forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com
The Hobby Showroom => Aircraft in Pixels / Flugzeugwerke => Topic started by: uncletony on August 28, 2023, 11:17:21 PM
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I'm considering doing a series of videos and perhaps even a formal course on the ins and outs of designing and printing parts specifically for fine scale models. As some of you know, I've been doing this for a really long time now, and I have learned a few things.
The course would cover setting up and organizing your CAD project, dos and don'ts for modeling, best practices for exporting to stl, best practices for designing supports, orienting parts, calibrating your prints etc.
The elephant in the room of course is the cost of entry. While printers have dropped dramatically in price while the quality has skyrocketed, the same can't be said for CAD software. There are free options, but in my opinion they fall far short. The software I use does have a 90 day free trial, which should be long enough to complete the course and decide for yourself if the investment is worth it, or to adapt what you've learned to another package.
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I've cast my vote :)
The software I use does have a 90 day free trial, which should be long enough to complete the course and decide for yourself if the investment is worth it, or to adapt what you've learned to another package.
May I ask which software you use?
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May I ask which software you use?
I use Rhino3D. Not cheap (~$995 these days), but very powerful and easy to use, and extremely well suited to the task imo. The license is also perpetual. Don't mean to be an ad for them, no affliation of course. The investment seems like a lot but think about what you spend on other tools.
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Thank you!
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Any opinion of Fusion 360? It is free for the hobbyist and I find it intuitive and easy to use (as intuitive and easy as these things can be). I also appreciate the depth of support for it, from YouTube videos to just general Google search topics.
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Any opinion of Fusion 360? It is free for the hobbyist and I find it intuitive and easy to use (as intuitive and easy as these things can be). I also appreciate the depth of support for it, from YouTube videos to just general Google search topics.
Good question, and food for thought --
My interpretation of 360's freemium license is that I don't qualify by definition, and as my now ancient but still powerful 2012 Retina MBP isn't supported, I haven't really dug into it. (It'll run on my desktop machine but I prefer working on my laptop.) I don't want to get into a "Rhino vs. Fusion360" thing here, you'll find both have their accolytes and detractors. What I do know is what I can teach is doing this stuff with Rhino, and I think I have a lot of useful things to share. But my mind is open and I'll look into this further, to see how much I can replicate my workflow in 360.
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I've replied on the Patreon site but to confirm - a course would be appreciated.
Steve
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Thanks Steve!
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My interpretation of 360's freemium license is that I don't qualify by definition ... I don't want to get into a "Rhino vs. Fusion360" thing here ... .
Your "interpretation" is confusing ... why don't you qualify? ??? Something to do with using it as an instructor ... for $$?
If you taught using Fusion, I, for one, would be interested, but switching to Rhino would be as challenging for me as would going the other way for you. Having said that, if other selective parts of the course outside of designing with Rhino would be available, for example what happens after the design is exported for printing, I would be interested.
At any rate, you have a great idea, and I hope you get enough paid interest to make it worthwhile for you. Such a course would certainly benefit many, many modelers in this growing aspect of the hobby.
Gene K
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My interpretation of 360's freemium license is that I don't qualify by definition ... I don't want to get into a "Rhino vs. Fusion360" thing here ... .
Your "interpretation" is confusing ... why don't you qualify? ??? Something to do with using it as an instructor ... for $$?
Because I would be using it to design commercial items that I sell? I didn't go into the weeds of 360s EULA or TOS, but it seems like the Freemium tier is for non-professionals only. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, I do appreciate the feedback! From here and on other channels, there definitely seems to be sufficient interest. My hope is to have something put together before the end of the year.