Hi everyone,

As in the title, I would start to learn how to design models for 3D printing and the basics about 3D printing, but I’m a total noob.

Do you have any suggestions about where to start?

Thanks everybody

  • @[email protected]OP
    4•1 month ago

    Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll look into Tinkercad for starting.

    Actually I don’t have any printer and I really don’t know where to start looking at. Thanks again

    • @[email protected]
      3•1 month ago

      What is your goal for 3D printing? Are you looking to print random knick knacks, functional prints, or just experiment?

      Printers vary a lot in what they can do and their user-friendliness. You can go from simpler, almost plug and play models to more complex ones that require much more tinkering. They also vary a lot in price from a few hundred to thousands of dollars.

      • @[email protected]OP
        2•1 month ago

        Thank you! I would like to print little cartoon characters for decorative cakes. I can’t find them on the web so I was thinking that I could make them.

        • @madnificent
          3•1 month ago

          I have chosen all the different things in 3D printing than what you need. This is big picture.

          Most 3d prints are not food safe, but I guess that’s no big deal for decorative cakes. It is possible to make food safe prints.

          A resin printer will give smoother results for what I’ve seen but it is more messy with respect to material handling. This is probably what you should do in your case if you know you can handle less safe materials and ventilate correctly.

          The most common 3D printers deposit molten plastic. These are less messy but will yield less details. You can endlessly tweak and modify them.

          For modeling cartoon characters I would learn Blender.

          From Blender export to Cura for slicing into layers and commands the printer understand. Others exist, I doubt Cura does resin printers.

          • @[email protected]OP
            1•1 month ago

            Ok, thank you very much. These prints will be used only to decore cakes and those cakes are only for photos and not meant to be eaten. So I will check Blender, do you have any suggestion from where to start (any YouTube channel, books, courses or guides)? And then Cura. Thank you again!

            • @madnificent
              2•1 month ago

              No, I came into this for mechanical prints 7 years or so ago. I would expect there to be dedicated Blender fora where you can ask.

              The slicer (such as Cura) will be fine. Your printer will likely come with some default settings which will be sufficient to get started.

              Blender is the sculpting tool you will master. Cura is the oven. Baking is important, but the general art is in the mastery of the pottery tools.

              Assuming this is all new, it is not a small thing to learn. Some are faster than others but becoming proficient may take months if it’s a side gig. It is really fun though. Blender will also allow you to make gorgeous renderings if you’d want but I would stay out of that if you really want to print things as it’s another deep and super interesting topic.

              Good luck!