Whereas Tinkercad will mainly produce fairly basic shapes and models, Blender allows you to model pretty much any shape or design you can imagine. Blenderīlender is a far more complicated and advanced affair than Tinkercad but the extra effort certainly brings greater rewards. Tinkercad is free to use and no software download is needed as all your work is done through an online user account. Once your design is complete, it can be saved and ready for slicing as a printable file. There is also the option to import an external file that may have been designed elsewhere but that you want to change in some way. To get you started there are a number of standard objects and shapes which you can add to your virtual build plate and then manipulate into your desired design. Tinkercad’s simple but effective User Interface (UI) is easy to get to grips with and a series of straightforward tutorials will take you through the basics before you can start designing and producing decent results in a matter of minutes.

Probably the best-known and most used of any of the design software we’re looking at, particularly among those just starting out in 3D printing. Let’s first then look at the best software currently available. We’re obviously most interested in the 3D printing aspect of this and the software that is currently on offer. However, this has now been advanced to aid in the world of 3D modeling, art, gaming, and printing. This process was and is still known as CAD (Computer Aided Design) which would produce a virtual example or prototype of a much bigger project. The process has been around in the world of computing and design for many years and even before 3D printers came into production. Creality Cloud: free models, slicing, and remote printingģD modeling software is a program that helps you design and produces a model which you can then send to your 3D printer. However, there are quite a few choices when it comes to deciding on the right software so in this article, we’ll aim to explain a bit more about those options and decide which one to choose.

Sounds fairly straight forward and it is if you use the right software and know a bit about how to make it work properly. Now, 3D printing software will come in.Ī 3D printer is a machine that obeys a series of computer-coded commands and interprets those to control its mechanisms and produce a 3D printed model.

When we talk about 3D printing, you might ask where the designs come from and how are they made.

Best cad software for 3d printing free