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Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008
I don''t know? I was speaking with a guy that models mushroom shaped lamps. While I can so that to size in fusion, it would not look very organic or natural. This guy said he started in solidworks for the sizing, and once dimensions were set he slid into blender for the pretty.

In thinking about it, there is no reason why this would not also work in fusion, and i have heard there is a way to set dimensions in blender, but i would never use blender for threaded stuff or anything beyond 'tab a into slot b'

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Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer
If I have an obj file, how crazy hard is it for someone with actual cad knowledge to make a dwg off of it? I've seen converters online but none of them really worked, so I'm not sure if it's possible to convert vs just having someone make a new dwg.

RabbitWizard
Oct 21, 2008

Muldoon

Roundboy posted:

I would love to pick up blender to learn the more 'artistic' side but as I understand it, it's very hard to make a model contained to dimensions. Like, I can make a figure in blender but it could be 100' tall or 1" for all I know
There's the unit "m" in Blender and if exported as an stl it translates to millimeters in your slicer.

The Chairman
Jun 30, 2003

But you forget, mon ami, that there is evil everywhere under the sun

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

If I have an obj file, how crazy hard is it for someone with actual cad knowledge to make a dwg off of it? I've seen converters online but none of them really worked, so I'm not sure if it's possible to convert vs just having someone make a new dwg.

The main problem with working with OBJ and STL files in CAD software is that they're an export format that's just a contextless set of points and the elements that connect them -- the mesh is only an approximation of the original solid, especially anywhere there's curved geometry like holes and threads, and modifying a mesh is a lot more awkward than modifying the original solid

NewFatMike
Jun 11, 2015

Roundboy posted:

I don''t know? I was speaking with a guy that models mushroom shaped lamps. While I can so that to size in fusion, it would not look very organic or natural. This guy said he started in solidworks for the sizing, and once dimensions were set he slid into blender for the pretty.

In thinking about it, there is no reason why this would not also work in fusion, and i have heard there is a way to set dimensions in blender, but i would never use blender for threaded stuff or anything beyond 'tab a into slot b'

Ah gotcha. xShape is super neato for that kind of thing. If it works, it saves folks from needing to export and import a bunch and lose design history.

https://youtu.be/_Pe4mLdZ1GE?si=BAn8OcjdiL7b2BAR

Some Pinko Commie
Jun 9, 2009

CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!

The Chairman posted:

The main problem with working with OBJ and STL files in CAD software is that they're an export format that's just a contextless set of points and the elements that connect them -- the mesh is only an approximation of the original solid, especially anywhere there's curved geometry like holes and threads, and modifying a mesh is a lot more awkward than modifying the original solid

I once heard someone say working with STL and OBJ files is like working with Applesauce.

CAD programs can take models (apples) and make applesauce with them so Slicers and other software can work with them, but they have a hell of a time taking raw applesauce and turning it back into an apple.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer
So basically it's probably way better and easier just to hire someone to make the file in dwg as a standalone and not worry about trying to convert anything.

Would the obj or stl be able to be used as reference or is it just easier to use pictures?

If I'm gonna start looking for someone to make it, I want to make sure I have all the right stuff in mind so I can just go ahead and get the ball rolling ASAP.

ryanrs
Jul 12, 2011

I mean if this is a simple thing, I have Solidworks and I can gently caress around with your model right now for free.

But first, say a little about what this model is and what is the end goal. I guess you want to print it or something?

Warbird
May 23, 2012

America's Favorite Dumbass

Some Pinko Commie posted:

I once heard someone say working with STL and OBJ files is like working with Applesauce.

CAD programs can take models (apples) and make applesauce with them so Slicers and other software can work with them, but they have a hell of a time taking raw applesauce and turning it back into an apple.

On that note, how are people taking and remixing stuff on Thingiverse and so on? I have a mount I'm looking to tweak a hair to my specific use case but as best I can tell I have to download the one from the site in question, print it out, do a lot of measurements, recreate in in my CAD program, and then make the changes. That seems not right.

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe
Easiest is to get the original author to post a step file that you can start from. Otherwise you can modify their stl with more work, or make your own model by pulling lines, curves, etc from their stl. Modeling it yourself from scratch is the nuclear option.

Warbird
May 23, 2012

America's Favorite Dumbass

withak posted:

Easiest is to get the original author to post a step file that you can start from. Otherwise you can modify their stl with more work, or make your own model by pulling lines, curves, etc from their stl. Modeling it yourself from scratch is the nuclear option.

