Westy619
Established Member
Thats the interesting, I imagine a lot of people will move over from Fusion360 if they release it at that price point.
3D printing advice
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There are student editions, here’s the one for NX.
https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/nx-design/nx-student-edition-free-download/
I believe there are Cura plugins that will talk directly to NX, haven’t tried it with the student version though. STL’s from the full commercial work great.
https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/nx-design/nx-student-edition-free-download/
I believe there are Cura plugins that will talk directly to NX, haven’t tried it with the student version though. STL’s from the full commercial work great.
I use Fusion 360 and love it. Very expensive to buy for work - but the full edition is absolutely free for personal/hobbyist use. Frighteningly steep learning curve, like any industrial-strength software package but there's a heck of a lot of free training materials and community support to help out when you get stuck. Once you get past the initial bewilderment ("ConFusion 360", my son calls it) and start to realise what it can do, it's a wonderful thing.
In terms of printers, I went for the Tiertime Up 2 Mini. Quite an expensive option - but I needed something that I could have running in my home office which could print 'exotic' filaments like ABS+, Polycarb, carbon-fibre/Nylon mixes, etc 'out of the box' (it has a high-temp print head, heated enclosure and HEPA filter, so doesn't stink the house out). The small print volume (140mm cube) would be a blocker for many people, though it's just fine for what I needed it for.
I would reiterate what others have said though about 3-d printing generally being a frustrating and time-consuming activity that will eat deeply into your workshop hours. The technology is still very far from mature, so expect to spend long sessions on fettling and troubleshooting. Even when everything seems to be running perfectly, there are still glitches - and few things are more frustrating than getting 90% through a 10 hour print job only to find that the filament has stopped adhering, leaving you with a mound of plastic vermicelli on top, or that the X-axis has inexplicably shifted 5mm (recent bugbear of mine).
In terms of printers, I went for the Tiertime Up 2 Mini. Quite an expensive option - but I needed something that I could have running in my home office which could print 'exotic' filaments like ABS+, Polycarb, carbon-fibre/Nylon mixes, etc 'out of the box' (it has a high-temp print head, heated enclosure and HEPA filter, so doesn't stink the house out). The small print volume (140mm cube) would be a blocker for many people, though it's just fine for what I needed it for.
I would reiterate what others have said though about 3-d printing generally being a frustrating and time-consuming activity that will eat deeply into your workshop hours. The technology is still very far from mature, so expect to spend long sessions on fettling and troubleshooting. Even when everything seems to be running perfectly, there are still glitches - and few things are more frustrating than getting 90% through a 10 hour print job only to find that the filament has stopped adhering, leaving you with a mound of plastic vermicelli on top, or that the X-axis has inexplicably shifted 5mm (recent bugbear of mine).
