3D Modelling Software Recommendations

I'm currently using Nemetschek Vectorworks for 3D modelling.

Vectorworks, Inc. | BIM & CAD Design Software

It's not oriented specifically toward 3D printing, but it can export to STL file format for 3D printing projects.

Vectorworks KnowledgeBase :: Preparing STL files for 3D Printing

Did a 3D print design using it last week, STL export looked good, just awaiting the final product to come back from printing.

Hi Dave,

you don't print the files by yourself ?

Enrico

Hi Dave,

you don't print the files by yourself ?

Enrico

Hi Enrico,

Not for this project - I didn't have access to a 3D printer with a large enough print bed for this design, so it had to be outsourced via 3D Hubs.

This causes issues as everything I've read about 3D printing to date suggests that it is a highly iterative design process and that you need to learn via trial and error the tolerances and quirks of both the machine and the material that will be used to print the material. However if that is really the case, then how do the likes of 3D Hubs survive ?

This was a fairly simple two-part enclosure design for a display prototype using an E-Ink display, but it was around A4/Letter sized which made it just too large to do on a typical in-house 3D printer. Would perhaps need a printer chassis similar to the Tevo Black Widow to accommodate the size to be able to do it in-house. Alternatively it would have to have been printed in smaller parts and some method of joining them incorporated in the design.

In this project I only had control over the 3D design and modelling stage, the out-sourcing of the printing has been handled by another person. This could therefore produce some 'interesting' results... (I hope they got the units right !) However it cannot be uncommon, as it probably also applies to projects where quick initial prototypes are done in-house but later prototypes are then out-sourced to be printed on higher quality equipment.  Perhaps a topic for discussion.

Hi Dave,

thank you for the details. You saved me a lot of questions LoL !!!

I can answer to two points of your interesting discussion that is worthy IMHO to continue somewhere here available to all the users.

The first is that the 3D print hub survive just because the assertion - as it seems you suspect - is 100% false.

The 3D printing technology is relatively young but move the same concepts to the CAM routers and try asking to a simple question: why there are specialisation schools just for CAM usage and Mill machine use as well as there is a specific job "CAM Machinist" ?

The problem is NOT the simplicity of the in-house machines but the complexity of the process. This is "sold" to the consumers for a question of business but there is not the same diffused experience. This is the problem and also the reason that I think it is time to create a real discussion context explaining what the 3D printing technology is.

The second point is that I have never used the 3DHUBS for a question of speed (prototyping should be done at home, else it is so time consuming that it is impossible) and the second - maybe more important - is that if you make a calculation of the costs of these services you discover that prices are dramatically high. Just because - for now - they are able to do something that you don't (I mean in a general assertion, not just you).

Just and example: the 64 cylinders for the Dynamic Surface (one of my last posts on PiIoT) needs about 3 hours to be printed and about 50 gr of PLA filament. This means:

• Printed in lab with a 250$ good 3D printer in about 10-15 days (doing other things in the meantime)
• Include just 10$ of maintenance (a nozzle to be replaced, the bed surface glass broken or similar)
• About three Kg of PLA (1 roll = 15$) for a total of 45$
• Some hand job.

Total expenses: about 60$ if you already have the printer or about 300$ if you should buy (and assemble) it

The cheaper print HUB I have tested for the same file you saw 3D printed in my photos, same material, same conditions is about 2.500$ !!!

With half you buy other three 3D printers and start printing for friends with a small fee.

Enrico

Some of the quotes for the project I was working on appeared to be quite high as well however I put that down to it being a slow process and each print job tying up a machine for long periods of time.

Also perhaps need to differentiate between some of the different technologies here though. A powder bed deposition machine, or resin stereolithograpy machine is likely to cost a bit more to purchase than a fused deposition modelling machine.

However I made similar comments to the project requester that it would likely be more cost effective to get the likes of a Tevo Black Widow kit (the only sub £1k printer kit which I could find at the time with a large enough bed) and do it in-house as it would likely pay for itself within the timescale of the first project, and then be a useful resource to have around to enable future projects or provide as a general low cost in-house service. There are some hidden costs however such as space to accommodate such a large printer and perhaps installation of ventilation and space heating for working with some plastics like ABS, additional software and the time taken to assemble it and get it to a stage whereby everything starts to work.

There are also some other considerations - my design could have been part laser cut/engraved and part 3D printed on a smaller printer however the requester in this case was keen for it to be 3D printed in two halves after seeing the first 3D model.

HellO Dave

First of all you should never include the startup costs (those you mention like the site preparation etc.) as these increase senseless the first project production. And it is anyway a wrong evaluation of the costs. You should plan how and for how much you will use the machine. For example you are right thinking to a tool for low cost in-house third party production. At this point these costs become a number: the break even point. I mean how many projects or pieces you should produce before the machine cost and accessory is totally absorbed. I think that anyway it is not so high and probably you will cover the investment with the first two - three projects.

Second - I think that you should not include the time for initial settings that you mention. It should be excluded at all. Else if you want convert it in a cost, also calculate the delay time you need doing every part to a service.

Despite I remain of the opinion that the 3D print HUBS are a great idea these are perfect for small productions but not for prototyping: the concept is that if you want to make a project it is mandatory that you own the tools needed to create the project. As a photographer own a digital camera and a computer for his creations (and when I started in photography we was having the darkroom absolutely more expansive than a digital system), as a woodworker has a router to make his own stuff and an electronic engineer has its own soldering station why not a project that involve material machining can't follow the same path ?

I have exaggerated just to make an example that in my opinion making something means making something. Else it is designing something then sending somewhere to ask others to make it.

Enrico

Hi Enrico,

For the Pi IoT 'Dynamic Surface' project at PiIoT - The perfect reading place #19 [tech]: Dynamic surface, design and simulation  what was your 3D printing workflow for printing the 64 duplicate parts ?

Do you export a single STL for each component from the Rhino CAD software and then 'batch print' them on the printer one at a time with X & Y off-sets between each part, or do you create duplicates of the part in Rhino first and then export the batch as a single STL and print them all in one go layer by layer ?