What 3D modeling program do you use?

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
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I can draw fine in 2D but I would like to also make a 3D model my knives so I can layout more precisely some features (like this large D guard I am working on) and maybe save some time figuring out the dimensions beforehand. Soooo...

AutoCad, Solideworks, Sketchup, etc... Which one do you use and more importantly, which one has a “reasonable” learning curve. I know this is something fairly complicated but I don't want it to take me 6 months before I can see some basic results.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
I use NX for everything, but I am required to do so for work so it comes second nature (there is a very steep learning curve and you will likely never benefit from the majority of its integrated functions, such as FEA). Solidworks is a very solid program and has some terrific features. If you are looking to invest the time Solidworks is going to give you the best all around options in my opinion particularly in regards to assembling your designs. While you can acquire auto cad for free and sketchup functions fine for some people, they have never been built up to compare to NX or Solidworks for solid modeling.

Not sure if that helps any, but I recommend Solidworks for anyone looking to jump into 3d modeling.
 
I've been using Solidworks for years and am still using SW2012 standard version. I got off of maintenance because my workstations still run XPpro and the new SW versions only run on later Windows. I do wish SW would come out with a version to run native on the Mac OS.

Solidworks is an industry standard program, if you are going to take the time and make the effort to learn any 3D program, then there are a lot of SW learning resources out there on the net for free.

Of the 3 sort of mid-tier 3D programs, Inventor, Solid Edge and Solidworks, folks I know who have used all 3, all find SW the best. I do believe Inventor is less costly though.

If you can swing the money, SW will not let you down.
 
Not being glib my friend, I use the one in my head :) and I don't know what to call it. Maybe old reliable.
 
I use sketchup and solidworks. Sketchup has lot of youtube videos on use and it is fairly user friendly and free.
 
AutoCAD and Inventor are both solid programs. AutoCAD can be a bit clunky at first in 3D however. Its also not as smooth with curves as others mentioned above. (Solidworks, nx) I think Kevin said it best, and I tend to agree, SW beats out inventor and AutoCAD for functionality.

I know that AutoCAD and Inventor are both pretty expensive and in recent years Autodesk has been changing the pricing and subscriptions on their software suites (both around $2,000 annually with subscription or about $4,000 for the one time perpetual licence - which they are ending that program after this year).

Autodesk has been pushing fusion 360 as their CAD/CAM alternative- supposedly its fast to learn and easy to use. I plan on testing it out too.

Best of luck!

Ryan
 
Hi Patrice,
you might want to consider Rhino. It's a NURBS based modeling program fairly moderate in price, shorter learning curve, and files can be exported to 3D printers for rapid prototyping. A doctor friend of mine is developing protective gear for karate sparring complete with sensors that indicate how hard and who scores sort of like the systems that fencing people use.
Hope this helps,
Alan
 
Thanks for all the info guys, god stuff. :thumbup:

I had no idea that SW was that expensive, holy molly! :eek: Programs in that range of price and functionality might be way too much for my needs.

I will look up all the alternatives you suggested but Sketchup and Fusion 360 looks like a good place to start. I do need one with bezier curve support.

Fred, of course you do. But let me put it this way, your head is Solidwork and mine is Microsoft Paint. ;)

Thanks again for the great help guys.
 
A vote for 360 Fusion - learning curve (which I've NOT mastered) is like other AutoCAD stuff is pretty steep - BUT for now anyway, 360Fusion is free download from AutoCAD. It will export gcode for 3D printing or CNC work.
 
Autodesk is moving everything over to subscriptions in the Cloud just like Adobe did. I hate that. I believe Feb. 2016 is the last date they are outright selling the software.

Why you ask, do I not like just paying annual usage fees?

Because they only offer annual contracts, this year it's maybe $3000, next year they can jack the prices to anything they want. Don't like it? You loose access to all the work you've done with the program because even though you still have your files, you can no longer open or use them. It's like heroin, first shot is free, once you're hooked, prices can go up...

Fusion 360 looks interesting but there again, is the annual fee thing. No pay; no play.

At least with my old copy of SW I can keep using it as long as I want. No updates but what I got, I got.
 
It's a shame that Autodesk is going that way. We use several AutoCAD Plant 3D suites at work and some of them are disappearing or morphing to a more expensive version. I think it's part of their phase-out process of older software and trying to get people up to date on base AutoCAD. We still get requests to save down to AutoCAD 2008 or older at times.

I think if fusion can live to Autodesk's hype then it may be worth it to utilize the subscription service - not that anyone has a choice.
 
I really do not like the direction software is going.

It's as if the ownership of housing was being phased out and everybody had to rent, but with zero rent controls after the first year. Your landlord can jack the rent as they see fit and if you don't like it, move out and leave all your stuff behind because you can't use it anymore.

I know in the world of graphic design there are a couple of new programs called Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo that are starting to give Adobe a run for their money.

I hope Dessault will keep Solidworks as a stand alone product you can buy. I have no problem with having an annual subscription thing as an option. I just got a bad feeling about having it as the ONLY option...
 
Oh I agree completely. The end user gets little say about where the direction goes anyway. Making the pricing scheme out of reach or the users take a hit to just use whats popular is making Autodesk even more of Public Enemy #1. I've seen some good startups and free-ish software come out recently. This thread hits close to me as i've been looking for personal use software as well.

Now if i could get the time to test some... :rolleyes:
 
I agree 100% Kevin and it is enough to make me pass on 360. Sketchup is a standalone app and looks very good right now.
 
Patrice if all you want is something to make 3d models you can print on paper and reference there are a lot of free apps out there. They will not help you if you want to build a house or use CNC but they can help you learn and allow you to print those blueprints for something simple like knives. This link will go over some of them. Zmodler is listed and it is what i got my start on for hobby stuff over ten years ago, though not for knives. Once you figure out the basics its all vertex, edge, faces and polys...

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-free-3d-modelling-applications-you-should-not-miss/

-Clint
 
That's great Clint, exactly what I need. Keeping it simple is always the best way to go. I will give Zmodler a try. Thanks a bunch.
 
No problem Patrice, glad I could help. I may download it myself as it is (or was) a small and simple program. I used it to make a "low poly" car a while back but it should work fine for knives. If nothing else it or programs like it get you familiar with what you need to know. What I mentioned above is true about 3d it all starts with a vertex. Once you understand that all the other programs just manipulate them in a different or more advanced way. I moved up to 3d studio max after zmodler and it is much more feature rich but you're still just manipulating the same thing!
 
Somebody use BobCAD / CAM?

I thinking about this software instead of SW ( seriusly... 5.600 Euro for standard version and ~8.600 Euro for premium? )
Probably next year I'll go into mid-tech folder knives also with HAAS MiniMill or Super Minimill with 4 axis and Renishaw probes :D
 
Have you read up on what users have to say about BobCAD/CAM?

Rhino with RhinoCAM is pretty good option. I know one quite well known Maker who uses this combo and is very happy. I went to a schooling day for Visual Mill this week and was pretty impressed with what the program offers for the price. (Visual Mill is the same as Rhino CAM).

The main thing to decide about 3D software is what you want to get out of it. As one poster already pointed out, if all you want are to make some cool images to print out and give you an idea of what the knife could look like, there are a number of low-cost options. If on the other hand you want to use the 3D model to generate industrial design drawings and actually produce a product that corresponds to your 3D model, then make sure the software you spend your time learning can do that.
 
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