Yeah now that I think about it, just pulling the STL in and using it as a reference seems far saner. Not a fan of how most of the big communities are more STL focused. It would be nice if they'd take more of a Githhub type approach and have those available as "releases" with the source data available for the real perverts out there.

Some Pinko Commie
Jun 9, 2009

CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!

Warbird posted:

On that note, how are people taking and remixing stuff on Thingiverse and so on? I have a mount I'm looking to tweak a hair to my specific use case but as best I can tell I have to download the one from the site in question, print it out, do a lot of measurements, recreate in in my CAD program, and then make the changes. That seems not right.

OpenSCAD is the most common tool for Thingiverse remixes that I've seen, but those are also simple models to script/make small changes too.

I think this thread's OP talks about how awful working with OpenSCAD is, though.

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

Some Pinko Commie posted:

OpenSCAD is the most common tool for Thingiverse remixes that I've seen, but those are also simple models to script/make small changes too.

I think this thread's OP talks about how awful working with OpenSCAD is, though.

I really enjoy OpenSCAD, but I'm a mathematician. I don't think it's a good option for people coming at things from an artistic perspective.

The Chairman
Jun 30, 2003

But you forget, mon ami, that there is evil everywhere under the sun
yeah, OpenSCAD's niche is items that lend themselves to being described mathematically and families of items that can be generated parametrically, for anything outside that you want to use a dedicated GUI modeling software

armorer
Aug 6, 2012

I like metal.

Warbird posted:

Yeah now that I think about it, just pulling the STL in and using it as a reference seems far saner. Not a fan of how most of the big communities are more STL focused. It would be nice if they'd take more of a Githhub type approach and have those available as "releases" with the source data available for the real perverts out there.

I've found that a lot of designers do release step files or other higher level files, but yeah the majority don't.

The Eyes Have It
Feb 10, 2008

Third Eye Sees All
...snookums
Prusa allowing STEP files to be dropped directly into prusaslicer -- as well as explicit support for them in printables.com -- is a nice push towards normalizing that. I think the engineering and functional remixing crowds see the benefits more readily than others.

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008
I usually drop step files into bambu studio because it's easier to color the models for the ams

A single stl painted vs me making a model in separate parts that retain that Info is really awesome for my workflow. Like magnets where I can easily swap colors just by changing spools

ryanrs
Jul 12, 2011

cruft posted:

I really enjoy OpenSCAD, but I'm a mathematician.

you probably also write papers in latex

Bondematt
Jan 26, 2007

Not too stupid
Bambu Safety Recall for anyone who has an A1: https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/bambu-lab-issues-a1-printer-heat-bed-recall-heres-how-to-get-a-free-replacement-part

Cable for the bed apparently doesn't have (enough?) strain relief.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer

ryanrs posted:

I mean if this is a simple thing, I have Solidworks and I can gently caress around with your model right now for free.

But first, say a little about what this model is and what is the end goal. I guess you want to print it or something?

Oh I have the model, it's just a design I want to have made by a machine shop and they need it in a dwg format for ✌️reasons✌️ instead of an obj. I guess they are going to use that for reference for making it (the physical item) I guess. I've offered to print one for them but the engineer? guy in whatever dept they run poo poo past wants a drawing for whatever reason.

No clue honestly.

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

ryanrs posted:

you probably also write papers in latex

Guilty!

I didn't teach it to my wife or daughter, though... until my wife started having to write journal submissions and needed BibTeX :getin:

ryanrs
Jul 12, 2011

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

Oh I have the model, it's just a design I want to have made by a machine shop and they need it in a dwg format for ✌️reasons✌️ instead of an obj. I guess they are going to use that for reference for making it (the physical item) I guess. I've offered to print one for them but the engineer? guy in whatever dept they run poo poo past wants a drawing for whatever reason.

No clue honestly.

So that sounds like they actually want a real mechanical drawing, with annotations and such. Seems more like a 'recreate from scratch' problem, not a file conversion problem.

Mistaken For Bacon
Apr 26, 2003

Bondematt posted:

Bambu Safety Recall for anyone who has an A1: https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/bambu-lab-issues-a1-printer-heat-bed-recall-heres-how-to-get-a-free-replacement-part

Cable for the bed apparently doesn't have (enough?) strain relief.

