Honestly this is pretty cool, but I'd encourage anyone getting into 3D printing to learn CAD tools well enough so they can make these for themselves in Fusion 360 or Onshape
Expanding on this a bit, I'm trying for a system which generalizes to machine movement and then allows writing out a DXF to which toolpaths may then be assigned:
I confirm, I have just started exploring the world of 3D printing and I am therefore also learning how to 3D model with Fusion 360. The software is very powerful and has already allowed me to create some models that I am very satisfied with, an example of a parametric junction box:
I’d like to add:
Tinkercad is honestly pretty great for simple stuff, there are things missing of course but it’s great how intuitive they’ve made it, it feels a bit like Figma to me, the selection of tools is so small that you can kind of figure everything out by yourself.
I really wish it wasn’t online-only and closed source though (same as figma I suppose)
For me it's not the online-only or closed nature of the thing, so much as the fact the canvas isn't high-DPI, which I find unreasonably maddening (I am unreasonably snobbish in this regard).
And the grid-oriented working method isn't ideal for me, though I confess I've not gone back to look at TinkerCAD much since learning OpenSCAD and FreeCAD; it may be that a better-informed visit would show me where I was judging it too hardly.
But it is amazing what people do with it, and while I have my issues with AutoCAD, it's clear that TinkerCAD is a truly liberating tool for an enormous number of people, and my criticisms may be getting into gift-horse-examination territory.
I think your points are fair, it is a bit fiddly, I just enjoy how little friction there is to getting started and making something simple.
I just needed to make a couple adjustments to an STL this week, I haven't done any CAD in months, in principle I have used Fusion before and had a nice experience with it, but since it's been a while I don't remember any of it and would have to look at some reference to get back into it, with tinkercad I could just drop the model in and make the adjustments I need by playing around with the shapes they provide.
It didn't feel very "precision engineering" like but sometimes it just needs to be close enough.
Right. I mean that is the thing, I guess. For people who just want to get some stuff done in a way that makes sense, TinkerCAD is about as low-friction as it gets.
It's also arguably better at hacking on STLs than a bunch of higher-end CAD packages; it feels like that's been a focus of their efforts.
Personally what I'd really like to see alongside it is a sort of Scratch-blocks-based OpenSCAD/Build123D type thing -- this may already exist?
