Re: [THS:22740] 3D modelling Workflow for anyone interested...

[AbH Belxjander Draconis Serechai]

Reply-To["Do you interested in 3D modelling" thread...]
@MRE: any form of CAD where you can save the output as STereoLithographic files (.STL) or the newer AMF format is all that is needed for the CAD end of things.

End-Reply

The Workflow for various 3D printers is generally

CAD tool - STL -> Slicer Tool -> Gcode -> Printer/CNC

CAD tool　options are

 FreeCAD / OpenSCAD / Blender / ...

Anything which saves an STL/AMF/SVG(?) file for Slicing

Slicer tool options are

SkeinForge / SFACT(a SkeinForge fork) / Slic3r / NetFABB (cloud hosted) and similar ...

Slicing takes the STL saved from the CAD tool and generates the layer by layer printing/CNC machine instructions for movement.

Any Slicer tool will generate the G-Code scripting for the results which is *always* machine unique due to the slicing operations requiring knowledge of the target device...

With the above Slicing done...

The final step of the Workflow is the Printer Manager tool...

There are various options based on the device firmware...

the "github.com/Kliment/Printrun" software is currently one of the "best of breed" toolkits within the reprap community that I can recall
There is also "Repetier-Host" and another option or two as well that I don't recall right now

These communicate with "Marlin"/"Sprinter"[also by Kliment] and other Firmware on various reprap devices.

the "Pronterface"[Printrun] project is dependent on Python,

the "Slic3r" project [Printruns current default slicing tool?] is dependent on perl.

Repetier-Host merges Slicing and Printer-Manager steps (I beleive this is Java based?)

Hopefully some of the above overview with details will help people find software they are comfortable with

The only question is what 3D printing device are you actually wanting to use and how many G-Code settings commands do you need for initialization? (firmware dependent)

On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 4:42 AM, MRE <epre...@gmail.com> wrote:

I love freeCAD. Great project. Still a lot to figure out how to use, but can get a lot down with primitive modeling anyway.
For the price paid ($0) its a damn fine product.

Id be willing to do a class on some basics if anyone is interested. I am not sure of the workflow from freeCAD to the 3D printer though.

On Thursday, May 2, 2013 9:26:30 PM UTC+9, Rubin Starset wrote:

Just want to throw in two great open source apps, OpenSCAD and FreeCAD.

--
Rubin
ru...@starset.net

[Torsten Wagner]

Keep in mind that most commercial 3D printers comes with a (properitary) printer software which most likely is able to read stl files and beside of some other operations does the slicing. In that case the printing process is reduced to

CAD->STL->Printer software.

The printer software has other features like adding support material, modifying prints, etc.

Greetings

Totti

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