Category:Software

From Wiki

Software

CAD (Computer Aided Design) software are programs that allow you to design and draw objects. This software obviously needs to be able to deal with 3D shapes. The software should be capable of saving or exporting in one of the formats that can be imported into Skeinforge for convertion to G-Code ie .stl .gts .obj .svg or .xml

Post Processing Post processing software allows convertion of the Design produced using your CAD software into G-Code (the instructions that drive Rapman). Other Post processing software can be used to view, edit, or clean-up stl files before converting to G-Code.

CAD Software; for creating designs

Simple CAD

• Art of Illusion Home Page AOI is great, portable (any operating system with JVM), free, open source 3D modeling application written in JAVA and "app of choice" of the RepRap community
• free-cad Main Page free, open source (Win/Linux/Python)
• iTracer 3D CAD for iPhone iTracer Download Link $1.99, (iPhone app)
• BRL-CAD Free, Open source (Win/Linux/OSX/Irix/BSD/Solaris)
• Open CASCADE Free, Opensource (Win/Linux/Sun Sparc)

Pro CAD

• CoCreate (download page) CoCreate personal edition is great, free, CAD software (windows only - Version 3.0 works now with Windows 7)
• Creo elements/direct the new name for CoCreate
• AlibreDesign (download-page) The free Xpress-Edition (trial after expiry) is great, the regular Pro-Edition was recently increased from $97 to $197 due to making 1y support mandatory
• AutodeskInventor you can order a free trial on DVD including printed manual

3D-Graphics

• Blender Blender Home Page great, free, open source 3D modeling application (Win/Linux/OSX)
• Google SketchUp Home Page Google answer to 3D modeling, there's a free and a paid PRO version (Win/OSX)
• AC3D Download page] good, non free (~80$), 3D modeling software (Win/Linux/OSX)
• trueSpace7 Home Page free, (Win XP/Vista only)

For details of each of these software packages please see the pages listed below.

Post-Processing

• Skeinforge The software used to convert .stl .gts .obj .svg or .xml files from CAD software into G-Code
• MeshLab Home Page An open source, portable, and extensible system for the processing and editing of unstructured 3D triangular meshes.
• netfabb Homepage Similar to Meshlab, and in some ways easier to use. A program for processing, editing and fixing 3D meshes (stl files)
• Pleasant3d Homepage Basically this is an STL and Gcode viewer for OSX but with some basic but often needed features like scaling/rotating/positioning of STL files. Ther is also a quicklook plugin for STL and Gcode so you can easily visualize and identify your files without opening them.