD packages, so Sketchup would NOT be what they are looking for.

But is Sketchup is very good for 3d print modelling, but it's approach to how to create the model's differs from the more traditional CADs out there. It's more push/pull than shape creation. Once you get a single shape laid down, it's very easy to mold that into a complex design. But I've noticed experienced CAD'ers have problems grasping the level of inituitiveness that SU brings, they are used to a certain way of designing stuff, and SU doesn't work like that.

Plop a 6 year old down in front of a copy of SU, show them some basic techniques, and by the end of the day they will probably have a printable Horse, truck, car, train, or house. It may not be nicely printable as they don't have an understanding of the nuances of 3d printing, .and it would probably be of similar detail to a crayon drawing, but it would print.

Give that same 6 year old a copy of solidworks and a week later they'll still be trying to figure out how to make a cube.

I use SU and a Davinci printer with the default slicing package (three of the most reviled tools in the 3D printing community) to make a variety of products for sale. I've learned to work around the nuances of both to create very good prints. One of my products is a bespoke modular assembly for a model racing yacht, the Soling 1m. It cuts the build time of the boat from about 50 hours down to about 20-25, and has a 5-10% weight reduction above the keel, meaning the boats go faster.

As my parts are bespoke, in particularly the servo sled, I'm looking to learn OpenSCAD to just plug the dimensions of the servos in, and it will create the sled on demand. As it has some fairly complex geometry, this is not a first project to learn on. Like any Design packages, it will have a learning curve.

It is worth the OP, and any designer IMO, to take a look at sketchup, and appreciate it for it what it can do quickly and powerfully. As it's a architectural design package, it does have some flaws for 3d printing. But with the right plugins, namely the Fredo6 collection, SolidInspector, and CadCAM, SU becomes a powerful 3d Printing design tool. I can export and import STL's at will. But would I make it a recommendation for the OP initially? No, as it will against what they are familiar with.

Perhaps my response was a little flippant for those that did not understand that, but the response in return was completely unprofessional and uncalled for, and has henceforth labelled you as a Troll.

[Marm]

In fact, when I get a chance, I'll see if my hypothesis is correct. I'll take my girlfriend's almost 6 year old and we'll see what she can do with as little input from me as possible. If possible, I'll print it and post the results.

[davidvicky]

thanks for explaining its meaning

[Marm]

And ignored. Thanks for playing.

[Sebastian Finke]

Sounds to me as if you didn't bother reading what I wrote to the OP and was far more interested in trying to make a new forum member look silly or inferior with the added knowledge that you would be supported by your 'forum buddies'... I took particular care not to recommend any software to the OP... I merely added that my favourite freeware was Sketchup. Your comment was more than flippant particularly regarding a reply to a new forum member... it was irritating, superior, slightly bullying, unprofessional and definitely uncalled for so I gave the response your only comment deserved.

Your response now is to tell me that Sketchup is OK for 6 year olds and 'label' me a troll instead of simply apologising and admitting your comment was silly, unhelpful and immature... perhaps you really are 14 years old.

Your comments to Marm are out of line. You have been warned.

[Sebastian Finke]

Solidworks is <snip> one of the most comprehensive design packages out there

No, it is not not. It is mid-range at best. What is better? Off the top of my head: Catia, Creo, NX, SolidEdge, ZW...

However I certainly wouldn't agree with Sebastian... Freeware is always 'better' than paying for software... clearly?

Free does not make it better. This is not subjective either. Even if freeware does the job it is nowhere near pro software in terms of functionality.

[Mjolinor]

Free does not make it better. This is not subjective either. Even if freeware does the job it is nowhere near pro software in terms of functionality.

Where GPL and other stuff wins out is fixing bugs. It is massively better in that respect where bugs will be repaired within a couple of days as opposed to never (Micro$haft) / months or even years. It also has the advantage of allowing you to change things to make the software do what you need, A good example of that being Marlin / Inkscape where both pieces of software can be made to work with each other for your own specific requirements.
I would always says open source is better in my opinion.