Hobby CAD shoot-out on Faulty Equipment

Hobby CAD shootout: Plasticity

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 21:54:59 +0000

When covering software I try to strike a balance of impactful and interesting apps to cover, however my Plasticity trial ends in 5 days so…

Plasticity

Plasticity is yet another direct modeling app. Boasting a “creativity-focused workflow” and no subscription, it seems to target hobbyists directly.

I’m glad they know who they’re targeting at least cause I don’t. This app always struck a weird chord with me as it doesn’t appeal to my 3D modeler side or my CAD side, it doesn’t have enough features to compete even with simple 3D mesh software like Wings3D and the destructive workflow makes it incredibly frustrating to design stuff with. It seems Plasticity’s closest rival is Moment of Inspiration 3D but I have never tried it so I don’t know how they compare (MOI3D also has a non-subscription license).

Hobby CAD shootout: DesignSpark Mechanical

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 23:42:08 +0000

With Solid Edge we had our taste of a different kind of workflow from what we find in bog-standard parametric CAD tools: its synchronous environment was both very expressive and frustrating.

So what would happen if we used a CAD software that’s only that?

SpaceClaim / DesignSpark Mechanical

DesignSpark Mechanical is a stripped down version of Ansys’ SpaceClaim of which I only became aware after seeing someone use it at blazing speed at the 2023 3D CAD Speedmodelling World Championship.

Hobby CAD shootout: Solid Edge

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 17:39:21 +0000

With Fusion 360 I covered every CAD software I was familiar with so now we’re entering the unknown lands of “oh hey this exists too”. The next articles will take more time to come out as I will have to take more time to learn the tools and how they approach part design.

The next one is an application that’s (to my limited knowledge) popular in the professional scenarios but basically never brought in discussions in hobby 3D printing.

Hobby CAD shootout: Fusion 360

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 20:48:12 +0000

After looking at FreeCAD I wanted to wrap up the list of popular free choices before moving to the more exotic ones so Fusion 360 feels like a natural pick.

Fusion 360

Fusion 360 is by far the most popular CAD software in 3D printing crowd. It initially launched as a trendy companion to Inventor, making most of its press due to being available on Mac OS X (most parametric CAD software like Inventor and Solidworks are Windows-only to this day) it somehow became the de-facto standard of 3D printing nerds worldwide, with tons of video-tutorials and learning material to find everywhere.

Hobby CAD shootout: FreeCAD

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 22:00:00 +0200

After looking at one of the best commercial options around I decided to check out the most prominent open source option.

I already made my point in the previous article on why an open source option is important, but I want to point out some other tools that were once reviled as “convoluted garbage” and either are or are becoming everyone’s favorite option:

Blender is finally giving commercial software a run for their money, it used to be considered the “vim of 3d modeling”
Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is the streaming (and screen recording) software, to the point that XSplit, its proprietary competitor and the ex de-facto streamer app, has basically pivoted to making OBS accessory software.

This is not exhaustive (there are many browsers, media players, etc.) but they are definitely the rockstars of open source and I wish for FreeCAD to enter that realm.

Hobby CAD shootout: Onshape

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 19:00:00 +0200

Hello, I am a generic nobody armed with a caliper and a 3D printer!

One of the most common dilemmas I and others like me face is finding the perfect software to make our designs. Everyone seems to default to Fusion 360 these days, but I personally have stuck with Onshape for the last 5+ years and had a blast. But what is the best tool and what is the most sustainable one?