First print worked like a dream. This is really encouraging. Now I need to make some simple items first being some small wheels to mend the kitchen draws. TinkerCAD or ?
If you're a programmer, OpenSCAD will be perfect for creating simple shapes and can do so much more. For more complex geometries, I use Fusion360. I've tinkered a little with OnShape too, but not really got fully to grips with it yet.
My best effort was Perl but years ago, Fusion 360 I started a while ago and stopped as the training info was painful, but that may be the final solution after this simple job.
I'd actually say to just skip 123D and go directly to fusion. In many regards it's actually easier to use and the more advanced features can be ignored. There are a few reasonable tutorials on YouTube to get started.
Go straight to Fusion360. Watch a few screencasts and jump right in. No point in learning more than one tool since the real difficulties are simply learning the oddities of the software - which every software - great or small - has.
It's free until you make more than $1500 a year from the output from it. Something along those lines.
Yup free but you have to renew and reconfirm the free licence terms every year, I can't remember the rule either but do remember it was something I was unlikely to fall foul of. Of course it's a subscription licence so the terms could change by the next renewal and it may not be free forever, but then to be honest even the paid for version is fair value I think. It ain't no solidworks but then go and look at what that costs per year. It has a few bugs and annoyances, but it gets updates every month. I think actually they have hit a bit of a sweet-spot between functionality and complexity that everything else seems to miss (though on-shape looks similar) and identified a target market of 3D printing hobbyists and makers that Dassault have decided to ignore....at their future peril I'd say if I were a betting man.
I have tried a several programs and I agree I love fushion 360, there are a lot of good video tutorials to get you started.
I vote for OnShape, usable everywhere. Though I am working most of the time with SolidWorks... Ok I work at a SolidWorks reseller and I have all SolidWorks software available but. I am not really pleased with the Fusion360 license because I run a small business and you gotta pay for commercial use. It would be a bit hard to define for me where the private use ends and the commercial use starts...
Wouldn't anything you sell be concidered commercial and anything to freely distribute or keep to yourself be a hobby? On the other hand I see the benefit to avoiding the delema altogether. The downside to onshape is also it's stregth, that being you have to use the internet to use it. There are times when I am traveling I simply don't have access to a quality internet connection.
I use OnShape most of the time (started by the SolidWorks original guys, who are 10 minutes down the street from me) and they are really great guys. Fusion360 I find somewhat busy as a UI, but can do most of the things I need to accomplish in it as well, just takes me longer than OnShape. And OnShape is everywhere (I mean how cool is it to be sitting in a meeting, whip out your phone and do full parametric mCAD that is simultaneously updating live on your desktop back in your office!!!!)
