Advice??

[ncbqguy]

Just a hint to you guys....
There is some good material on this thread and others worthy of keeping for future reference.
I open up a blank Word document and highlight the portions of the discussion that are relevant.   I then copy and paste them into the document and name it "3D Printing links" as in this thread and save it to a file named "3D Drawing and Printing".  You can edit out the unnecessary sentences as you see fit.
This way I have the links and other information without having to remember what thread it appeared in.   
This technique is also good for saving photos and other material.  I use MW Snap to capture images that are not in a format that allows directly saving them and it is a lot faster than downloading them and having to direct the image to a particular folder.   You can also add notes or even copy the address of where you found the image.
Thanks for all the good advice.  I got the door hood and resin this morning and should have the Epax E10 sometime today as well.
Charlie Vlk

[wazzou]

I’ve been using Fusion 360 for some years now. It is free for hobbyists, parametric, and can output directly to a range of printers (I’ve output directly to Ultimaker printers) and other products such as some CNC routers.

I started knowing nothing at all about 3D design and began by creating containers of various types for the late 1960s… after all, a container is just a box, how hard can it be? Last major 3D design, done this year, was some tugboat models. I also use it to check laser designs. In May, I posted some images of a laser cut bridge. All design was done in Adobe illustrator and then ‘built’ in Fusion to check for errors.

I’d be interested to learn more about the geography and era of your Tug Boat.

[samusi01]

I’d be interested to learn more about the geography and era of your Tug Boat.

To avoid a hijack, I'll shoot you a PM.

[Sumner]

I’ve been using Fusion 360 for some years now. It is free for hobbyists, parametric, and can output directly to a range of printers (I’ve output directly to Ultimaker printers) and other products such as some CNC routers....

I love Fusion 360 and highly recommend trying it.  As mentioned it is free for hobbyists, and lots of YouTube videos on using it.  I started with this one and it covers lots of important points ( I still go back to it at times)....

Fusion 360 is going to take some time to get results out of but the sky is the limit pretty much what you can do with it.  I'm probably not even using 10% of its features. 

Printers are cheap enough now that I'd recommend thinking about getting both types eventually (FDM and resin)  I started with an Ender 3 Pro and love it.  Use it in the living area with no smell.  Parts come out ready to paint.  No cleanup. Great for developing an object as you can go from design to print (I have a USB cable between it and computer) in seconds and redesign and print over and over again with no cleanup required.  Sure it isn't going to do detail down under 3-4" scale inches in N Scale but ....



... you can't hardly see that detail unless you are viewing within 8-12 inches of a N scale object.  You can print larger objects with it...



... like the turntable above and....



.... say the roundhouse you wanted.  They would need a more expensive resin printer to fit the print on the build table.

Now saying that for really fine detail like you would want on say a loco you can't beat a resin printer as long as it is large enough to print the object.  So for another couple hundred I now also own an AnyCubic Mono for detail work but the Ender 3 Pro will still be the go-to printer for most of my printing,

Sumner