Comment on Advice for a newbie
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 8 hours ago
Pick a (small, simple) project you think will be fun, and design a solution yourself.
The more projects you can design, the more useful your 3d printer will be. Yes, downloading and using models online can help solve some problems, but the real magic of 3d printing is creating a completely custom solution that only you need. Most of the time, even when I download a model someone else made, I use it as a starting point to design one myself that meets my specific needs.
Check out Zack Freedman. He is amazing at 3d printing solutions, and he genuinely wants to make you amazing as well. This is a great tutorial about how to THINK about designing prints, and then how to make it happen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcMvTfUfNXo
FreeCAD is great, but has a big learning curve. OnShape is browser based and I find it works best for me. Tinkercad is a great starting off point.
But play around and figure out what works best for you.
Maerman@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Awesome, thanks for the advice. I’ll definitely check out his channel. Designing stuff myself still intimidates me a little, but I suppose the best way to get over that is to just do it.
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 5 hours ago
youtu.be/d3qGQ2utl2A
This is a great series of videos. It’s for Fusion 360, which is also free, but the lessons work for most software. It starts off easy and works up to more complex stuff.
youtu.be/E14m5hf6Pvo
This is a great tutorial for FreeCAD, but it starts out kinda complex already, so I would recommend this after you start to figure out a little bit first.