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Designspark Mechanical?
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➔ Designspark Mechanical website
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12 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
You might want to take a look at DesignSpark Mechanical. Regarding FreeCAD and topological naming problem there's a fork done by RealThunder which solves a lot of vanilla FreeCAD issues.
Okay, that's what I thought you meant, but still wanted to make sure.
There are many free alternatives to Sketchup, such as Fusion 360 and DesignSpark Mechanical that you can use as well. You can also use Blender, but it's used primarily for animation and 3d rendering, so the learning curve is quite steep. Feel free to PM me the .stl file and I'll look into it and see if there may be anything I can do on my end.
If you're on Windows you could also look at DesignSpark Mechanical and Solid Edge Community Edition.
The latter is free for non-commercial use only, but the former does not have that restriction.
DesignSpark Mechanical is the closest thing to fusion360 I found.
The UI is not as clean as F360, and the program has some of its own quirks (like no mirror function - need to mirror manually, some functions "hidden" as parts of different functions), but it's free and lets you save stuff locally.
When I started (some 10 years ago) I began with Sketchup. It was great for understanding the basics of making forms with specific measurements and tolerances. After awhile though, I learned that I needed so many plug-ins to try and do what I needed on a more professional level that I quickly outgrew the software. I now use Spaceclaim, which is close in functionality in terms of how you manipulate objects, but so much more robust. There is a free version you can try called DesignSpark.
Fusion 360 is also highly recommended, as many of my friends use it instead, but it just wasn’t for me/wasn’t a fan. Either way though, I would maybe suggest getting your feet wet by finding forms/objects that you like the aesthetics of, and working through how you would re-create it as dictated by the material it is comprised of (wood, plastic, metal, etc).
Since I make things out of wood, metal, and sometimes do 3D printing I use DesignSpark Mechanical. It's free and a very feature rich.
One good way to start learning CAD is to download a software and start playing around with it. Teaching yourself how to use it is great if you can’t find any courses! A lot of softwares work in the same rudimentary way when it comes to what tools you have to draw your shapes in the software.
When I first taught myself how to use CAD I used the programme called Design Spark Mechanical. It’s free and it helps you to learn a lot of the basic skills and tools you see in more advanced softwares, plus it also has a port for 3D printing too!
If you want to use a more advanced/professional software from the get-go then Autodesk Fusion 360 and Autodesk Inventor are two softwares that I’ve used that are really easy to learn. As a stand-alone, these are expensive. However, if you sign up with a student account you can get access to these softwares for free for a year (even if that means using a friend’s student ID).
One tip that is handy when you are first starting out is that the internet is your best friend. If you don’t know how to draw a certain shape or curve a corner then search for the problem or watch YouTube videos of it.
Best of luck with CAD, you will be flying in no time!!! :))
Design Spark Mechanical: https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/mechanical-software
Autodesk Fusion 360: https://www.autodesk.co.uk/products/fusion-360/overview
Autodesk Inventor: https://www.autodesk.co.uk/products/inventor/overview?plc=INVPROSA&term=1-YEAR&support=ADVANCED&quantity=1
I have been trying to learn FreeCad for several month on and off but just couldn't get my foggy old brain around it. I recently stumbled across a program called DesignSpark Mechanical and for me it is so much more intuitive and very powerful. It is totally free. https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/mechanical-software
The 'simplest' program, is a website known as tinkercad It's the most bare bones basic one and might be sufficient for your purposes if you have existing copies of those two as 3d models, just mash em together.
If you want to get more 'technical' I would recommend Design Spark Mechanical it's more full featured and would probably allow you to make the picatinny interface better.
From there, it's a matter of your printers capabilities and filament choice.
So anyone still watching - Design Spark Mechanical seems pretty powerful and easy to use from my first half hour with it. Local installation and totally free. Worth a look:
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For CAD: Use DesignSpark Mechanical https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/mechanical-software. This is the original ANSYS Spaceclaim and is free. You can export stl for DesignSpark and use OpenFOAM for CFD and Paraview for post processing.
From the picture, I can see that you don't have an active cooler. That's something that I'd add. It really makes a hell of a difference.
Don't know about the RRG printers (still fairly a noob myself - got my A6 only around a month), but if they are somewhere near the ANETs a MOSFET upgrade and possibly a power supply should be the first things to consider.
On my ANET, the original belts were very stiff and thus basically impossible to properly tension. Upgrading the belts made a hell of a difference.
The bearings were cheap linear ball bearings that worked okay, but were quite noisy. The Igus DryLin made a hell of a difference noise wise.
Other than that, I agree to /u/ZeSpyChikenz about the MOSFET/PSU upgrade, to /u/mxermadman about the active cooling, and to /u/LordoftheFallen1's suggestion about Fusion 360 (it's free for hobbyists, just needs an account and you get a one year extensible license). Also Designspark Mechanical (also free) is worth looking at.