I have an affected printer, and it's a result of atrocious packaging design. I've been getting irritated with their response speed with the ticket for this when my machine went down nearly 2 weeks ago but I understand completely why they've been slow, I can't imagine any A1 isn't affected in some way. Take a look at how the cable boot sits directly next to the wall of the cardboard box, with so litttle clearance the cable has to be packed with a bend smaller than any it's going to see in service.



The packer handling the machine must carefully thread the cable through the opening in the foam, and if it survives that, the whole package is loaded into the box inside a garbage bag, with nothing to stop the cable from sliding between teh wall of the box and the foam. So the smallest jostle during shipment then transfers directly to taht cable boot. After the blog post and sitting on it for the day, I'm cutting bait and returning it to MicroCenter. Now I have to decide if I want to give them even more money for the P1S combo I had wanted anyway, or look into a less-specced out Prusa instead?

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

Oh I have the model, it's just a design I want to have made by a machine shop and they need it in a dwg format for ✌️reasons✌️ instead of an obj. I guess they are going to use that for reference for making it (the physical item) I guess. I've offered to print one for them but the engineer? guy in whatever dept they run poo poo past wants a drawing for whatever reason.

No clue honestly.

A real machine shop needs real engineering drawings with dimensions, tolerances, etc. Even if they are just dragging it into some CNC software they probably still want the drawings for QC and so they know what stuff matters.

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008
Microcenter for me resulted in a cheaper printer then ordering from Bambu direct due to no shipping. Both are charging your tax.


Sure you miss out on some filament club thing, but since Bambu stuff is like 95% out of stock or discontinued (PLA tough, new CF blends) meh, its never been worth it. The AMS combo is cheaper then buying it separately after the fact, and i -really- suggest you get at least 1 printer with it as it opens up many possibilities, its much more convenient, and one of the best implementations of multi material i have used yet.

Or you can fill it with all the same color and print for days. Or fill it with the end of 4 spools, and print a random multi color item and use them up.

I don;t mind loading my other P1S by hand, but JFC its so much easier with the AMS.

gvibes
Jan 18, 2010

Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Roundboy posted:

Microcenter for me resulted in a cheaper printer then ordering from Bambu direct due to no shipping. Both are charging your tax.
drat, I didn't even think of that.

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008
Multiple printers has finally gotten me to print all the things i always wanted too.

More Mando helmets, now in kids size.
450% benchy
380% flexirex
Dino Heads
Trex bones.


Print my pretties, PRINT

Bondematt
Jan 26, 2007

Not too stupid

Mistaken For Bacon posted:

I have an affected printer, and it's a result of atrocious packaging design. I've been getting irritated with their response speed with the ticket for this when my machine went down nearly 2 weeks ago but I understand completely why they've been slow, I can't imagine any A1 isn't affected in some way. Take a look at how the cable boot sits directly next to the wall of the cardboard box, with so litttle clearance the cable has to be packed with a bend smaller than any it's going to see in service.



The packer handling the machine must carefully thread the cable through the opening in the foam, and if it survives that, the whole package is loaded into the box inside a garbage bag, with nothing to stop the cable from sliding between teh wall of the box and the foam. So the smallest jostle during shipment then transfers directly to taht cable boot. After the blog post and sitting on it for the day, I'm cutting bait and returning it to MicroCenter. Now I have to decide if I want to give them even more money for the P1S combo I had wanted anyway, or look into a less-specced out Prusa instead?

Ah yeah jeeze that's pretty bad.

It's unfortunate they have not kept up on support. I get that it is due to the massive amount of sales, but like...you gotta support your product to keep those sales up.

Edit: I'm biased, but I'd get the P1S Combo cause it just rules.

Bondematt fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Jan 30, 2024

Mistaken For Bacon
Apr 26, 2003

Bondematt posted:

Ah yeah jeeze that's pretty bad.

It's unfortunate they have not kept up on support. I get that it is due to the massive amount of sales, but like...you gotta support your product to keep those sales up.

Edit: I'm biased, but I'd get the P1S Combo cause it just rules.

