New to 3D Printing (believe it or not!)
lizett...@presidioknolls.org
Hello Friends,
I’m guessing some of you might be able to give advice on the following. Thanks for your time!
I have a Flashforge Creator Pro and a IIIP 3D Monoprice Printer. They are both about 5 years old and passed onto me a previous STEM teacher.
I'm trying to get another laptop set up with whatever apps or software we need for the kids to work on it: design their own 3D objects, or borrow one from Thingiverse, work on TinkerCAD, etc.
I’m new to 3D printing and I’m asking parents, staff, IT for help figuring this out. IT is setting up a laptop for our Makerlab so kids can design on it (taking turns), but I’m wondering if we can also design on iPads since grade 3 and 4 only use those (each kid has one).
IT is asking me what slicer and what software I want on this new laptop. I’m being told that 3D printing is “resource intensive” and I might not be able to do it from our iPads. My own teacher laptop doesn’t have the app to open the files on the sd cards of the Flashforge, so we’ve only tested the printer (which is working) with the designs left on the sd card alone. I also don’t have access to new apps as I need to request them to IT.
The IIIP 3D Monoprice Printer we have stored away. Same deal. I just have room in the maker lab (and my schedule/head) to deal with one of them right now.
Thoughts?…
The PKS Makerlab is run by a Latina artist and educator
from Chile. She grew up between the Océano Pacífico
and the Andes Mountains. She likes to make empanadas and
her favorite flower is the copihue.
Lizette Greco
Maker Lab Specialist
she/her/hers
presidioknolls.org | San Francisco, CA
Mr. Hays
I recommend a work flow like this:
Students can do their 3D design work wherever you want (iPads, Chromebooks, other computers), I assume you would be using Tinkercad (that's what I use). Then, when they want to print, they can export their project as an STL file. I then have students send the STL file as an attachment to an email address I set up for the printers (it could just be your email address, though, obviously). Then on the PC that runs the printers I use that email account to download the files, and then open them in the FlashForge software. It has its own slicer built in that works fine for my purposes.
You could do the same thing for the MonoPrice (I used to have a bunch of those, but they broke, and I've switched to an all-FlashForge approach). If you do use the MonoPrice, I recommend the software they give you, which also handles its own slicing internally.
Good luck!
Walt