cad

Top 3D Services: Part 1

Top 3D Services: Part 1

By Eric Weinhoffer

Eric Weinhoffer

Eric is a Mechanical Engineer with interests in machining, mass manufacturing, product design and kinetic art. While not building things, he enjoys skiing, cycling, and juggling.

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Let’s be honest, 3D CAD (computer aided design) is challenging to learn. Training your brain to manipulate and visualize parts in three dimensions is a learned skill. So where do you start? Thankfully, there’s a multitude of free tools available for everyone to try their hand at 3D design. And many of them don’t even require a download anymore. A simple web app will get you pretty far.

I’ve compiled the best resources I know of for dealing with 3D parts and I will list them here in two parts. This week I’m going to focus on 3D part creation and slicing, the two first steps in printing out a part on a 3D printer. Everything listed is free to use (at least to a certain extent)

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Editor’s Choice Hangout on Air, Live and Online Dec. 13 at 2pm PST/5pm EST

Editor’s Choice Hangout on Air, Live and Online Dec. 13 at 2pm PST/5pm EST

By Eric Weinhoffer

Eric Weinhoffer

Eric is a Mechanical Engineer with interests in machining, mass manufacturing, product design and kinetic art. While not building things, he enjoys skiing, cycling, and juggling.

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0

Designing and machining things in 3D can be difficult to wrap your brain around, but there are a few great ways to learn. Tune in at 2pm PST/5pm EST on the +MAKE page so we can tell you all about them, or catch the show later on the MAKE YouTube page.

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Autodesk’s Free 123D Design App Comes to iPad, Mac OS

Autodesk’s Free 123D Design App Comes to iPad, Mac OS

By Brian Jepson

Brian Jepson

I'm a tinkerer and finally reached the point where I fix more things than I break. When I'm not tinkering, I'm probably editing a book for Maker Media.

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Here’s a first look at Autodesk’s new 123D Design iPad app, which is also out for Mac and PC. It’s free, and very easy to use. It didn’t take me long to put together a printable object, and I was printing it in a few short minutes.

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How-To: Design Arduino Shields in Eagle

How-To: Design Arduino Shields in Eagle

By Matt Richardson

Matt Richardson

Matt Richardson is a San Francisco-based creative technologist and Contributing Editor at MAKE. He’s the co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and the author of Getting Started with BeagleBone.

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The site Open Electronics recently posted a step-by-step guide to using the EAGLE PCB design software to make your own custom Arduino Shields.

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FreeD: A Handheld CNC Milling Device

FreeD: A Handheld CNC Milling Device

By Jie Qi

Jie Qi

I’m a tinkerer and life-long learner currently pursuing my PhD at the MIT Media Lab, in the High Low Tech and Responsive Environments groups. My research is all about combining electronics and programming with arts and crafts to creating expressive, imaginative and personally-meaningful technology.

my website

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MIT Media Labbers Amit Zoran and Joe Paradiso have created a handheld, digitally-controlled milling device that attempts to combine the benefits of CAD and freehand fabrication.

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Browser-Based 3D Modeling with Tinkercad

By Chris Connors

Chris Connors

Making things is the best way to learn about our world.

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Back a few years ago, if you wanted to design a 3D object, there were only a few options. Not many of those options were free or easy. TinkerCAD appears to be one of the many new modeling options that promises both free and easy. At World Maker Faire, I had a chance to see the browser-based TinkerCAD in action. It does appear that it is easy to operate, and free, if you can get it to run in the browser on your computer. TinkerCAD requires Windows Vista or OS X 10.6, so that will work on one computer at my house and one in my classroom.

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