You've probably heard 3D printing
content creators like myself say it before, and it's worth saying again:
If you're not designing your own custom parts to solve your unique problems,
then you're only getting a fraction of the benefit out of your 3D printer. But where to begin? Well, in this video I'm going to compare
and contrast two of the major free options available to makers, share
which one I use for what, and explain why you might want to do the same. Let's dive in. Part of what makes 3D printing
so empowering as a technology is the ability to make anything at
any quantity right in your home. No longer do you have to hope and
pray that enough people have the same problem as you to justify
someone making a commercial solution. You can just download and print solutions
yourself, or if nobody else has done it exactly the way that you want it done, you can design and print your own
solution to your own unique problems. That of course, means that you need
to first learn how to use 3D design software, and I'll be honest, this can be
daunting when you're first starting out. Shortly after I got my first 3D printer,
I spent literally days researching online and trying to figure out which
program I should invest the time into learning. Now, even if you narrow it down to only
the free solutions, you still have half a dozen or more options to choose from. From FreeCAD to Tinkercad and Blender,
not to mention the "free for maker" options like Onshape and Fusion 360. At first, I spent a few weeks learning
about Blender, which is actually a professional grade 3D animation software. While Blender is often used to create
life-like CGI effects and animated movies, it can also be used for
creating renderings or with a few settings adjustments and aftermarket
plug-ins, it can actually be used to create 3D models for engineering. Now, let me first get something out
of the way and say that yes, you technically can do anything in Blender,
especially with different types of third party plug-ins, and quite frankly, if
you're looking to do organic models or artistic ones, It's probably going
to be easier to do them in Blender. That's because unlike many of
the other softwares being used for CAD modeling, Blender at its
core is a mesh modeling program. This means that it literally allows
you to build and modify your models on a granular level down to the
individual points, lines, and faces. Now, while this gives you a tremendous
amount of freedom and the ability to create beautiful works of art without
necessarily having set dimensions in mind, it also gives you lots of
opportunities to screw everything up beyond repair in the process. You see, in order for your slicer
software to create coherent G code for your printer to actually print, you must
first create models that are manifold, or in other words, watertight with no
little gaps between the points or lines. And this means that one single point being
out of place or duplicated, even in a way that you can't see with your eyes, is
enough to make your entire model unusable. It also means that you are responsible
for making sure that everything stays manifold as you modify geometry
throughout your design process. Now, this for me is a massive pain
in the neck, and I can't tell you how many countless hours of my life
I've wasted trying to figure out why my models won't slice properly. Maybe I'm just bad at mesh modeling, but
I feel like 9 out of 10 of my designs get messed up, and at least half of
those get so messed up that I have to actually throw them out and start over. Now, don't get me wrong, mesh modeling
can be incredibly valuable for us in our 3D printing toolkit, but we'll talk
about that towards the end of the video. For now, let's talk about another type
of 3D modeling software, and that's parametric CAD software such as Onshape. Now, you've probably heard or seen
people talking about parametric CAD software such as Fusion 360 or SolidWorks
before, and at their core, a lot of these programs work very similar. So let me first start out by explaining
what they are and then I'll explain why I've chosen to use one very specific one called on shape. Spoiler alert, it's not just because
they're the sponsor of this video, in fact, it's actually the other way around. As the name suggests, parametric
CAD software is a class of program used for doing computer
aided design using parameters. Instead of say, a brushing tool that
you use to literally sculpt your designs -
we're not gonna be covering that type of
design software in this video because it's a whole third category that I haven't even
begun to explore personally, parametric design software uses as its foundation,
a series of sketches which are driven by parameters, hence the name parametric. You want the base of your model to
be 10 centimeters by 50 centimeters, then you just draw it out
and specify those parameters. Then you just extrude them into a 3D
model, after which you can do all sorts of other processes like fills, chams, bulls. This isn't going to be a tutorial
of the software, but do let me know in the comments below if you'd
like to see more content like that. Now, there are a lot of benefits to this
workflow and as a relative newbie to it, I'm sure that I'm not going to give you a
comprehensive list of those benefits here. But for me personally, there
are three that really stand out. First, there's the fact that I never
have to worry about manifold geometry. Because these types of programs are
designed and developed for engineering purposes, they simply won't let
me do anything that would make any of my models funky or unusable. The second reason, and
perhaps my favorite, is that making changes is a cinch. You see, it's inevitable that in the
process of designing something, you're going to need a few rounds of designing,
prototyping, iterating, and revising before you get it right, and in the
past when I used Blender, this was really tricky and it opened the door
up to completely destroying my model when I tried to tweak something as
simple as a chamfer or a fillet. With parametric design software. However, it's as simple as going back
to the original sketch or function where I define that parameter
and just changing the value. The entire set of subsequent steps,
whether it's extrusions, fillets, booleans, or even other parts that
depend on this part, they're all updated immediately. Now, keep in mind that as I said,
I'm a beginner, so I've only recently switched over to Onshape, and so I
don't yet know how to use things like load analysis or complex assemblies
