I gather the top software for designing, managing, preparing, viewing, and repairing your prints and printers, what they can do, and where to download them. I’m listing the best 3D printing software for every workflow stage. With so many options and alternatives available, it becomes even more crucial to select the right one for your needs. Fusion 360 hobby license includes a commercial use exception up to $1,000 in income.There are an awful lot of software applications for the 3D printing process. I found Fusion 360 incredibly frustrating to use in the beginning, but after a month or two of learning I am now loving it.

Fusion 360 is the only one of the three I am currently using and the one I am most familiar with since my designs usually start with me eyeing up my digital calipers. kind of.įusion 360 is a timeline based parametric modeling software.

I don't see Blender as a strong contender for producing mechanic parts as it does not have a focus on parametric (measurement) modeling. Blender is the first software I think of when seeing 3d sculptures and 3d prints of plants, animals or similar complex shapes. There is not much that you can't do with Blender once you learn how. Blender is free and open source and is used by professionals in their industry. With TinkerCad you create models with primitive shapes like cones, spheres and cubes and the software could be thought of as an entry for learning modeling and workflow.īlender is a beast of a program that has a steep learning curve. Fusion 360 is great for designing with specific measurements in mind. Blender has powerful tools for working with freeform shapes and animations. All three are great options depending on what you are looking for. I see a lot of comments saying Fusion 360, Blender and TinkerCad. some are actually free, some are free just for students, some have serious limitations on what 'free' means (inability to save off your models for example, so you put time into a model only to find out you have to pay to actually use it) Fusion 360, Onshape, tinkercad, for example, relatively easy to use too. There are also a few 'free' online tools. you may be able to find a download of the old version though (2015 and before maybe?) Sketchup was great (decent community, and 'point and click' like you expect out of a CAD package instead of the bullshit coding like OpenSCAD), but they nerfed the free version a few years. it has a lot of features it seems, but i could never figure out how to do what i needed. there's also a decently-sized community that uses it, and other projects built on top of it, like SolidPython, which lets you code up your designs using a more sensible (imo) language I don't mind OpenSCAD because it's basic enough, if you know programming.

Best free 3d printing cad software