New to the community and the 3D printing scene.

3D Printing
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1

New to the community and the 3D printing scene. Super excited I can’t wait to get my first print. However, I’m really hunting for a decent, preferably free 3D printing software, so I can learn the software first. Suggestions?

2

The thing is, 3d printing is less of ‘a piece of software’ and more like an entire ecosystem of different kinds of software. Slicing, there is simplify 3d, mattercontrol, Cura, slic3r, kisslicer, and others. 3d modeling, I couldn’t even begin to touch the plethora of modeling programs there are. Then you’ve got firmware, marlin, repetier, smoothieware, etc. What are you wanting to do? It sounds more like 3d modeling, but then… What kind? Mechanical? Artistic?

3

I would say use cura for slicing, and SolidWorks for modeling but what the heck im new. (I dont know much)

4

A good starting point is gonna be Cura for sclicing, Fusion 360 for modeling, and Marlin firmware. These are the most common tools in the industry right now and it should be easy to seek help with any one of these areas if you need it

5

For a total novice start with tinkercad for modeling and cura for slicing

6

My 2c based on the ‘new user / free’ requirement: Repeteir firmware (at least when I used it last a few years ago, so much easier to setup and configure than Marlin, better online forum support too from the author), Slic3r Prusa edition for slicing, Tinkercad for modeling. Then learn Fusion360 to make ‘real’ stuff (plus its your gateway drug into CNC with it’s built-in CAM), or MeshMixer for more creative things.

7

this friends in what you mean by “3d printing software” and what you intend to do with it.

note an analogy with creating and printing documents on paper: there are lots of tools to create a document (Word, Paint, Visio, scanned image of existing document, etc). these equate to the design task below (generally CAD tools, but not always). when you hit “print” in your document creation software (e.g. MS Word) the document is processed into something the printer can understand. this equates to the slicing task below. it is then sent to the printer where embedded software translates the data received to actual electeical/mechanical movements in the printer. this equates the the firmware task below.

design:

  • artistic “organic” objects: blender or meshmixer
  • simple “geometric” objects: tinkercad or similar web based cad tools
  • complex mechanical designs: fusion 360 or solid works (non-free!)
  • reusable parametric designs: openscad

slicing:

  • most commonly used is probably “cura”
  • simplest to use is likely the cloud slicer at “astroprint”
  • most advanced is likely ice-sl (a research focused slicer generally demonstrating advanced features well before other slicer adopt them)

firmware:

  • use whatever comes with your printer!
  • building your own printer? Marlin is likely the most commonly used firmware
  • most advanced firmwares: look for anything running on ARM rather than Arduino; these will have the most potential for future cutting edge software tricks.

overall suggestion:
unless you are eager to dig into the guts of these tools, stay away from the most advanced stuff for now. ramp up with free browser based cad tools like tinkercad. use free browser based slicers like astroprint. print to the cheapest starter printer you can find (e.g. micro3d) and use that as an educational platform so you know how things work and can build or buy whatever suits you best once you know more.

8

I’d hugely suggest Tinkercad, simply because the workflow is quite similar to it’s bigger brother Fusion 360, and as long as you say you are a hobbyist maker, you can get Fusion 360 for free and with Tinkercad being free already you know that when you outgrow Tinkercad you can jump up to Fusion 360 without having to learn entirely new design concepts.