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Today’s 3D printing advice: Figure out what your design software is good at doing and THEN design something, not the other way around.<\/p>\n
If you start the design process with a rigid idea of what you want to make, then you’ll have to bang your head against the wall to try to get your software to do what you need it to.\u00a0 But if you have the luxury of being flexible about what you’re designing, then you can start by sitting down and making friends with some design software, and figuring out what\u00a0it<\/em> wants to make. Learn how to drive it, what it’s good at, what it can do that your other software programs can’t, and then see how you can push it to its limits. If you can be open about what you’re going to design, then you have the freedom to\u00a0let your available modeling software guide the design process.<\/p>\n In a way it’s like making dinner; if you choose a specific thing to make then you’ll have a lot of work to do choosing a recipe, going shopping, maybe even finding specific cookware or learning new techniques, etc. But if you can be flexible then all you have to do is open your fridge and start thinking about what you can put together from the ingredients you already have.<\/p>\n