3d Rendering

[Dave]

Does anyone have any experience in 3d modelling and creating STL files suitable for 3d printing?

If so, what would you recommend for starting out? (PC over MAC? What software? etc)

[Ray]

I've never got any further than failing to achieve anything in it, but blender was always a popular free tool for 3d modelling at least for game assets.

[Dave]

Hmmm what do you attribute that failure to? I would like to give it a try but if you haven’t got anywhere with it then I highly doubt that I would!

Let’s pretend that money was no object, what would you buy in order to achieve some good quality renders and prints?

Many thanks.

[Ray]

I probably failed because I'm terrible at that sort of thing. I'm really not good at any of the artistic stuff. I imagine there are a bunch of tutorials on YouTube, might be worth watching a couple to get a feel for it?

[Darkson (Simon)]

Tom Anders of Impact has starting doing some 3D sculpting (and printing), and he had issues with one of his models and people recommended Blender, so it seems that's still a go-to for this stuff - I'm 99.9% he uses Windows.
Others he's mentioned are Meshmixer and Zbrush, but I've not idea what they are (standalone programs or plug-ins).

[Dave]

Thanks both. Blender looks like what I’m after.

Can anyone recommend a good place to buy a PC?

Cheers

[Mike]

Build one. Costs a lot cheaper than buying pre built.

[DaVinci's Cat]

Does anyone have any experience in 3d modelling and creating STL files suitable for 3d printing?

If so, what would you recommend for starting out? (PC over MAC? What software? etc)

I would say it depends on what you intend to model and print and how you want to print it.

I use Fusion360 from Autodesk as it's free for students and hobbyists and there are plenty of good tutorials on YouTube. That said, I've heard a lot of good things about Blender as well so it comes down to personal preference. The https://all3dp.com/ website is a good place to compare all sorts of things 3D printing related. Any decent design/rendering software will have the ability to generate an STL file from your design.

Are you intending to send your designs away to be printed or do you intend printing them yourself? If printing yourself, you'll need some slicing software (normally free as well) and this will take your STL file and literally slice it into layers so that the printer can print it. This is where any supports are added if required.

Build one. Costs a lot cheaper than buying pre built.

Totally with Mike on this one. I have virtually no computing knowledge and struggle to get devices to talk to each other, however, even I managed to build a computer earlier this year. Built on a Saturday, using it on the Sunday and have had no problems with it to date. Again plenty of good YouTube tutorials but would recommend either Linus Tech Tips or Bitwiz(?) - they've both done 'How to build' videos for beginners.

pcpartspicker is a free site (although you have to sign-in) that allows you to pick pc components and tells you if there are any compatibility issues but also shows where the cheapest place to buy them is. When I purchased my components I ended up getting most of my parts from Overclockers (they do some good pre-builts and built to order machines as well).

Happy to either help build a pc or talk through 3D printing/printers etc.

[Mike]

You tube i watched Jayztwocents and Pauls hardware.
Lots on the build but not many go through what to do afterwards. Windows etc BIOS set up.

I also used pcpartspicker to ensure all worked ok.

Built first day and loaded software etc the next.