Yeah, it should fit my space a lot better than another bedslinger and gaddamn I can't afford the prusa I want

Ambrose Burnside
Aug 30, 2007

pensive
i'm designing a 'real' 3d-printed acoustic/passive hearing aid, because nobody's done that yet for some reason? crosspost from CADthread


I temporarily lost most of my hearing around the new year, and it got me interested in mechanical/acoustic hearing aids that preceded modern electric aids. you know, ear trumpets, like old people use in the cartoons? the really stupid looking ones? those things. because, stupid looking or not, i was struck by how there are literally fewer accommodation options today for someone in my situation (mild-moderate and/or temporary hearing loss, or for people who can't afford conventional hearing aids) than existed 100, 150 years ago. 3D printing could make a purely-acoustic hearing device widely-accessible for a couple of dollars worth of filament/resin, but afaict nobody's designed a modern ear trumpet design that is designed to be effective and practical for day-to-day use, and that isn't just a novelty or a joke item. So I'm taking a crack at it. Hearing aids are incredibly expensive to buy, expensive to keep running in good order, and there is no budget-friendly alternative, so I want to offer one to whoever cares to print it.
Ear trumpets only look like big horns you hold up to your ear for the earlier part of their history, say before ~1850 or so. As you get closer to the 20th century, you see refinements in design start cropping up more and more, design choices that let you get better audio gain from a smaller and more practical device, and which selects for human speech audio frequencies in preference to higher/lower ones as much as possible. And one of the biggest developments in that regard is parabolic reflectors being used to ‘concentrate’ sound as part of a multi-step process. By far the most common parabolic design, and maybe the most popular ear trumpet design overall from the late 19th century onwards, is the ‘London dome’. It very cleverly uses a bell-shaped parabolic reflector to focus captured sound into a secondary ‘collector horn’ that coils inside and around the bell, making the overall device basically as large as the parabolic bell, but featuring a long and sophisticated audio waveguide that would be big and awkward if straightened out.

Some representative examples, as well as a tortoiseshell London dome that showcases the internal arrangement very well.



It isn’t camouflaged to look like something else mundane, or designed as a beautiful jeweler-fashioned statement piece/accessory- both of which are their own very interesting avenues of design- it’s a practical and efficient tool ideal for occasional everyday use, that prioritizes getting as much acoustic gain as possible in a device that can be held/concealed in one hand, more or less, with a design that is robust and can live in your pocket or a bag without needing delicate handling or a storage case.

So, my own designs currently being tested and iterated. This was my first attempt:



All parabola, with a little collector horn and a horizontal hearing tube I took from a German example. This design was constrained by me wanting it to be a one-piece print on a resin printer, printable standing on the edge of the bell with only a handful of supports inside the tubes/under the dome, so it’s short to limit print times. Also it looks like a Diva Cup.

I used two-part silicone putty for the earpiece so I could just mould it to suit my ear. It… works? It definitely works, but not in a useful way. It’s selecting for high-frequency noises that are outside of the speech range, it’s spooky, it picks up the rustling of clothes or someone rubbing their fingers together, the sounds of coins clinking together, etc but the gain on actual speech is poor. I think it’s because of the small radius of the reflecting end of the parabola, plus the very undersized collection horn, which I made much smaller than most historical references have. Smaller reflector and collector selects for higher frequencies, but to a degree I didn’t expect.

My clean-sheet MK2 redesign, which hews much closer to some historical examples in style and proportion:



This time I’ve used a much larger reflector radius and collection horn, and just cut the reflector parabola off at a convenient diameter to hold in the hand, at which points it becomes a straight-sided tube. The sides being parabolic past the edge of the collector horn does nothing because sound can’t enter from the open side of the bell, it has to bounce off the back first. Putting the listening end of the horn up and at an angle like this is also much more ergonomic to use, it turns out.
This one is larger than the MK1 prototype, and I’ve given up on it being a single-piece print, it’s too hard to get the supports out that way. I split it down the centerline to get two symmetrical halves, print each floating on supports with the acoustic waveguide part facing up to guarantee a nice clean finish, add some matched alignment pins/holes to aid in assembly, and just glue the two halves together once they’re printed and cleaned up. I can juuuust fit both halves and their supports on a single large resin printer build plate, like a Phrozen 8K or thereabouts, only about an hour and a half + about 110 mL of resin to print all the parts which isn’t bad at all.

I have high hopes for this one being closer to a properly-practical ear trumpet, if everything works out I want to attempt a design with an off-axis reflector, where the collection horn is off to the side and the bell is unobstructed clear back to the reflector, because such a reflector could be a semicircle/ ‘D’ shape in profile, which is ideal for two headphone-disguised ear trumpets worn on the head, one for each ear, an arrangement called ‘auricles’. Hence the parabola focal point stuff.

