What drawing program do Vexers use to create 3-D printed items? I’m using Dremel 3-D printers. I’m teaching 6-8 VEX IQ.
Hey @Raymond_Milligan Many VEXers utilize a variety of 3D drawing programs depending on personal preferences and the complexity of the design. A popular choice is Onshape because it offers a range of tools suitable for both beginners and advanced users, in addition to having a parts library of VEX pieces. Tinkercad, also by Autodesk, is another great option, especially for younger students since it’s more user-friendly and intuitive. Most of these programs will allow you to save your drawing as a .stl file, which is used in any of your run of the mill slicing software to 3D print it! In addition to all this, check out this thread in which a student designed, modeled, and 3D printed their own cable organizer, which is pretty sick!
Thanks for all that info Matt!
I just wanted to point out that we also have CAD resources for VEX IQ
Matt gives two great options there.
There is a big difference in the way that Tinkercad and Onshape work and both are excellent.
Onshape - this is ultimately an industry level CAD tool so the workflow is very much the same as many other CAD packages such as Fusion 360, Inventor, Solidworks etc. So in that regard, it is an excellent set of transferrable skills. In this kind of CAD software, you start with a 2D sketch and extrude that into 3D shapes which can then be altered further.
Tinkercad - Much more a “maker” and educational tool, this works quite differently in that you start with primitives like a cube, cylinder, cone etc. and then sort of chip away at it to make the shape you want. In some ways, this can be a more intuitive way of visualising how a part is created. Think of this more as a software milling machine!