Best Open Source 3d Printer Software

• Open Source 3d Printer Designs

There are several different three dimensional (3D) printers available that use open source designs and software, and even more suppliers that have made use of these open source designs, so it can seem difficult to choose. The best open source 3D printer for your own particular needs can depend on the type of objects you would like to fabricate, your familiarity with the technology, and your budget. You will want to pay attention to the accuracy of each printer you consider, if you need to fabricate parts that meet strict tolerances. The type of material that an open source 3D printer uses to fabricate objects can also be important, since some are stronger than others. You may also want to consider choosing a printer that you can build yourself, since that can cost about half as much as buying a pre-built unit.

Cura was developed, hosted, and maintained by 3D printer company Ultimaker and its fervent community of users. As the company has its roots in open source communities, the 3D slicer software came out as a freebie – and it stayed that way ever since. Over the years, Cura even added profiles for competitor 3D printers. Open Source 3D Printer Driver. First created in 2011 for RepRap and Ultimaker by Erik van der Zalm et. Al., today Marlin drives most of the world's 3D printers. Reliable and precise, Marlin delivers outstanding print quality while keeping you in full control of the process. You can also set quality, material, speed,cooling and infill in Cura by yourself. Cura 3D is a fully open source software and can be used with most 3D printers. It supports for Windows, Mac and Linux. TinkerCAD - useful 3D Printer Software. Unlike Cura, TinkerCAD is an online computer-aided design software for 3D printing. CATIA is probably the best 3D printing software for professional users. It stands for Computer-Aided three-dimensional Interactive Application. Developed in 1977 by the French company Dassault Systemes, CATIA provides the unique ability to model complicated products.

Three dimensional printing is a small scale fabrication and prototyping process that has existed in commercial and industrial settings since the 1980s, though various additive manufacturing techniques were described and experimented with earlier. How to get space on macbook air. Desktop 3D printing did not arrive until later, and failed to gain significantly in popularity until the introduction of open source 3D printers. There are a number of 3D printer designs that use the open source model, including both the hardware and software necessary to construct these devices. Due to the nature of open source concepts, many 3D printers are based around the same original designs with varying degrees of modification.

The FreeCAD is a very good 3D modeling tool which is an open-source platform that lets you design realistic objects of many sizes and shapes. The parametric component of this FreeCAD software turns your hectic editing into an ultimate pleasure of craft creation. It is a free tool that is the best fit for both beginner or intermediate.

The first factor to consider when looking for an open source 3D printer is what you need it for. There are many different three dimensional printing methods, each of which can be best suited to particular tasks. Photopolymers typically provide high quality finished products, while plaster composites can often be produced very quickly. Many open source 3D printers operate through thermoplastic extrusion, which can typically make use of many different types of plastics, including high density polyethylene (HDPE), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS,) and polylactic acid (PLA). If you want to create plastic parts, and need some flexibility, then one of those may be the best open source 3D printer for you.

Another main concern when choosing an open source 3D printer is cost. Most additive fabrication devices are very expensive, including the majority of commercial and desktop 3D printers. Open source units tend to be less expensive than traditional 3D printers, especially models that can be built with off the shelf parts. If budget is a concern, and you have a great deal of technical expertise, you may want to obtain open source designs and build your own printer. Kits that come with all the necessary parts can be both more expensive and convenient, and some companies also sell fully assembled models if you lack the time or skills necessary to build one yourself.

• Inkscape - An open source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
• OpenSCAD - The programmer's solid 3D CAD modeler
• Blender - A more flexible 3D design (not CAD) modeling software. This option is much more likely to successfully import your drawing and allow you to recognize faces, but may not result in dimensionally accurate or 3D printable STLs (it takes some practice, but it is possible).

1. Get a 2D image and open it in Inkscape (or draw it in Inkscape)
2. Convert it to a path (if it worked you should see a bunch of grey squares)
   • If it is a found image go to Path --> Trace bitmap - shift+Alt+B
   • (if you drew it Path--> Object to path or click Shift+Ctrl+C)
3. Select every node -- go to Edit --> Select all or Ctrl+A
4. If you want a high resolution (curved lines) then click the far left button 'insert new nodes into selected segments' (do this as many times as you like 2 or 3 times gets pretty smooth curves on most images
5. Then click the 'Make selected segments lines' button - see screenshot (if you can not see the buttons click F2.)

