Tinkercad is a free CAD program for beginners that provides a simple and fast way to create 3D models compatible with 3D printers. Tinkercad’s extensive shapes library and drag-and-drop model builder let you build custom models in minutes. You can scale, group, mirror, align and manipulate shapes in multiple ways
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3D printing unlocks unequalled rapid prototyping opportunities but getting caught up in the iteration cycle creates bottlenecks. With fewer iterations you can reduce time to final part and time to market, but it’s easier said than done with traditional, numerical workflow. The traditional process sees engineers applying loads to already-manufactured
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Many factors determine the accuracy and surface finish of 3D printed parts, but part orientation is up there with the most important. Part orientation refers to how you print parts on the build platform, which dictates the print head’s travel. The cusp of it is that FFF 3D printers produce parts with
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There are more than one hundred 3D printing filaments, stretching into the low hundreds when you include SLA, SLS, DLP, EBM and MJF technologies. However, if we stick to the foundation on which 3D printing is built, twelve filaments are prevalent in every industry. This article explores these twelve filaments
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A lattice is a repeating pattern of strips, an arrangement so practical that you can find it in everything from apple pie to 3D printing. In 3D printing, lattice structures make parts lighter and stronger, solving strength and rigidity challenges. They are also relatively simple to produce, enabling most 3D
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Hundreds of things can affect the quality of 3D prints, including filament quality, slicing instructions, chamber temperature, nozzle diameters, retraction settings, and even humidity if materials are hygroscopic. Thankfully, if you know why things are messing up, you can resolve most 3D print quality problems without tearing your hair out.
How To Improve 3D Print Quality? – 7 Tips For Finishing The Final 3D Print Read More »
3D printers can produce amazing things, but they can also produce incredible disasters. Whether over extrusion or blobs on the print surface, you can face various issues when 3D printing. The good news is that most 3D printing problems have simple fixes, and you don’t need to go back to
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3D-printed gears straddle the line between functional and hobbyist components, yet they perform as well as any gears when appropriately designed. Most 3D printed gear failures are from choosing the wrong materials, incorrect printer settings, and specifying the wrong infill (which leads to weak gears that snap or gears that
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When you create a 3D model in software, you save that model as a 3D printer file, and there are several file formats to choose from. The most common 3D printer files are STL, OBJ, AMF, and 3MF. While each file format stores information about your model, they differ in
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In our previous article introducing SLA resins, we uncovered a long list of 3D printing materials for thousands of applications. In comparison, SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) prints one material family – Nylon – in various strains. Selective Laser Sintering uses a high-powered laser to selectively ‘sinter’ nylon powder instead of
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