What are you designing with?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I just wanted to poll you guys on a few things. I want to take one more stab at this before I give up for life.

1. What software do you use?
2. I use a laptop, and this has NOT been easy What are you guys using for systems?
3. Do you use online model repositories? If so, where?
4. What other software do I need to get a model ready for something like an Anycubic Photon or similar?
5. What other alternatives to the Photon should I be looking at?

My primary interest would be creating vehicles, passenger cars and buildings.

[mmyers]

I'm still in the "getting started" stage.
Trying to learn "Freecad". Wanted something I could draw three views, (front, side, top) like I have always done. Freecad seems to make that possible.
My desktop was slow but worked. Have a new laptop now. It's faster but I use my desktop's monitor and a mouse with it.
Haven't gotten far enough to off load any designs.
From this forum, I now use Chitubox to slice files for printing with my Photon S.
May pick up an Ender 3 to print buildings and use the Photo S for fine detail stuff
Not ready to hang it up.

Martin Myers

[C855B]

1. TurboCAD
2. Desktop: Mac mini 2015/OSX 10.10
3. Thingiverse, but rarely
4. Chitubox
5. Elegoo Saturn might be worth waiting for, esp. for passenger cars and buildings.

[reinhardtjh]

Perpetually getting started it seems like but:

1a)  ViaCAD Pro V10
1b)  Rhino3D V6 and V7 (WIP)
2)    Desktop: Mac Pro 2009 upgraded with dual hex core Xeon 3.33GHz CPU/ OS X V10.13.6 (High Sierra)
3)    None yet.
4)    Playing with Chitubox (seems to be the most popular)
5)    I have an original Anycubic Photon but have been looking at an Epax X1-DJ because of the matrix LED supposed to be better for details.
       Also the Epax X10-Mono has a 4K mono LCD with a larger build area.  An 8.9" LCD similar to the Elegoo Saturn.  But about twice the price of a Saturn but more available.  Waiting to see how the build quality of the Saturn turns out and how the Epax X10 Mono fares in actual use.

[dougnelson]

For buildings, signs, etc., I use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

[samusi01]

1. Autodesk's Fusion 360 and Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape would stand in for Illustrator.
2. Depends. +5y.o. desktop at home, which is generally intended to be updated at some point this year. On the road, I use a Microsoft Surface that's a couple of years old. Works fine as well as file size is reasonable. Only hiccup is Fusion 360 isn't as touch friendly as it might be.
3. Not normally.
4. If I am sending to Shapeways: not normally. For the fab lab in town, the SLA printer - a Formlabs Form 2 - has software for setting up the print job. Not sure if you could call it a slicer but it works fine.
5. What's your budget?

[Chris333]

I tried Fusion 360 and felt like it was trying to give me epilepsy.

[garethashenden]

1) Solidworks
2) Old (2013) cheap ($400) Windows 10 laptop. It works fine, but it really wants to be the only program running. A mouse is essential however.
3) Not yet
4) Chitubu or however you spell that slicing software.
5) The Photon seems to be the best value. But I don't really pay attention.

[Erock482]

1. Sketch up, Still available free
2. I've used both a dell laptop and my desktop i recently updated. I can provide more detailed specs on both if you'd like. But a newer laptop with a graphics card and probably 16 gig of RAM should be more than capable
3. I just draft what i need
4. Chitubox for slicing, photon file validator if youre using a photon, im unaware if anything similar exists for other file formats
5. The Elegoo Saturn is on my list due to the larger build volume and slightly higher resolution than the current photon offerings, it will be replacing my photon

[RBrodzinsky]

• Fusion 360
• desktop, home built. Win10 3+MHz iCore7 w/16GB RAM and gobs of SSD storage
• Thingiverse, but only because someone asked me to print something for them
• Chitubox (for supports), then PhotonWorkshop for slicing
• Using PhotonS. Have started thinking about maybe a Prusa Mini, too, but not sure yet

[txpitmaster]

tinker cad
yeggi is a stl search engine
www.thingiverse.com is my 'goto' site
you will need slicer software to get the file ready to print.  You printer most like came with one, but I like cura!

[AlwaysSolutions]

1. CorelDraw for the 2D, Rhino3D for the 3D
2. ASUS Laptop.
3. Not for train stuff but occasionally Thingiverse for rando fun projects
4. Chitubox
5. Elegoo Mars or Saturn.  I have two original Photons and an Epax X10 but 4k mono screen is the way to go if you step outside the Photon or Mars class printers.  Also, don't discount FDM printers as a side-kick to a resin printer.  A cheap Ender 3 with glass bed can do fun stuff, too.

[bbussey]

CorelDraw for 2D, SolidWorks For 3D.

Dell Latitude laptop originally, but then installed SW on VMWare Workstation running Windows 10 on virtual workstation on a beefed-up Dell Inspiron.

Shapeways mostly but also other forms for more complex items such as metal locomotive frames.

NetFabb for STL file repair.

I don’t know, as I am not 3D printing my own stuff.

[joepri]

1. Vicad Pro V10
2. Asus Desktop Win 10 with Radeon RX580 Grapics card
3. Thingiverse some, but most draw my own
4. Chitubox and latest Photon slicer

[SkipGear]

1. Corel for 2d, Tinker cad for 3d. (for stuff that is not totally freelanced, draw 3 views in Corel simply because I have 20 years experience with it then convert them to SVG files to upload into Tinker Cad.
2. Lenova Desktop, Windows 8.
3. Initially thingverse for grabbing thing to try, now draw everything I need.
4. I have both Chitubox and Photon software, I will bounce back and forth depending on which does the better job although I am starting to draw all my supports in the original cad file. The disorganized randomness that comes from the auto supports makes my "everything must be symmetrical and even" OCD explode. I use Photon for slicing. Haven't had the need to use proofing software yet, I plan ahead when drawing so I don't need it.
5. Printing on a Photon S