1. File > Save As a dxf file.

• Inkscape - An open source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
• OpenSCAD - The programmer's solid 3D CAD modeler
• Blender - A more flexible 3D design (not CAD) modeling software. This option is much more likely to successfully import your drawing and allow you to recognize faces, but may not result in dimensionally accurate or 3D printable STLs (it takes some practice, but it is possible).

1. Get a 2D image and open it in Inkscape (or draw it in Inkscape)
2. Convert it to a path (if it worked you should see a bunch of grey squares)
   • If it is a found image go to Path --> Trace bitmap - shift+Alt+B
   • (if you drew it Path--> Object to path or click Shift+Ctrl+C)
3. Select every node -- go to Edit --> Select all or Ctrl+A
4. If you want a high resolution (curved lines) then click the far left button 'insert new nodes into selected segments' (do this as many times as you like 2 or 3 times gets pretty smooth curves on most images
5. Then click the 'Make selected segments lines' button - see screenshot (if you can not see the buttons click F2.)

1. File > Save As a dxf file.

1. Either save the file into your OpenSCAD directory or move it after you save it
2. Start OpenSCAD
3. Use the import command in the directory you saved it in. This is easily acheived by dragging the file from the file explorer into the editor window of OpenSCAD. If not on your own computer (e.g. MTU computer use): import(file='mtucifs3.iso.mtu.eduhomeMy Picturesfilename.dxf', convexity=3);
   • Convexity is a measure of the number of times a straight line could pass through an edge in your drawing (during a ray trace).
4. Then you can use linear_extrude()
5. Compile and Render it (F6)
   • If you have trouble getting anything to show up, on the menu bar go to File > Examples > Old > example007.scad.
   • This Inkscape Add-in is also worth a shot.
6. Save as STL for printing: Click Design --> Save as STL (this could take some time depending on how complex your object is)
7. Open in your favorite 3D printing software and have a go at printing it

1. Start Blender in Modeling mode
2. Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Import-Export: Import AutoCAD DXF Format (.dxf)
3. Close the Preferences window.
4. Go to File > Import > AutoCAD DXF and find your file. The sketch will import - you may have to zoom out to find it.
5. Right-click on the curve and select Convert to Mesh
6. The object is now editable. To extrude the image, switch from Object Mode to Edit Mode using the drop-down menu on the top left.
   • Next to that drop down menu are three buttons which allow you to toggle between Vertex, Edge, and Face Selection. Start with Vertex Selection.
   • Break the surfaces you would like to extrude into simple geometric shapes. This is particularly important if you have gapes in the middle of your drawing. When Blender creates faces, it interpolates the surface in between all of the vertices/edges selected. This means it will not automatically recognize those holes, and will just fill them in unless they are connected by edges
   • To create an edge, select two vertices (Shift-click) and hit the F key. This is a 'Fill' command.
   • Once you have broken down your surface, start filling in faces. Select a vertex, then Ctrl+Click on another point down the path that you would like to form the boundary of your face. Ctrl+Click selects all vertices between the last two selected vertices, along the shortest path (indicated by the mouse definitions in the bottom bar of the Blender window). Use this to trace out your boundary, then hit the F key.
   • Once you have completed the creation of your faces, select all the faces using Shift+Click and extrude them using the tool on the left bar.
   • See this video for reference.

For a real world item, such as a photograph, an alternative is to use a group of images/photographs taken at slightly different angle and with different focus points.

Using the open source software VisualFSM you can convert the collection of images into 3d cloud of point data - which can then be edited by Meshlab for printing.See http://wedidstuff.heavyimage.com/index.php/2013/07/12/open-source-photogrammetry-workflow/ for a tutorial on how to do it.

Free cost but not open source: http://www.selva3d.com. Upload your file and it is converted to STL following 3 steps, without need to download any software.

Open Source 3d Printer Designs