South West Makers

What software would you recommend for 3D printing?

Just wanting to get organised before my printer arrives...

My Slicer of choice is Simplify3D , although is a paid version and not open source, running a close second is KissSlicer Pro (only $25) I mostly use Simplify, but sometimes Kisslicer. So I use both depending on the situation.

Slic3r and SFACT will work out of the box with the printer, but I find them a little cumbersome to use, not so much Slic3r but definitely sfact However if you want consistent prints of good quality, simplify is definitely the one.

...and if you haven't already got yourself a pair of digital vernier callipers then I suggest you do so, also a set of Allen Keys with the the ball socket at one end is also very helpful

I use Slic3r as it rocks on linux anyway. This with FreeCAD 0.14 does all of my creation needs. Give it a go as it is open source and free to download and at least give it a crack.

Woohoo!!! It arrived today!! An the wife was even home, so I didn't have to visit the courier office.

Spent about 90mins putting it together tonight.

Stephen put me onto Simplfy3D and I get great prints from it. I do sometimes struggle with it's over hang control. There seems to be a bug with the manual control section, but hopefully the next version will fix that. I have had a look at Kisslicer, but it's pretty full on, so I am hoping Stephen can give me a quick demo on how he uses his.

I started designing in FreeCAD, but it seemed to crash out a lot for me. BeJay finds his to be rock solid though, so perhaps it was just my laptop? I have moved on the free version of DesignSpark Mechanical. So far it's handled everything I have needed.

A couple of weeks on, and I've just about printed everything that has caught my eye on thingiverse.

Tonight I thought I'd have a go at designing a project from scratch.

I downloaded and installed FreeCad on the MacBook.

It took a little while and a couple of video tutorials from YouTube but I finally got the hang of the software. Seems very similar to sketchup but obviously I haven't been through it all as yet.

I managed to get a print out this evening. I used the caliber holder I have previously printed as a model and used the caliper to measure the t-slot adaptor. I printed up a 20x40 tool holder with 6 holes for tools. I only made it 5mm thick as I didn't want to wait too long for it to come out of the printer.

I'm quite proud of the output. Snapped right into place and if I made it thicker, it would have had good z holding strength also. Didn't take a photo before shutting down for the night so I'll add a photo tomorrow, maybe after refining the t-slot clip a little.

Jubbp wrote:A couple of weeks on, and I've just about printed everything that has caught my eye on thingiverse.

Tonight I thought I'd have a go at designing a project from scratch.

I downloaded and installed FreeCad on the MacBook.

It took a little while and a couple of video tutorials from YouTube but I finally got the hang of the software. Seems very similar to sketchup but obviously I haven't been through it all as yet.

I managed to get a print out this evening. I used the caliber holder I have previously printed as a model and used the caliper to measure the t-slot adaptor. I printed up a 20x40 tool holder with 6 holes for tools. I only made it 5mm thick as I didn't want to wait too long for it to come out of the printer.

I'm quite proud of the output. Snapped right into place and if I made it thicker, it would have had good z holding strength also. Didn't take a photo before shutting down for the night so I'll add a photo tomorrow, maybe after refining the t-slot clip a little.

Welcome to you new addiction...mwahaha