Ambrose Burnside
Aug 30, 2007

pensive
we're talking about openscad again. Don't use openscad unless you have an application that you know is specifically a good fit for it, like parametrically-driven *simple* parts that you want to be freely-accessible. It's still probably not as good a fit as you think. Even if you're a computer toucher and like the scripting aspect, you know what, I still want you to use something else and get outside your comfort zone. Openscad's ubiquity with 3D printing hobbyists is a plague, it's doomed so many people to producing bad + crude low-poly designs with no real-world precision because it isn't even NURBS-based design. The skills you learn in openscad don't carry over to real mechanical CAD. People describing it as CAD design software for making real physical things has been a colossal misstep and if I can possibly steer someone away from it and towards one of the many acceptable CAD solutions, where they can do much better work with far less effort and labour required, I absolutely will.

E: even if you're making a parametric design, normal mechanical CAD can usually do that too. And do it better. And end users often don't need to have access to the actual parametric working file if you can generate a reasonably-sized library of parts derived from a parametric design, in which case: you should design it in real CAD software, rig it up parametric-wise, generate the library, and offer the library to people. Adding custom text to a design doesn't call for parametrics either, not nowadays. Slicers often have pretty good text addition features now, prusa slicer's a good example, and it's a lot easier to just offer a blank design intended to be customized at the point of slicing. I'd argue that the real, honest use-case for openSCAD's parametrics are more abstract geometric/mathematically-driven stuff, as opposed to real-world parts, and there just isn't much of that going around.

Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Jan 30, 2024

Ambrose Burnside
Aug 30, 2007

pensive
accidental tripleposttt

e^2: I've been on the verge of ordering an A1 for weeks now, had it loaded up in the cart and have just been eyeballing it, then my credit statement, then eyeballing some more, etc. Didn't expect me waiting to actually pay off re: the recall.


It's definitely worth springing the extra $100, 150 CAD or so to get an A1 combo vs an A1 mini, right? I'm a resin printer through and through so I'm accustomed to small part envelopes, I've made peace with chopping big parts up and printing in segments, all that. And a Mini still has a big build area, by my standards. But it could be even bigger...

Dia de Pikachutos
Nov 8, 2012

Ambrose Burnside posted:

if I can possibly steer someone away from it and towards one of the many acceptable CAD solutions, where they can do much better work with far less effort and labour required, I absolutely will.

I agree, Sketchup is a much better comedy option.

ryanrs
Jul 12, 2011

My employer bought a Solidworks license so I could redesign an aluminum part that was originally designed in SketchUp.

e: that part was 2.5D, like a DOOM level

Sockser
Jun 28, 2007

This world only remembers the results!




I still use sketchup when I need to remix other people's models :(

It was my first CAD software as a woodworker (it's pretty good for woodwork!) and I can't really do the same things by pulling someone else's model into Blender or Fusion, and lord help me if I'm going to add another loving CAD package to my already bloated workflows

I say a pray to Jo Prusa every time PrusaSlicer adds a small/dumb feature that I've been using MeshMixer or Blender for, like multi-material painting, or text embossing

But when I need to take a face on someone else's model and move it by .25"? poo poo, back to loving Sketchup

cruft
Oct 25, 2007


This is super cool, and it's my understanding that electronic hearing aids still weren't up to the performance of the good ol' horn: at least, back in the early 90s when I last checked.

In any case I am interested in following your progress on this and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Some Pinko Commie
Jun 9, 2009

CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!
Only use OpenSCAD and Sketchup if you have a kink for lovely software implementation.

queeb
Jun 10, 2004

m



any of you etsy sellers still having insane januarys, my average per day is actually going up as the month goes, average over the month is ove $580CAD/day right now. barely keeping afloat with what i have right now lol, gonna hve to expand if this stays like this

The Eyes Have It
Feb 10, 2008

Third Eye Sees All
...snookums
Modern hearing aid quality and capabilities relentlessly march forward. They're amazing devices, and priced like it, too :v:

Addressing hearing loss often requires more than just turning up the volume because not all frequencies get attenuated at the same rate. Usually the higher frequencies are the first to go, and get it the worst. That sounds and the world are too "quiet" is only part of the problem, and just cranking the volume makes things louder, but not really any clearer.

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The Eyes Have It
Feb 10, 2008

Third Eye Sees All
...snookums

queeb posted:

any of you etsy sellers still having insane januarys, my average per day is actually going up as the month goes, average over the month is ove $580CAD/day right now. barely keeping afloat with what i have right now lol, gonna hve to expand if this stays like this

Hmm I wonder if the post holiday boom in this stuff is from people who got gaming stuff for xmas, and are now just kinda diving in?

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