3D printing and design

[alexb]

I had a quick look and there's no thread for people who are tinkering with 3D printers or design software.

We've just got a 3D printer at work, it's been in place for a couple of weeks now and we've run about a dozen prints now, mostly successful.

We're also playing with simple 3D design software, at the moment I'm playing with TinkerCAD to design stuff, with an idea on finding something simple enough to teach, but powerful enough to be actually useful. My (11 year old) son has already designed a captive ball in a cube model which we printed today, so I think it meets the basic brief. The work experience students had a play today as well.

MechMixer (another free download) also looks to have a lot of potential.

I'm preparing an album which will be publically available on our lab's Facebook page soon. I'll add a link to it in a day or two.

[Wobbly John]

We have had a Makerbot Replicator at work for about a year. It's not been used much. Setting the build-plate height is crucial and it has to be lower than they suggest. 

We have Autocad and Autocad inventor (there is a free download for educational users), but I think I'm the only person who has 3D printed something designed.

The Makerbot software is easy to use, and there is a whole world of ready-to-print-stuff on the Thingiverse. 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

A doohicky to fit a Klikfix handlebar bag to a Brompton block would be popular with some folk. We recently bought the overpriced Ortlieb option, so are no longer in the hunt.

[alexb]

TinkerCAD is pretty straightforward to use. Anyone with a decent idea for what they want and some basic drawings would be able to knock up a usable model which can be sent to Shapeways for printing pretty easily.

[CrinklyLion]

I'm fairly sure it was TinkerCAD that the SmallestCub was using on Saturday at a workshop we went to at the National STEM centre.  His design wasn't printed on the day - apparently we'll get an email to let us know when it's done.  The EldestCub designed and printed a teeny tiny space shuttle, but dropped it an knocked off the nose cone on the way home!

[Jakob]

I have a Rostock MaX 3D printer. I mostly use Autodesk Inventor as it's free for hobbyist/startups and have a relatively nice interface. Learning curve is still steep, but not as bad as other CAD-programs I've looked at.
It uses MeshMixer to output STL's.