What 3D software are people using? Is there any particular preferences or favourites? Are people designing on the 3D printer software, or designing in CAD and importing across? I have used 2D CAD extensively, though have little expereince in 3D. As ever, appreciate any comments. Thanks!
I’m currently using 123D Design, although I can’t say I like it. It crashes a lot (and doesn’t autosave) and the GUI can be very annoying. I just haven’t found anything better yet. I should try FreeCad.
I use inventor pro, but I have a feeling I’m in the minority. I am using a student version 2012 from college though.
It does make it very easy to transition from 2d to 3d.
Tinkercad and love it. https://tinkercad.com/
Google Sketchup and OpenSCAD so far, with Repetier-Host (w/Slic3r) driving the printer.
I design in FreeCAD and slice in slic3r. Open source FTW! 
FreeCAD works, but it’s at version 0.14 or something like that, so it’s not super mature. Save often 
But I seriously think it’s worth it in the long run, and sometimes also in the short run when licence issues and OS limitations cause trouble. You can’t beat the availability of open source software.
Recently moved to Inventor Pro. Autodesk’s bundle price is slowly conquering so many companies and professionals that…well, you are left with not much choice.
Thanks guys. Interesting to see a lot of variety in use here. Will take a look at some of the programmes you are mentioning.
Openscad is my favorite . I tried FreeCad but was not happy with it.
@Mathias_Dietz If you have a programmer’s mind I guess OpenSCAD is more for you. FreeCAD has a powerful Python interface, but it is foremost designed to be used with the GUI like any other CAD software out there. FreeCAD is a history-based parametric modeler so the learning curve is steeper than say Sketchup, but it’s worth it. And the design principles you learn in FreeCAD are easily transferable to commercial software like Inventor, SolidWorks or CATIA.
Once FreeCAD gets its relationship-based Assembly module then it’s going to be a lot more usable than it already is.
I use OpenSCAD and FreeCAD but I really like some of the browser based ones. In order of perference: http://tinkercad.com http://shapesmith.net http://3dtin.com – Tinkercad is really cool, although Shapesmith is also pretty good.
blender is a good all rounder and open source.
Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback.
Openscad, sculptris, blender, and tinker cad. Each has a strong point.
Openscad is script based, if you want to make a parametric sweep of objects it is nice. Really steep learning curve if you are not a code monkey.
Blender is like a big friendly elephant. You can do a lot of amazing things with it, but it takes some effort to learn.
Tinkercad is light easy and wonderful. I love it, but there is a relatively low max polygon count for export… relatively low, not actually low.
Sculptris has a much nicer/cleaner sculpting gui. I think the blender sculpting gui is frustrating, so I use this instead.
I don’t like 3dtin or sketchup. Sketch up doesn’t make clean models. 3dtin is too simple.
Have had a old read up now on all your replies and the various suggestions. Somewhat amazed at 11 different pieces of possible software! Having had a look at the options I think I am favouring either Sketchup or Shapesmith. Will have a go with both and see what results I get. I particularly liked the 3D library associated with Sketchup, though I guess I could use with other pieces of software? With such a variety of software and 3D printing machines, think will start with the drawings before I opt for a machine. If I cannot create it I cannot print it!
Anyway thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond. Certainly pushed me along the learning curve faster than I would have got by just browsing around.
You will need to use either the netfab web app or meshlab to heal your stl file made by sketch
Although it’s tedious, it’s also possible to repair the mesh manually with a tool like blender. I published a picture series a while ago with instructions on how to do that.
@Andrew_Hurst
Regarding the Sketchup 3D warehouse, no you cannot use it with any other piece of software, I believe these models are in either Sketchup or COLLADA (*.dae) format, so you’d need a software than can open these formats.
Actually I’m browsing the warehouse at the moment and see no way to download models. You might need Sketchup to do that.
@Normand_Chamberland you can export stl files
@Camerin_hahn Sure, from within Sketchup, by installing a plugin that does not come with Sketchup. But what if you want to use those models and you don’t have Sketchup? @Andrew_Hurst asked: “I particularly liked the 3D library associated with Sketchup, though I guess I could use with other pieces of software?”, that’s what I was answering to.
So the answer is: yes, if you install Sketchup even if you don’t plan using it plus an STL plugin that you’ll need to hunt for.
You gotta love closed source software…