I?ve inherited eight 3D printers!

[fred_dot_u]

You are correct about the Cubify Cube printers. I didn't recognize the name until I used The Google to discover that it's the 2nd generation 3D systems printer. The 3rd generation version is only slightly better and still used proprietary filament cartridges. There's an entire forum or two dedicated to after-market work-arounds for the 3rd gen, but I've found nothing for the 2nd generation machines. The cartridges can be opened and the filament on the cardboard spools used in other machines.

Recent reviews of the Form 1+ seem to indicate that manufacturer's support has been terminated for that printer, making many current owners extremely unhappy. I also agree with your assessment of expensive to run and difficult to clean. Some reviews of this and other resin type printers would lead one to believe that one is dealing with hazardous chemicals and chemical vapors, along with the high labor of operating and maintaining.

The other machines are not something I can address.

Illustrator is a good vector program, especially for stepping forward to 3D design. Inkscape is a great program, because it is free and provides many of the same features. If your students are not financially well-off and cannot afford Adobe software, Inkscape is a good substitute.

Sketchup is something to avoid for 3D modeling! It is well known for creating non-manifold models which will not print or if they print, many artifacts of failure result. Blender is an amazing piece of free software, but has a tremendously steep learning curve and is not typically used for 3D modeling.

Consider something along the lines of Fusion 360, OnShape, TinkerCAD and my all-time favorite, OpenSCAD. The first three are in order of preference, in that they provide features beyond the 3D modeling world, but are well suited to it. The last one is a text based editor which is akin to coding/programming and is parametric in nature, making for easy modification of models if the code is written well.

I hope you'll post your progress to this forum, so we can assist as needed and share in your successes.

[matthewkphx]

Hi Fred. Thanks for your response.

After googling around a bit, I'm pretty sure I have 3rd Generation Cubes.

Thanks for your suggestions concerning software. I'll avoid Sketchup and look into the other options you mention. Adobe Illustrator is a 2d application. I'm confused that you bring it up in the context of 3D printing. We do have Adobe's Creative Cloud suite in our labs but I don't see the application in 3D printing except perhaps as a stepping stone to understanding artwork that is built using points and lines rather than pixels. Please elaborate.