Autodesk 123D for 3D Printing with Shapeways

3D Modeling Your Own Designs to 3D Print is as Easy as 123D

     

123D is a free 3D modeling software program based on the same Autodesk technology used by millions of designers and engineers worldwide in software such as 3Ds Max, Maya and Inventor. With 123D's simple yet useful interface you can 3D model your own designs ready for 3D printing with Shapeways.  

With Autodesk 123D you can design precise and makeable objects using smart tools that let you start with simple shapes and then edit and tweak them into more complex shapes ready to 3D print with Shapeways.

Shapeways is proud to be enabling users of 123D to make it simpler for anyone to create unique items with high quality personal fabrication.  Along with the Shapeways 3D printing service, users of 123D have easy access to the wealth of knowledge from the Shapeways community forums and the opportunity to sell their designs in their own Shapeways shop.

How to Get Started with 123D

Once you Download 123D it is relatively to start 3D modeling thanks to the intuitive user interface, tutorials in both video and step by step format along with an array of downloadable projects to get you started.

If you are new to 3D modeling 123D is a perfect entry point as it is free and relatively easy to get started yet is powerful enough to produce more complex forms once you understand the basics.

If you have already used other 3D modeling software such as Blender or SketchUp you will find 123D handy for your 3D printing projects.

To export a suitable file to 3D print with Shapeways you will need to Save As an STL file then upload to Shapeways as per usual.*



*If you experience any issues with your item being too small you may need to scale it up x 10, there is a small bug in the software that sets the units of export too small.  Autodesk have fixed the bug and it will be implemented in the next update.

Download 123D

The free Download of Autodesk 123D public beta is currently available for Windows only.
Once downloading is complete, open the self-extracting .zip to start the installation process.
Make sure you check back regurlaly

System Requirements:

• Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit), Windows Vista® (32-bit or 64-bit), Windows® XP Professional or Home Edition (SP3), or Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (SP2), Windows Server 2008

• Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 or later with 2 GHz or faster processor; or compatible

• 1+ GB RAM (512 MB minimum)

• 1.5+ GB free disk space (for installation)

• Direct3D® 9 or 10 graphics support with 64+ MB

• Internet Connection