I’ve finally reached a brick wall where I can’t just find something on Printables/Thingiverse that I can modify for my use case. Until now, I’ve been able to find something close and use OrcaSlicer to make small adjustments or occasionally kit bash two models together.
Now, it seems, I need to design something from scratch.
I’ve had Blender recommended, but I just cannot make sense of it no matter how many Youtube videos make it look so easy.
I’ve also got FreeCAD installed but am still getting my bearings and nothing has come of it yet.
So, recommendations? The only limitations are that it has to run on Linux and not be a cloud service. I’m willing to pay for a license if need be but no SaaS or having to fight with Wine to get it going.
I wouldn’t recommend Blender for anything that needs to have accurate dimensions, as it is a pain to get things right, even with the “CAD” addon.
FreeCAD seems great, but the UI and UX are horrendous. It’s a steep learning curve.
If you have any coding experience, I recommend giving OpenSCAD a look, like mentioned in another comment. I believe most of the older Prusa printer parts were designed on it.
That’s certainly an interesting way to go about it lol. That said, I read through the tutorial and honestly I’m gonna give it a try. The syntax doesn’t look too awful and doing it in code seems like it would allow for easy precision and also eliminates having to learn the UI of FreeCAD which I agree is absolutely horrendous.
Thanks.
Also, if you’re making raspberry pi enclosures as I think I read in the comments, there is this library that has pre-modeled rpis to use as a reference: https://github.com/nophead/NopSCADlib
Nice. A lot more than RPis, too.
This is actually for a Banana Pi but it’s in the Pi Zero form factor so should be easy to modify.
It’s honestly pretty powerful, you can even import libraries from other users. A good example I’ve found is the board game inserts that user “js500” is uploading on Printables. He has his own library with things like rounded cubes, finger holes and whatnot, then uses that to create inserts for different games. Here’s an example: https://www.printables.com/model/1192543-white-castle-with-matcha-insert-organizer-also-fit (Make sure to also download the library file included)