Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

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scaleautofactory
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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by scaleautofactory »

Joaquin wrote:Hi all,
...
EDIT: I am seeing that there are several softwares to create a 3D model from pictures. In my example of the JS11/15 It could be great to take pictures of a 1/43 diecast model to get a basic 3D model of the engine bonnet and then make corrections. What do you think about this?
For making 3d models from photos you need to make a series of photos from the object - and the object needs the right color - no gloss color to prevent reflections and the color must give a good contrast to get all details evaluated by the software.
To build a 3d object from the photo series you need the right software - there are some for free.

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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by daniel »

scaleautofactory wrote:
Joaquin wrote:Hi all,
...
EDIT: I am seeing that there are several softwares to create a 3D model from pictures. In my example of the JS11/15 It could be great to take pictures of a 1/43 diecast model to get a basic 3D model of the engine bonnet and then make corrections. What do you think about this?
For making 3d models from photos you need to make a series of photos from the object - and the object needs the right color - no gloss color to prevent reflections and the color must give a good contrast to get all details evaluated by the software.
To build a 3d object from the photo series you need the right software - there are some for free.
A 3D scanner would be amazing, so you could scan the model and the do conversions in 3D and you can be sure that the new parts will fit. Someone around here did this.
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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by GGSF1 »

I would go for Blender. In the websites I used to learn the most used tool was 3DS Max, so that's what I used at the beginning, but for my use case (and probably yours) you can do the same with Blender, saving a lot of money :wink:

I learnt 3D modelling more than 10 years ago, when printing was not common, so the techniques I learnt were aimed towards models to be displayed on screen and not printed. Therefore it's difficult for me to tell whether there are other tools that work better because they are designed with printing in mind. But other comments in the thread seem to suggest that Blender is a good candidate.

About scanning, I tried three things at university: using a set of photos and Autodesk 123D Catch (which doesn't seem to exist anymore by the way), using the Kinect for Xbox and using a professional scanner. That was 5 years ago and technology has improved, but I'd say that if the idea is to scan a model, the only useful option is the professional scanner. But I think the cost of that scanner was around 15000 €...

Something related to what I mentioned above about models designed for displaying and not printing. In the picture attached there's the circled edge, which was created just extending the lower plane of the front wing to go through the endplate. My impression is that for this to be printed it would need to be reworked to make the lower plane of the front wing end just where the endplate starts, ideally attaching both on their intersection. Is that assumption correct?
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model.png

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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by daniel »

GGSF1 wrote:
Something related to what I mentioned above about models designed for displaying and not printing. In the picture attached there's the circled edge, which was created just extending the lower plane of the front wing to go through the endplate. My impression is that for this to be printed it would need to be reworked to make the lower plane of the front wing end just where the endplate starts, ideally attaching both on their intersection. Is that assumption correct?
No need to remodel...you can "stick" models into each other. The printer only sees the outside.
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scaleautofactory
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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by scaleautofactory »

daniel wrote:
GGSF1 wrote:
Something related to what I mentioned above about models designed for displaying and not printing. In the picture attached there's the circled edge, which was created just extending the lower plane of the front wing to go through the endplate. My impression is that for this to be printed it would need to be reworked to make the lower plane of the front wing end just where the endplate starts, ideally attaching both on their intersection. Is that assumption correct?
No need to remodel...you can "stick" models into each other. The printer only sees the outside.
Yep - The stl contains more than 1 shell but they are stick together.
Some slicer can cause problems with this approach.
my workflow - design the model parts (Shells in stl.file) in Sketchup - export the stl and use meshmixer or netfabb to reduce the amount of shells.
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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by gp-models »

A very interesting theme, but quiet not easy to follow for all unexperienced followers finaly! Good and easy is in my experience an opposite today, whatever direction we call out.
I`m looking forward cause i think things will become easier in future, maybe it takes some time, but thinking for now means people with less experience in CAD and so on is tough!
It all depends on what you want, there is enough software around for everything for sure, but to learn them is realy hard when you only have the oppertunity to do it as hobby and not learned it as pro and working with it often. Main reason is in my view to use it often, only doing it for a very few times a month means not learning it, more forgetting about it.
Most i prefer is to work with one software to do the job, all changes between softwares causes problems sometimes, but there is a need for changes sometimes i think.
Any chance to find a free software to get some experience in the first before switching or maybe adding another software for some special stuff? Would like to find out how far i can get before changing to a "more pro" software.
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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by JamesB »

Having little to offer and much to ask, I waited a bit to jump into this (highly interesting) topic.

I am heavily interested too.
What I'd reeeeeally thank you guys, is if you might link the different options (particularly the free ones) with the kind of hardware you need to use it.

Me, I did stuff (an MP4/2 rim, a BT53), with autodesk 123D, quite a few years ago.
In my experience, it was user friendly, but I had really hard problems with "numbering" things. I mean, making a particular radius circle in a particular x,y,z point.
I also remember referring to points ("put this square's corner into that particular middle oint of that segment" stuff, you knw) was quite tricky, but I think it was due to my laptop's sparse graphical memory so when I was seeing one point highlighted, the CPU was already concentrating on the next ones.
I'd like something easily number driven. You know, I started with Autocad. I remember having used the 3D Autocad (13 version, maybe? year 2000) and also the Mechanical desktop, which was almost the same.
I am not a genus with computer and it resulted quite easy to me, so I asume it was user friendly.

Now the question is: I have a brand new iPad air 2, 1.5GHz speed (single core), 2BG RAM, does anyne know of an app that may be used there?
My computer has exactly same performances, but, I suspect, a much worse graphical card.
Come on, guys, help the latest dumb one to add to the list, please!!! :lol: :lol:
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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by Indy1977TX »

I find Sketchup is good working with defined numbered dimensions. You can specify lengths of shapes, you can measure out points or lines in space, and you can deal in small decimals of mm.

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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by JamesB »

Great, Jordan! :D
Is there a version for iPad? did try but did not find...
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Re: Looking for a good and easy 3D design software

Post by Indy1977TX »

Sketchup is now web-based but I could not get it to work on my iPhone 8+. You might try it on the iPad but I am not sure.

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