3D printing is becoming easier and more affordable these days.

3D Printing
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3D printing is becoming easier and more affordable these days.
However, 3D design can still be extremely complex.

My good friend Rick Companje from Doodle3D aims to fix this. And are making good progress on their app which makes 3D design not just easy, but also fun!

However, they need some support, there is a limit to their finances. And thus need a boost to finish it!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/companje/doodle3d-transform-3d-design-made-easy

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@Cassius_Peter even if your statement its true today, for 3DP to really go mainstream some serious development on the app side must happen or we all become youtube engineers

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@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty I agree, and that’s also one of the reasons I don’t think 3D printing will go mainstream in the foreseeable future.

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Transform runs on iOS, Android, Windows and more

So you can also design with a mouse or drawing pad if that is your thing.

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You learn how to use a 3D CAD / modeling software looking at tutorials

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Technically you’d be a YouTube designer then. A designer draws a part to print. An engineer knows if it will fail in usage before printing it. Not so important for trinkets, but for anything useful the distinction matters.

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@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty not to put too fine of a point on what @David_Simmons ​ said; but, I think that my degree in Mechanical Engineering was a little more involved than watching a few YouTube videos. The term “engineer” is thrown around way to loosely these days. At a minimum, if you don’t have a 4 year degree from an accredited university, please don’t use the term “engineer”.

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@Alan_Thomason ​ you can keep the term. Degrees does not entitle you to nothing if you don’t have experience or know how to apply it

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@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty I really hope you’re not making assumptions about me or the thousands of other Engineers out in the real world that are and have been practicing Engineering for years. And just in case you’re interested, a degree in Engineering is exactly what gives someone the right to call themselves an Engineer.

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There’s more of a legal standing appearing with the term these days. For instance in the US a corporation can call anyone anything but is legally liable for ensuring that person is qualified. But outside that the term is increasingly involved in professional licensing. To the point where I have a degree and 11 years experience but my personal business cards don’t say engineer, since I’m working in the license still.

Bit more to the point, you can learn to draw a part from YouTube. You can print it. But unless you have more than that you’re tinkering, and will test it afterwards, but cannot say ahead of time “this part will work and not fail in usage” with certainty. There’s no YouTube to teach you that. Hence, designer.

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@Alan_Thomason ​ Im not taking this on anyone as you should not eitger. This is a discussion with different points of view. Every profession or professional need to be respected for what they do not by what they know. Im sure every profesional has endured fealure even with a degree and many have been very successful without it, including engineering or engineers

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@Ariel_Yahni_UniKpty that’s not the point at all. If you don’t do engineering, don’t call yourself an Engineer. Peace.