or the million other features that I'm pretty sure that it has for
designing complex engineering projects. Why then did I choose Onshape? I mean, why not go with FreeCAD,
Tinkercad or something simpler? Well, to be honest, it all started out
when I got frustrated with Blender and all of my projects becoming non-manifold. I dug into various tutorials and I
even tried my hand at Fusion 360, but it didn't behave nicely on my M1 max
MacBook, and I just didn't understand the workflow very well at all. So imagine my excitement when Michael
Laws over at Teaching Tech began his series of wonderful Onshape tutorials. Starting with a video explaining
why, in his unbiased opinion, Onshape was the best free option out there. Now I'll link to that video in the entire
tutorial series below, but basically it had to do with the fact that one
Onshape is and always will be free and unrestricted for non-commercial use, and they vow to never change that
or try to make money off of makers and hobbyists like their competitors
have recently started doing. Two, Onshape is browser-based, so
you don't have to worry about saving or backing up your files or having
a powerful processor, and it even works great on your phone or tablet. You can collaborate on documents with
others like Google Drive, and I have to say that last one has really come in
handy recently for some upcoming projects, which members of our Discord have been
really instrumental in helping me realize. And number three, many people like
myself find that it's just easier to use and a lot less overwhelming. So, yeah. Onshape did sponsor this video, and
if you want to support this channel and sign up for a completely free
all-access account, you should definitely visit onshape.pro/nextlayer. But to be honest, I would recommend
Onshape one way or another, and I actually reached out to them to let
them know how much I love the product and how much I'd love to be able to do
videos about it more on the channel. So, yeah, sign up for Onshape. As you'll see throughout the rest of
this video, it's honestly amazing. So which one should you use? Well, that's a bit complicated. I wish that I could tell you that
there were just one software out there that you could use for all
your 3D design needs, but that's simply not true in my experience, at least probably not. And while it might be a pain in
the neck to learn the basics of two different apps, the reality is is that
it's probably going to be faster than trying to find workarounds or learn
one app to do everything you need. You see, each one of these apps has
its own strong points and weaknesses, so I'd love to just quickly go
through particular use cases for you and let you all know which software
I personally would use for the job. First, let's start out with designing
your own precise models or solution. This could be anything from a
holder or a bracket for something, a cover, or even something more
complicated like a multi-part phone holder print in-place assembly. For me, the answer is clear. I would just use Onshape for
just about any original design that needs precise dimensions. While you could, of course, create complex
assemblies in Blender, the ease of use of the parametric workflow, plus the ability
to collaborate online with others if you get stuck on features that you don't yet
know how to use make Onshape the absolute way to go, not to mention that you won't
have to worry about manifold geometry. Have you noticed that I'm traumatized
by non-manifold geometry yet? If though, as I said before, all I wanted
to do was make tweaks to an existing STL, such as making it a few millimeters
longer in one area, or removing the text that someone put on there. I admit that I would still find
that easier to do in Blender. While Onshape does allow you to import
readymade STL files and modify them using booleans or extrusions, or even
creating sketches off of them, it's not nearly as fast or as easy as just
popping the STL into Blender, highlighting the element you wanna stretch out, and
dragging it along the appropriate axis. The same goes for performing
a limited dissolve on text. Quite frankly, this type of thing is
simply not what a powerful program like Onshape was really designed to do. Finally, let's talk about organic designs
such as Voronoi or low poly animal, or a life-like hamburger, for example. For these types of more artistic
things, you'll probably be better off using Blender. Not only can you use Blender without
knowing specific parameters or dimensions like you need in Onshape, but the
library of modifiers functions and features available to you in Blender,
it's just going to be much richer. Don't get me wrong. Unlike Onshape, you are looking up
at a very steep learning curve with Blender, but if it's organic models
that you're looking to create, I just don't think that you're going to be
as happy or as comfortable in Onshape. So there you have it, and now you see why
it still might be worth learning, at least the basics of both Onshape and Blender. While your needs and goals for what
you wanna design and print might be different from me, personally, I don't
do any organic modeling anymore, and so I've switched over to Onshape for
about 90-95% of my 3D design needs and 100% of my "from scratch" design work. But with that said, I do still pop
open Blender from time to time to modify an existing STL, for example. To be clear, you definitely can use
Onshape to modify STLs, and so I think that if you only have the time
to learn one, I'd make it Onshape. But if you, like me, enjoy learning
a diverse set of tools so that you are better equipped to make
your creations come to life, and it's probably worth your time to
learn just a little bit about Blender too. But hey, I'd love to know in the
comments below, do you agree or disagree? Which 3D design software
do you use and why? And of course, I'd love to hear whether
or not you wanna see more videos about 3D design software and workflows. A special thanks to Onshape once
again for sponsoring this video. Thanks to my Patreon supporters for
helping me pay the bills in my new studio. And thanks to all of you for
watching, subscribing and commenting 'cause it does make a difference. We're well on our way to hitting 50K
subscribers very soon, and when we do, Polymaker has agreed to give away 50 rolls
of free filament to 50 random subscribers, so make sure that you're publicly
subscribed to the channel to be eligible. That's all for now, but don't worry,
I'll see all of you on The Next Layer.
